OT: Remove overactive (Hyper-Kinetic) gallbladder?

Hi! Per the title – should I have my gallbladder removed? I am currently scheduled for surgery on the 25th but I want second, third, and fourth opinions from as many folks as I can get. I have an appointment next Monday with my primary care doctor, who has no monetary interest in the procedure, to get her opinion, but I know the community is full of all sorts of smart folks and those who have had a wide range of experiences.

About 6 weeks ago I started having symptoms after eating commiserate with gallstones. After eating a big meal, or anything fatty / fried, I would get pain in the mid/upper right abdomen and behind the right shoulder blade. This pain could last from a half hour to six hours. It could be fairly minor or downright very painful. I would also sometimes get indigestion and become quite burpy. Changing diet to remove said foods helps, but even when eating plain stuff I occasionally get the pain. I called my GI doctor and he ordered a blood test and a ultrasound and scheduled an appointment with me, which was Monday August 31st, over two weeks away at the time I called. So I had the tests done, but one particular day the pain was pretty bad, so I went to my primary care doctor – who I couldn’t get in to see, and instead saw her nurse practitioner. She poked and prodded, and due to the pain level, sent me off to the ER to get checked for appendicitis. They did blood work and an abdominal CT scan. My appendix was fine, and I was sent on my merry way to follow up with the GI doc.

I met with the GI doc on the 31st and he went over my tests results: bloodwork – normal, CT: normal, ultrasound: normal. Since the tests came back negative, he referred me to a surgeon who I saw on September 1st. He ordered a HIDA scan, which I had done on the 4th. I got the results back from that two days ago, and the results were normal as well, but during the test there was some pain like a minor “attack” plus they said my gallbladder is functioning at 93% while the norm is 35% - 75%. So, since the gallbladder appears to be giving me pain and is “overactive” the surgeon ordered surgery for the 25th to yank it out. If it matters, I also have a medium hiatal hernia and minor Barret’s Esophagus. I called the GI doctor yesterday for his opinion and he agrees with the surgeon to yank it out.

So, what are your thoughts? Let them do it or keep my organs intact? Also, if anyone has had their gallbladder removed, how was recovery, and what side effect of not having the little sucker do you experience?

Thank you!

You're kidding, right? Two docs have said to do it, but you're going to ask some nonmedical strangers on the net what to do?

I personally wonder if you've tried to address things with diet - avoiding high fat and fried foods (the usual cause of the problem), and if you haven't, you might try it and see how things go, maybe even get tested again before deciding on surgery - according to you, the actual indicators are not that high (non-emergency situation but knife happy surgeon), but if you go through with it, know that it's an extremely common operation - your doctor's probably done hundreds - and that these days with new technology it's also a very 'untraumatic' thing to go through and you'll be done with it. Plus your gallbladder is not a vital organ - you can generally do without it, though of course it does have its uses.

Thank you for the comment. I figure all opinions are worthwhile, so why not ask? I do have a 3rd doctor appointment this coming Monday to ask my primary care doctor. I have modified my diet and that helps to a degree, but it is not a total relief.

I had my gallbladder taken out about 4 years ago. I watched various approaches to its removal on YouTube in order to familiarize myself with the surgery. I asked my surgeon if she could do the "belly button" surgery and she said she could. She ordinarily performs laparoscopic surgery with 3-4 holes in different places in your abdomen. With the "belly button" surgery, the surgeon makes one very tiny incision in the base of your belly button and the entire operation is performed through that incision. It is done on an outpatient-basis. Here is a some info on it:

https://vimeo.com/36697608

I had virtually no down-time with this and felt better right away. I wouldn't hesitate to do it, if 2 doctors told you to have it done.

Since I had mine done, there is a newer form of the "belly button" surgery using a da Vinci robotic instrument. I would discuss this with your surgeon. It looks like the way to go!

Good luck!

Thanks for the info!

