Hello and thank you for your question.
Removal of gallbladder should not be a life changing surgery. There are people who develop comlications with digestive system. Gallbladder is responsible in aiding in digestion of fats. Therefore, people without gallbladder may have increased amount of bowel movements. Stool may be softer and more greasy. Otherwise, there are few and rare complications which may occur following gallbladder removal. Of course, as in any surgery, minor or major, there are risks such as infection or bleeding, but those are uncommon. Removal of gallbladder is a pretty routine laparascopic surgery and complication rate is low.
If you are have been very sick and lost so much weight it is probably better to have your gallbladder removed.
To compensate for the gallbladder, you will need to limit intake of saturated fats and limit alcohol consumption. Also your meals should be small, maybe instead of 2-3 large meals per day, you will need to have 5-6 smaller ones. However, not everyone will experience digestive problems and more often then none, people do just fine and live totally normal and healthy lives.
Good luck to you with surgery.
Please le me know if you have any other questions.
Julia
Have you had endoscopy done?
And do you currently take any medications?
Thanks for your reply.
Usually medications which we use to treat GERD are Proton Pump Inhibitors - PPIs (such as Nexium, Prevacid, Protonix, Prilosec). Pepcid can be used as an addition to PPIs if you are still having symptoms but PPIs are usually the first choice of medications for the treatment of GERD.
Your swallowing symptoms are not related to the gallbladder but could be related to GERD. As acid comes up from the stomach and into the esophagus and throat, it can cause a lot of irritation resulting in coughing, chocking sensation, heartburn symptoms, or even chest pain which sometimes brings people to the hospital thinking they are having a heart attack.
I am not sure which new medication you will be starting after surgery, but I do hope it is one of the above mentioned PPIs. In the meantime there are certain foods that will make GERD worse - spicy, tomato based, citrus, chocolate, caffeine, mint (all the good stuff). You need to avoid those.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
GERD can cause coughing, sometimes even asthma but shortness of breath is not common with GERD.
If you have shortness of breath, you should probably be evaluated for other causes, more that have to do with your heart and lungs. I am sure they did your chest x-ray and EKG before surgery to clear you for surgery, so there is probably no immediate danger but if shorntess of breath continues after surgery, then you need further work-up.
Physician Assistant
7 years experience working in Primary Care as well as Gastroenterology, Sleep Medicine & Weight Loss