onepinkfuzzy

In February 2004, I began having difficulty sleeping at night. I had intense, painful gas that kept me awake. I noticed that pizza made it much, much worse. By August of 2004, I had stopped eating pizza for dinner (although I would still eat large quantities for lunch), and I drank lots of soda and ate lots of tums - all to alleviate the constant pain, which worsened through the fall. By mid-December of 2004, I was in agony. One week of holiday dinners and festive desserts culminated in intense vomiting and diarrhea, with excruciating pain eminating throughout my midsection and into my back. I couldn't eat anything, and I developed a fever. A friend said it sounded like gallstones, and told me to immediately go to a doctor. The doctor confirmed it - I had gallbladder disease.

Gallbladder disease occurrs when there is an imbalance of bile and cholesterol in the gallbladder. It can be hereditary, and is much more likely in fat, fair, forty-year-old females. I was not over forty, but I was fat, fair and female, which made me a likely candidate. Gallbladder disease occurs when there is too much cholesteral in the gallbladder, and not enough bile (which the gallbladder is supposed to produce, store and then secrete to the liver to aid in digestion). When I ate anything with saturated fats (pizza, french fries, ice cream), I overloaded my gallbladder, and it would start to spasm, causing pain, nausea and diarrhea. The doctor found a large gallstone in my gallbladder, which is what caused the fever - it must have gotten lodged in one of the bile ducts because of the intense spasms created from the crazy amount of fat I was putting into my body. By the time I made it to the doctor, the stone had dislodged, the fever was gone, and I was out of danger.

I have to be careful and watch my diet for the rest of my life, in order to make sure I don't cause spasms, and therefore launch the gallstone into a bile duct, again. That can cause infection, fever and gallbladder rupture - which means emergency surgery to remove the gallbladder and thus save my life. Gallbladder surgery is the most commonly performed surgery in American hosptials, and is routinely done, as most doctors think one's gallbladder is not really that important. I chose to keep my gallbladder - I don't feel comfortable having a body part that does something (even if the doctors don't think it's important) taken out of my body and removed. Plus I hate hospitals. The final reason I chose to keep my gallbladder was because I could control the pain, nausea and diahhrea through my diet. As long as I don't eat any saturated or trans fats, and I eat much, much smaller portions, the pain stays away...and I have a built-in mechanism to lose weight!

I have lost 60 pounds this year from the gallbladder disease diet! My friends comment with envy on the willpower I have to stay away from fatty foods - but it's not willpower! It's pain! There's nothing like the threat of imminent, agonizing pain and emergency surgery to keep yourself from eating more than a bit of Ben & Jerry's (although they make a great low-fat frozen yogurt!).

Before - this is in January 2005, after I had lost about 10 pounds.

After - this is mid-October 2005 (with my Daddy, who was in town and visiting, yay!) after having lost 60 pounds