Gallbladder's going bad...any advice?

I feel so stupid. All these years of reading the 'boards' and I've never paid attention when folks posted about their gallbaldders failing. Just figured it couldn't happen to me. But it is I'm not in a lot of pain, but I do feel like crap and I don't feel like eating - havent't eaten all day, just drinking coffee. Sure would appreciate any advice anyone has to offer who's been down this road. I see my PCP tomorrow or Thursday. Thanks, Kathi

when my gall bladder stopped functioning, I was in severe heart attack type pain. right in the center of my chest thru to the center of my back. i was violently ill, vomiting uncontrollably. had emergency surgery on a sunday. I had been feeling ill for about a month before that. pain, nausea, etc. felt like I had a bad case of stomach flu or food poisoning. definatley see a dr sooner rather than later, and eat low fat for sure. if you are having any digestive issues, I would stay away from the coffee. Coffe is so irritating t the stomach etc. My suggestion is if they say it needs to come out is to do it before you are violently ill. what should have been a 24 hour stay after a lap gallbladder removal ended up 4 days in the hospital. fighting and infection for weeks, on various antibiotics and fevers up to 104. most people are able to return to work about a week after a lap gallbladder emoval, I ended up missing 4 weeks of work and didnt feel well even then. -and this is coming from a girl who did an LBL/muscle repair/arm lift out patient and was walking 1/2 a mile a couple times a day starting 2 days after the LBL and wanted to return to work from that 39 in*****ision after 4 weeks (but dr wouldn't let me)

My advise is to have it out before it gets infected. The surgery is pretty minor pain wise if you do it before it gets too bad. I had mine done with a lap procedure the same day I had wls. I was back at work in 6 days feeling great. My mom waited until hers was badly infected which required an open procedure and a lot of discomfort during the healing process. Best of luck!

Ditto what everyone else said -- get it out before it's an emergency. Worst pain I've ever had when I finally had my attack (heart attack like, etc) and was scared to death. Surgery ended up being extremely straightforward and easy to recover from. My doc told me that once you have a bad attack, the chances are very good you'll keep having them -- and believe me, you don't even want to have one if you can avoid it. Good luck to you!

Get it out! I was in the hospital at 7am and out by 1pm, even went shopping that afternoon! It was a breeze compared to my surgery and pancreatitus!