I used to have gallbladder attacks pretty frequently. I’ve been lucky that they have decreased quite a bit and I haven’t had surgery to take it out. I was planning on having it removed when I had my liver surgery, but when that got canceled I decided not to look into still having surgery just for my gallbladder. I would have kept my liver surgery date and had my gallbladder out at that time (and have the smaller tumors removed), but I didn’t want to do a surgery if I could avoid it. And after discovering about my tumors, my attacks weren’t happening as often.
What we think happened was when my tumors were big, they were compressing other organs so my gallbladder had less space and the attacks could be triggered a lot easier. But now that my liver isn’t pressing on other things, my gallbladder is a normal size and shape and while I still have gallstones they aren’t causing attacks the way they used to. I think every follow-up MRI I’ve had included a note about having gallstones. But as long as it’s not bothering me, I’m ok for now.
I have had a few attacks in the past few years, but they really don’t happen that often and I have found that they aren’t as severe as they used to be. They are still awful and there are moments I feel like I’m dying, but instead of lasting half the day, they are usually over within an hour or two. And I do have ways I can try to manage the pain and just get through the attack.
I had a random attack over the weekend and it’s been months since my last one. I really was trying to think of the last time I had one and I couldn’t remember it. But there’s no way to forget the pain, especially when it hits again. I don’t know what caused it because I hadn’t eaten anything that should have triggered an attack. But I had all the horrible symptoms and just tried to lay down and rest so I could get through it.
One of the symptoms I have when I’m having a gallbladder attack is feeling like I’m having a heat flash or fever. It feels like I’m burning up and I can’t stop sweating. I have always had a fan next to my bed, and whenever I have had an attack I put the fan on high and have it right next to me to cool me down. But this was the first time I had an attack since living at my new place and I have central a/c instead of a little window unit. I’ve already been loving having central a/c, plus the way my condo is situated, things don’t get as hot as they did in my old place. And as I was laying on my bed with my fan next to me, I lowered the thermostat on my a/c to make sure it went on and stayed on for a bit. And as soon as the a/c started and cooled down my room, I started to feel a lot better. The pain was still really intense and I was dizzy and feeling like I would pass out (which is normal for me with a gallbladder attack), but not feeling like I’m burning up really did help. I don’t know if it was really making me feel better or just giving me something else to focus on with cold air hitting my body. But it made getting through this recent attack a lot easier.
This attack I had only lasted about an hour, which sounds like a long time when you feel like you are dying. But compared to what my attacks used to be like, this was much easier. I was able to recover from the attack pretty quickly and get a few more things done with my day instead of needing the rest of the day to recover. I did still feel weak for a few more hours, but it was much more manageable compared to what it’s been like before. I know that it could be that this attack just wasn’t as bad as others have been, but I really do think having the a/c helped me. And I never expected that to be something I could have used when I’ve been having attacks before. I knew it would be nice, but I underestimated how much it would help.
Hopefully, I won’t have another gallbladder attack for quite a while. I would love it if I only had them maybe once a year or less. I do try to eat things that I know won’t cause attacks, but I think some of the ones I have had are just random because I can’t figure out the trigger. But even if I have another one soon, at least now I figured out something else that hopefully will help me get through the attack and make it a bit more tolerable.
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