nausea after gallbladder removal

I was sick all the time, but felt much better in the evening into the night. I was on Zoloft for about 9 months, that helped with the anxiety. I also learned how the digestive system worked. It made me feel better , knowing the food generally only is in the stomach for thirty minutes or so. If I was feeling bad after drinking my Ensure, and I did throw it up a lot of times, I would focus on relaxing for at least 30 minutes. If I could get through those 30 minutes, I knew that my food had moved on and I wasn't so worried about the nausea actually making me puke. Like I said before, you have to take it really slow!!! For me, my sto,ach had completely shut down and it took a long time for it to wake up again, which is why I was so sick post op. Things would just sit in my stomach and make me sick. Once I learned that I couldn't drink an Ensure in 5 minutes I would sip I over and hour or two. I had to have it super cold too. If it got warm it made me feel bad. I did this for a week or so. I worked up to 3 ensure+ a day. They are 350 calories each. As my body began to rehydrate and gain nourishment, i really started to feel better and began introducing the bland foods. Not much though. I started with dinner, since I felt better in the evenings. My first meals were a bite or two of baked chicken and a couple spoonfuls of rice. See what I mean about slooooooooooowwww? I started to see a therapist too. She helped me with the anxiety and is continuing to do so. I too thought the surgery would fix me right away, but I tried to push it and I had to learn to take it slow. My body just needed more time to heal itself from the GB not functioning for so long and the introduction of bile to the system took some getting used to. Try to stay positive! I know it seems like you are doomed, I felt the same way, but you aren't, your body it just trying to adjust to a major change and that takes time and patience!

Thank you for the encouragement---I relly need to read your post over and over because I just felt hopeless and sooo sick this afternoon---tonight I am somewhat better----I ate an avocado half with lemon juice and a few drops of olive oil---then I had some crackers---I tried the ensure this afternoon and it didn't sit well but I will try again because I reaaly need the calories----

are you married? do you have children? i am married to a freat guy who would do anything to help---he pushes food too much but he just wants me better----I have 3 sons---two who are married and three granchildren under 3 years old----your communication with me is really appreciated---

did you honestly feel like you were dying sometimes? I think nausea is probably the worse symptom---I feel lucky not to be suffering pain---some people have terrible stomach pain with the nausea---

Goes your nausea last all day? Mine gets a bit better in the evenings---I do wake up with it though and it is with me most of the day-----I think the nausea is the absolute worst symptom, don't you? I know I have to gain weight but I can only eat a very little bit---maybe a shake of a fourth of a turkey sandwich---sometimes even less

I got my small bowel test results and everything was fine----just wanted to let you know----

i have taken your advice and taking things very slow---ate crackers and apple juice for breakfast----small bowl of oatmeal for lunch and crackers at 3----for dinner I am boiling carrots and potatoes-----how boring am I?---just ready to get better---thanks for your support

I got results from the small bowel workup and everything was okay---I am so grateful----a friend here told me to take things very slowly---so today I had oatmeal for lunch---iwo crackers and a half cup of apple juice for breakfast and will have boiled potatoes for dinner----she said for one week just give the body what it needs---a rest---also, I went to an accupuncturist today who says she can help me and we start next week----let me know how you are doing---you are in my prayers--

Please let me know what helped you---I have the same thing---my nausea is awful---cna teat---I am only 3 weeks post op but can t find any recent posts like this---did it finally resolve?

I was so glad to read this post from a physician---I am only 3 weeks post op and have continuing nausea---really hard to eat---I had low ejection fraction too---but nausea is as bad now as before----I take prilisec and maalox---is this right for the gastritis and nausea after surgery? I had CT scan, abdominal ultrasound, endoscope and numerous x-rays before surgery along with many blood test screening liver and pancreas---after surgery, my gastro doctor did a small bowel study---all normal except some inflammation with endoscope---do you think I need more testing?---no pain or fever---a friend said maybe a have a bile leak----but a doctor friend said I would most likely have pain and fever----please answer is you are still on forum---thanks so much----miserable in Louisiana

