Gallbladder Help!

Update to your other questions: I actually drove myself to the hospital...At the time I figured that was better than making my hubby bring our 3 month old to the ER...my M-I-L met me there and stayed with me til the morning...chances are if you need it out ASAP they will admit you...My mom ended up having to come and take care of my daughter because my husband had to work and I was sick for so long!!!

Hi,
I feel your pain....3 months after I had my daughter I was in pain that was worse than labor..With my first attack I felt better each time I threw up...but that didnt last long....the attack was gone as quickly as it came on....I knew I had an attack coming on with my second one...pain in my back and in my front on my right side....with this attack I couldnt take the pain so I went to the ER...they admitted me and took my gallbladder out the following morning...my gallbladder was soo bad and gangrenous that I was in the hospital for a week...was discharged home and ended up back in the hospital for another week because my liver function's were off the charts and I had pancreatitis...all because I never had any symptoms prior to having my daughter....so my advice to you, regardless of how bad your insurance is is dont wait any longer...even though we dont need our gallbladder to survive if it is as infected as mine was it can do great damage to your body....I had to have a PICC line inserted and was on heavy duty antibiotics for almost 3 weeks to clear up the mess that my gallbladder had caused...not sure if there are pills that can take care of it because ultimately the only cure is having it removed!! Hopefully the hospital and surgeon can work with you on a payment plan if you owe a lot of money out of pocket...if you have any more questions feel free to ask...In the mean time feel better!!
Meg

Well, the last thing you want is to pay for a trip to the ER. Go to your regular doctor for an appointment. Hopefully he will say diet and lifestyle change are all that is necessary for you.

You should also consider that it might be appendicitis. If so it would be a medical emergency so please don't waste time or self diagnose.

Avoid butters, graveys, heavy fats in general and it will help you out. However, don't put it off too long just because of insurance issues. You may end up like me and have to go in for emergency surgery if things progress.

please go to the doctor. my sister ignored hers as well, she has a high pain tolerance.... she ended up alone with my little niece one day laying on the floor in dire pain, called 911 on herself, the emts burst in and treated her for a heart attack on the living room floor while my niece cowered in terror. a nightmare. then, of course she had to have emergency surgery to have it removed, they told her that her gall bladder was so torn up and infected from festering for so long that they barely got it out laproscopically and she was super lucky not to have further complications. it makes sense to want to go about it cheaply, of course, but i imagine that if you let it go like that, the cost will only be worse and worse, as well as the lack of control you have over anything when its emergency surgery, not to mention the pain and your health.

Well, if you are like me, when you cant stand it anymore you'll go to your doc for a recommendation. Some of us have very high pain tolerance and that is not always a virtue since it tends to make us wait TOO long before nipping something in the bud while its simple rather than catastrophic. Go to your primary care doc and see what he/she says. When you self diagnose it's a big gamble and you may be WAY off.

If it only hurts on one side, it might be more kidney pain (like kidney stones) rather than gall bladder. I had gall stones and the pain would be centered in my upper abdomen and radiate around my back, but it wasn't worse or confined to one side or other other.

You need to see your doctor and make sure it really is your gall bladder and not something else. I had to have my gall bladder removed 7 years ago because of gall stones and I can tell you, that was just about the worst pain I have ever experienced (having the stones that is - the surgery wasn't nearly as bad!). Once my gall bladder was gone, no more problems. It took an abdominal ultrasound exam to be diagnosed though and then I had to meet with a surgeon. Gall stones can get trapped in the bile duct that connects to the small intestine and if they cause an obstruction, it's an emergency and you could end up with major issues (jaundice, pancreatitis, etc.) if they don't do surgery quickly. So my advice would be to just bite the bullet and see your doctor ASAP before it gets even worse (and therefore more expensive).

EDITED TO ADD: Read your "So What Happened?" and I'm sorry, but...really? I would not wait until you are in pain - the ER people may not even be aware of what is happening (this happened to me once and by the time I got there, I was not in pain any longer, so they did not pursue it - I had to go to my regular doctor after it kept happening). At least with a doctor's appointment you can plan ahead and make arrangements for hubby and kids...do you really want all of them hanging around an ER for what could be hours on end and getting exposed to germs and possibly witnessing something traumatic?

I would run to the doctor regardless of your insurance. I had this on and off for six months and ignored it. When the vomitting started I went to the doctor and had emergency surgery within hours to have my gallbladder removed. I was about to go septic meaning my gallbladder had failed and was becoming gangerous which would have caused an infection and probably death if I hadn't gone. If you are vomitting and having this much pain it probably needs to be removed. This is not something you can just fix with a pill.

I wouldnt wait for the next attack!
You need to see a dr right away! Its better if you need surgery to have it set up than to have an emergency surgery. Besides its probably gonna be better on your ins because they might have to admit you and cost a pretty penny or just tell you set up an appt with your dr but if you set up the surgery with your dr it's most likely an out patient proceedure and you go home same day.

Go to the doctor! If what you are having and feeling is a gallbladder attack is better to go now than later. do not wait until the next attack, if you do it is going to get worse and more expensive, and I don't think you want that. As other mom said H., it is better to have a planned surgery than one in on emergency. Take care and go to the doctor to make sure what it is.
Good luck and take care

Make an appt with your doctor and see what he says. My friend's dad (high pain tolerance and just plain ornery) put off going, and ended up in the ER with emergency surgery, septic/gangrene... the gallbladder literally disintegrated when they touched it trying to remove it.. and they weren't sure he would make it. He was in the hospital for a week after what COULD have been practically outpatient surgery. And he almost died.

Get a professional opinion from a doctor, then consider the options you have when you are armed with actual information, and not just opinions of us moms who can't diagnose what is going on with you.

Go to your doctor and have an ultrasound. I had an attack and it felt like a spear going through my upper body. I had emergency surgery that day!

i have gallblader stones for about 4 years now i still have my gallbladder ,avoid anything with fat , like fried food that's what i do and i don't have anymore problems with the gallbladder and sometimes when i have an attack i drink herbalife herbal aloe with water and instantly calms the pain (i just have 2 attacks in the past 4 years)

yeah,it is definately not worth waiting out. I almost was too late,mother also because we waited too long. but,I wonder could you be feeling kidney stones instead? just curious? I have had those also and they hurt terrible. hope u have better days ahead....and prayers are sent to you.

Go to your doctor! don't wait until you get another flair up! I waited one day to go, and I was hours from it bursting. I ended up getting a gall stone jammed in my pancreas, another in my bile duct and another by my liver. It caused pancreatitis so bad that I couldn't eat or drink for 5 days, was in the hospital for two weeks prior to having surgery because my pancreas would have burst if they cut me open. It was the worst experience of my life.
Who cares about crappy insurance. What will your kids do without a mama? Go to the doctor!