Gallstone Removal Precautions

A gallstone is a minute crystalline particle that can form in your gallbladder. It can grow larger over time, moving around in your gallbladder and blocking certain ducts that prevent your gallbladder from emptying the bile that it processes. A gallstone can even move to block the common bile duct, backing bile up into your liver, or even into your pancreas.

Diagnosis And Testing

• Diagnosis and testing are the first preparations and precautions you must make in dealing with your gallstones. You and your doctor need to monitor your symptoms, which can include pain in your upper abdomen that can last 30 minutes to hours, nausea, and possible vomiting and mild jaundice.

  Next, you will need a series of tests, including blood, urine and ultrasound, to determine the size, number and location of your gallstones. Testing for elevated levels of bilirubin, an enzyme, can determine if you have biliary colic.

Treating Your Gallstones

• The most common treatment and preferred method for removing gallstones is by laparoscopic cholecystectomy, a less-invasive surgery that uses a series of small incisions in your abdomen to go into your gallbladder, find and remove your gallstones.

  Non-surgical methods for removal include breaking up gallstones by laser shock waves or dissolving them using medications made from bile acid. These methods are used if you have a condition that makes surgery risky.

Preparation And Precautions for Surgery

• If your doctor decides surgery is your best option, you will be sent home with a list of precautions and preparations for surgery. At the top of the list: no eating or drinking anything after midnight, the night before your surgery is scheduled. If you have diabetes, your doctor may need to modify this, but check with your doctor.

  If you have medications you must take, you may take them with a sip of water on the day of surgery, but that is all you should have on the day of surgery.

  You should not take any medications containing aspirin, salicylates or NSAIDs for at least two days before surgery. Do not resume these medications until your doctor says it is permissible. If you are taking a blood-thinning medication, such as Coumadin, you will need to check with your doctor before any surgery is contemplated.

  Make sure you have someone who can come and take you home after your surgical procedure is completed and you are out of recovery. While this is generally considered an outpatient procedure, a one or two day stay in the hospital is possible, if there are complications, or the gallbladder itself needs to be removed.

After Operation

• You will need to be prepared for what you will be going through after your operation. Afterward, you will have pain in your abdomen and your shoulder. This may last from 24 to 72 hours, up to a week. You will be groggy initially, and have muscle aches from the anesthesia. Inflammation or drainage at surgical wound sites is possible. You may experience diarrhea, loss of appetite and some nausea. While you don't need to alter your diet, some patients have found a fat-free diet can help diminish diarrhea and bloating.

  Physical exertion will feel uncomfortable for a few days. No heavy lifting for six weeks. Working with a physical therapist will help get you back to normal. You will need to take some time off work--it may be for only a day or so, but two to three weeks are not uncommon before you are ready to return to your normal daily routine.