Did John hopkins help you---please let me know---I will go any where to get help---I am 3 weeks post op and the nausea is horrible---I hardly eat and am too thin to lose more weight----

Hi bella---I am sorry you suffered all of this---I have the same thing but am only three weeks post op---did the nausea get better? Please answer if you are still on forum---thanks so much--

Today is a bad day of nausea---I had to drink the barium for the small bowel tst on Thursday and it is still working its way out---maybe that made me more nauseous----I just don't know what to do---feel afraid and very ill---did you take the acid blocking drugs too? I feel like I have to make myself eat---tried to eat a boiled potato and some carrots last night but could barely get it down---how did you function being nauseated all the time---when the nausea subsides sometimes, I can go to the movie, take a short walk etc. but ehn it is here, I am powerless---sorry to be venting but you are the one person who seemed to have it this bad--

are you still on the forum---I haven't heard from you since your post---did you get your endoscope---just want you to know, I have spoken with local people who say they have had the same nausea, inability to eat and the rest of your symptoms---I feel for you because it has been 8 weeks----only three for me---so I have a long way to go---another person wrote to me to say accupuncture helped her---have you thought of that---as I told you, I went to someone on Friday and we are starting the treatments on Wednesday---will let you know if it works--

Take it sloooooooow! You need to not do too much activity until you get your calories up! You can't afford to burn more, your body needs as much as it can get and it needs those calories so that it can heal. I lived on the ensure for almost two weeks, no solid food. Solid food would make me worse, as it makes the body produce more bile to aid in digestion. Give yourself and your body a break. This isn't going to just magically go away over night and until you get hydrated and nourished, you aren't going to start feeling any better! Believe me, I understand what you are feeling. I had the small bowel test too. I also had a nuclear test that tested how my stomach was emptying. Then they put me on a totally clear liquid diet and switched to the ensure shortly after, but NOTHING solid for a long time!

blaberwabe wrote:

ddmac wrote:

I am 10 days post gall bladder surgery. I was doing great until the 4th day when I awoke with severe nausea and heartburn. This has not gotten any better, and now I have bouts of lightheadedness. This could be due to not eating but is a bit scary. I am taking Prilosec and Carafate which is barely managing the problem. Tomorrow I am scheduled for an EGD. I have been searching the internet to see if this is a more common problem than reported. I was told by my friends, surgeon, and GI that this surgery was a "piece of cake" and that I would be great in a week. I am worse now than ever. Anyone else suffering? Anyone have this in the beginning? Anyone have this eventually resolve? I keep hoping that my digestive system is just adjusting but I have my doubts after reading posts from others.