Julie wrote:You're kidding, right? Two docs have said to do it,

Some people love chaos. He may want to wait and have an emergency cholecystectomy.

To Mask - Sorry if you thought I was flip - took a needed nap since then, but it did strike me the way I said, even if I could have said it differently. And it never occurred to me that you hadn't been made aware of the outpatient surg option (tho' I did mention new tech). Sorry.

Gall bladder problems will only get worse. Do it. Stop suffering.
I had mine out around twenty years ago.
I have to take an acid blocker now; but it beats the heck out of all that PAIN.

I never had mine removed, but I know 2 people...1 was 77 yrs old...that had theirs done in the AM and were released the following AM.
My mother, who was 94 at the time, had hers removed without any problems...minimum discomfort. Good Luck.

I had my gall bladder removed (the Laparoscopy method) back in 1992 I think it was.
Down time was minimal and not a big deal. Pain was very minimal post op. Was in hospital less than 24 hours...I remember that because I told the doc to get my butt out of there before 24 hours so that it could be called out patient surgery and my insurance at the time paid 100% for out patient.

Only major drawback happens for a while after the removal. Depending on the meal you may find that you get some pretty bad diarrhea until the body gets used to having the bile go directly into the intestines instead of being stored in the gall bladder and released slowly...if your gall bladder is over active you may already be experiencing that little fun symptom. It will go away or at least reduce significantly with time.
You will learn pretty quickly which foods to limit or avoid especially if you are in a place where the bathroom isn't nearby.

In my case the gall bladder wasn't functioning well...I think at 13 %.

Recently have had couple of friends have to have the gall bladder yanked out. One guy was back to work (desk job) after 3 days. Since they were forewarned about the diarrhea issue that were able to keep it fairly well managed.
Oh..and just to give you an idea of how quickly it could happen...for a while if I ate out at a restaurant and I ate something that caused more bile production (and it not always just greasy fried chicken) I would have to hit the bathroom before I ever left the restaurant.

It's annoying but you learn to manage the diarrhea causing conditions and in time the body seems to adjust and won't dump so much bile into the intestines in response to fatty foods. I think it is the liver that produces the bile and dumps directly...with time the liver learns to slow down production.

I also had mine removed 20 years ago with an open surgery. Much easier with laparoscopy today. My symptoms came on suddenly at night with severe pain and vomiting. By the time I got to the ER I was in shock. I believe you will continue to have problems if you put off the surgery until there will be no choice. No one can tell how long it will take for the stones / sludge to block the duct but when that happens you won't take time to second guess and will want it out.
Like others have said occasional diarrhea after eating is really the only side effect I have had to deal with and it has lessened over the years.

That's why I love this forum... always something new to learn.

But nobody has addressed the "overactive" part. My opinion would be to not rush into anything till you find the ramifications of being overactive. Every organ was put in there to do a job, and you can take it out anytime, but you can't put it back.

Sir NoddinOff wrote:That's why I love this forum... always something new to learn.

Agree! Googling now to see if there's a treatment for hyperactive gallbladder. I personally am one to avoid any surgery when possible. That said, I am also one to avoid pain. If a hyperactive gallbladder can't be calmed down, and the pain disrupts your life, it looks like you've got your answer.

I just had me gallbladder removed in October of 2014 after over year and a half of great pain (and a lot of being jerked around by my local hospital I went to a surgeon at a hospital about an hour away to get help). If you are have gallbladder pain, you should really see about having it removed. You do not need a gallbladder and after a couple weeks you body will adjust to not having it. For me, not only did the pain stop but my acid reflux seems to the calmed down a great deal and is only an issue if I have something very spicy (though I don't have a hiatal hernia and I have not had a test for it since I had my gallbladder out, though that said unless it starts causing issues again I might not worry about because of the all the crap I had to put up with my previous GI doctor). As far as side effects well for me I had a bit of pain (they gave me meds for that), I had no energy for a few days, and aside from that I did not have any other issues.