gallbladder removal leads to continued stomach pain after meals

[tkayne]

My mom has had stomach problems for over a year now.  Dr's initially thought it was her gallbladder so she had it removed and found it contained hundreds of stones.  We were hoping this would solve her stomach problems but the pains only got worse.  She has lost around 30 pounds and continues to lose because she cant eat without feeling sick.  The pains are a tight feeling right below the sternum in her upper abdomen.  Her stomach gets hard and grumbles for hours and then the pain subsides.  This happens after nearly much every meal.  They claim she is allergic to milk eggs and sugar, but even foods without these ingredients make her sick.  Our doctors in the area cant seem to come up with any answers, but we need to find one soon.  My mother is small to begin with and she just keeps on losing weight because she cant eat.  If anyone reading this has any ideas please help!

[PrincessKatie]

I'm going to be frank. I'm sure you've noticed your mother is basically starving to death. If she has lost that much weight and is that frail, she should be on TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition).  It's basically the nutrients she lacks through an IV. She should also probably be in the hospital. If there are no good doctors or hospitals around, I suggest going to your nearest university hospital. They are up on the latest things and usually have good funding for care. If there are no good hospitals in your area, find a family member with a good hospital close by and get your mother there. I'm sure your personal circumstances might make this difficult, but I hope there is someone else willing to help your mother in your family.  If she continues on that path, she will start to pass out. An older woman with little to no nutrition falling is a disaster (broken bones)! Please get your mother into a hospital's care.

I'm not some healthy person telling you this. I've been in the hospital 4 times in the past three months due to not being able to eat (I have Crohn's in my entire GI tract and have had c-diff 4 times.) I've lost 35 lbs and weigh 114. I was on TPN in December and my doctor has threatened me with it again if i get to 110. I am praying I don't have to have it again, but the body will start to shut down when it goes nutrient deficient long enough.  

I hope things work out for your mother! If a doctor doesn't help, get another one. There are a lot of bad doctors out there but there are also a lot of amazing, caring, compasionate ones out there, too!

[fane]

Your mother should all the tests available to figure out what is going on with her digestive tract. I know this sounds like common sense and that you probably have done many tests, however, many doctors out there are very incompetent and they don't really care for the well being of their patients. If you think about it it makes sense. You are only valuable to them as long as you're sick. That is why you have to take matters into your own hands and if your doctors are overwhealmed by the situation just change them. It's practically that easy. Most importantly you would have to read a lot about how the digestive system works. It is a little complex, but in about 2 weeks you can really understand how everything works. The trick with the digestive system is that it is very sensitive to any small malfunction of any of its organs. For example, if your gallbladder is not functioning right it can mess up your whole digestion and not only. That is why you have to understand it in some detail. There are many tests out there to diagnose all practical digestive dysfunctions. As you probably know most of them are pretty expensive and your doctors are well trained by most inssurances to refrain from sending patients to many tests. That's when your resilience comes into play. If you suspect something go for it. But first you need to know the digestive system before you can make any educated guesses. In your mother's case it can be a dysfunction of the sphyncter of oddy or maybe the pancreas of stomach. It can also be a disease related to the small intestine like Chrone's disease. What you have to understand is that many of these dysfunctions give similar symptoms so you can't assume it's the stomach without any test to support it. Usually the stomach is the first one to react to any digestive malfunction so it can be that it is perfectly healthy but the problem is in the small intestine or some other organ. My advice to you is to go on the internet and study everything in detail and afterwards everything will make sense. It is like a car (keeping the proportions). You see that it doesn't work but you can't do anything about it because you are illiterate when it comes to the mechanics behind that process. That is why you take it to the mechanic (doctor in this case). However, mechanics are people, therefore, some of them are more knowledgeble than others. If you see that one of them is not able to solve your problem you go to a different one. The same thing with doctors. I hope that you got the idea behind my long post. Another thing, give your mother digestive enzymes to see if those can help. They do wonders in many situation because they take off the pressure on your digestive organs, making digestion much easier.

[tkayne]

She is not experiencing diarrhea!!  Her trouble isnt just because of the digestion of fats.  She cant eat anything!!  Something else is wrong and there isnt a doctor around here that will help her or even try to search further to figure it out.  She needs someone's help.  How does a doctor expect you to live if you cant even eat properly.  She doesnt get any nutrition and as i stated earlier, she is losing a lot of weight!

[CalGal]

Many people have trouble processing fats of any sort - including milk - after a GB removal. She may need to keep her intake of fat to a very low amount to possibly get some relief.

If she's aslo experiencing diarrhea, it could be due to the unregulated 'dumping' of bile into the duodenum which can cause GI distress along with the diarrhea.