I had mine out jan 25th, 2010 and its been months since ive been able to go home. i stay in a hotel across from duke, as i end up at the er there or at chapel hill almost every other day...sometimes evey day or even twice a day. its flared up my crohns disease a couple times too. i get nausea constantly and am always dizzy or feeling like im going to pass out or just die. ive had an ultrasound via an endoscope, catscan, 2 colonoscopies and another regular endoscope, to check for ulcers, gerd, anything...
all my labs are always good they say, although i have had many lipase levels around 300-500. my pancreas was checked out with that endoscopic ultrasound and found to be fine. im tag-teaming hospitals, getting a second opinion, but mostly, i wait for these far off appts with these specialist gi docs, only to be temporarily maintained at the er with zofran for nausea and or dilaudid for pain...sometimes morephine.
my husband comes up often, but we'll lose our insurance if he loses his job, so i have to take care of myself solo and its been scary. when the dizziness comes or the pressure/twisting pain, straight through to my back come, its impossible to sleep lying down and i find it scary to sleep as sometimes (a lot) i wonder if i will wake up...its that bad. some docs blow me off now as i have seen all the er docs in both facilites so much, that i know them all and the nurses and the valets...its just unbelievable that in this country we're being dealt with this way.
Ive even had a couple er docs tell me theres nothing they can do for me, in a mean way, and that i "cant be helped", as i come there so often.
ive been given a halter monitor for my heart/chest pain. i truly think it could be an adhesion, maybe kinking up my intestine as when i get the crohns flares, the pain in the middle area lightens or disappears...maybe because nothing is going through there as its blocked down further in the intestine.
but the middle area of pain and nausea, right between the ribs and slightly under the ribs is the cause of my crohns flares. i can tell it is. the bile-diarrhea makes me so incredibly sick and ive had it everyday for the most part. basically, i wake up, struggle to the hotel restaurant for food down the hall from my room, eat, get sick, lay there in bed for hours and repeat that senerio all day long. walking to my docs office is a huge struggle. i drive, feeling like im passing out, to her ofc across the street where i make it walking about 50yards or so, usually ending up getting someone from another clinic to call for me a wheelchair. i try to walk a little everyday to keep from getting bloodclots, but its a major feat and i hurry back to my room feeling like i should be calling an ambulance.
no one is taking this seriously and im astonished, as is everyone i know. there is something horrific going on in my stomach and no one cares.
ive been told its ABDOMINAL MIGRANE, a term they say is very real and i get scolded for not trying "CYMBALTA" AN ANTIDEPRESSANT. i even have been made to talk to a psychiatrist in the er to make sure im not suffering from depression to which they found i was behaving normaly for someone in pain who was recieving no answers.
the catscan i had was a while ago and ive been told they dont want me subjected to radiation as i could get cancer in ten yrs but i dont care about ten yrs...ive lost 30lbs and i wonder if i would make it ten yrs like this.
ive also been asked why im staying here in town (Im from a rural area and it takes 3 hrs to get here) and what hotel im staying in and the most bizarre insulting questions about my home life. its so degrading and it infuriates me.
when i started getting sick in mid december...major diarrhea (more than with my usual crohns diarrhea) and so sick i could move out of bed hardly, i came to a surgeon at chapel hill who had done a great job on my crohns, and i asked him to help me as my little hospital told me i had pancreatitus and needed my gallbladder out, he said he'd take it out in a few days. i asked him if he was sure it was the gallbladder and he said he would take it out either way and i didnt need it anyway and that if the problem still presented itself late, that we would tackle that issue then...well, its then and its been then for months and im going broke trying to survive this and still no one is offering a solution other than telling me im hypersensative to pain and i need cymbalta to shut down the pain my nerves are sending out...
i want a diagnosis that has evidence.
i dont believe that is causing nausea and dizziness and pain and twisting wrenching in my gut. ive read so much stuff online and there are probably thousands of us, and to just blow us off as THE UNLUCKY ONES...leaving our livesin ruins, is cruel and inhumane.
i pray for us and ask for all to pray for us and to pray for our doctors that they find compassion and wisdom in treating or healing us. but mostly i pray for immediate responses to our plea.
everyday is groundhog day for me, as im sure it is for you.
im surrounded by, supposedly, the best and brightest and told if there were something wrong, theyd know what it was....

I am just writing to see if you are still on this forum---I feel exactly like you do and don't know where to turn either---I don't know when you did your post but are you still available?

I just know I am bugging you because I write constantly but you are the only person who sounds like me---did you just feel like you were going to die sometimes and feel like they missed something? My surgeon says this is not normal recovery from gallbladder surgery---he says it needs to be investigated---a friend said maybe I have a bile leak---how do they test for that? All I have had today is clear broth which was made from chicken and vegetables and even this nauseates me---there just seems to be nothing I can eat----do you think they missed something? would all my tests have shown a cancer? I still haven't had a colonoscopy----could colon cancer cause this nausea?

I am not a doctor so I can comment on if there is or isn't something else going on. If you feel something is still wrong then have it checked out. I had so many tests, pre and post op, that I can't even remember them all. The only thing I can tell you is that I got better!!! It just took a long time and I had to take things very sloooooooowwww! Every time I tried to push myself, I would "fall back" more steps than I had gone forward. Once I accepted that I needed to take my time, relax, treat the anxiety that had set in, and focus on getting hydrated and nurished with the ensure, I started to see that I really was getting better! I dontknow what else to tell you. Just be patient, this is going to take a lot of time...even more if you try to rush things!