"Why don't you just let them take out your gallbladder?! You'll be so much better off..."

If I could count the number of times I've heard that the past few years... So I will attempt to answer.

First off, God gave us a gallbladder for a reason! It is NOT an unnecessary organ (more on this later). I do not doubt that there are situations where a person needs to have it removed - infection, etc. But these don't happen very often.

I have prayed about whether or not it would be best to have my gallbladder removed every time it gives me problems. And every time I get a clear answer - LEAVE IT IN. It would certainly be easier in the short-term to have it taken out! To not have to worry about another attack and the extreme pain that goes with it. To be able to eat whatever. To not hear from people why I'm just being stubborn and/or afraid of surgery and/or how much better off I'll be. But God keeps leading me to more resources about how this is NOT in my best interest. So I have to trust Him...

Here is some of the information I've found about why gallbladder removal (cholecystectomy) is NOT a good idea! The information below comes from these 2 websites: http://www.gallbladderattack.com/gallbladdersurgery.shtml
http://www.naturalnews.com/007733_gall_bladder_conventional_medicine_gallstones.html
These are only 2 of the many sites with valuable information about the consequences of gallbladder removal!

The gallbladder has an important function in digestion. And, if you just remove it, you are compromising your digestive health for the rest of your life. Surgeons who remove gallbladders are complacent in educating patients about nutritional changes they need to pursue after losing this important digestive organ. For example, you're not going to get the same quality of digestion you would have had if your gall bladder were in place. You're not going to get the excretion of the bile from the gallbladder into the small intestine, and as a result, you're not going to efficiently digest foods that are moving through your digestive tract. This is especially true for dietary fats, including essential fatty acids. Without a gallbladder, you're not going to be able to digest dietary fats with any degree of efficiency. This means that if you don't take bile salts as a nutritional supplement every time you eat healthy fats, you'll miss out on all-important omega-3 fatty acids and other healthy oils. That's why people who have had gallbladder removal surgery usually suffer the classic signs of EFA deficiencies: poor nervous system function, irritability, learning difficulties, heart disease, poor blood sugar control, and so on.

In order to break down and digest fats, your body must produce bile, which is done in the liver. Your gallbladder is merely a sac for holding some of the bile that the liver produces. Whether or not you have had your gallbladder removed, your liver is still producing bile in order to digest fats. Without the gallbladder, however, the bile is not as readily secreted in the body, and the liver can become overwhelmed when faced with large amounts of any fats, especially saturated fats and hydrogenated fats. And for some people even small amounts of fats can cause discomfort. (One of the side effects of gallbladder removal can be the dumping of bile which is now not as easily regulated and can send someone running to the bathroom immediately after eating.) A more common side effect is a decrease in the secretion of bile. If the bile produced by the liver becomes thick and sluggish, painful symptoms and bile stones can occur. Bile stones can form in the liver as well as the gallbladder.

Gallstones can also be found in the liver and the bile ducts leading to the gallbladder. The attack is often (but not always) caused by a stone blocking a duct. And yes, this can still happen after having your gallbladder removed. As seen by research, stones are formed partly due to what we eat. If we take the gallbladder out and continue to eat the same lithogenic forming diet that we did before, why should stones not form? They will. You may never know it. You may be asymptomatic for the rest of your life. Or, you may get a stone stuck in a bile duct.

The most common problems from having your gallbladder removed, apart from actual pain are impaired digestion: bloating, gas, heartburn, constipation or diarrhea. You are/were already having trouble digesting fats. So why would removing the organ that regulates the metabolizer of fats improve your digestion? It may help with the pain, but know that 34% of people who have their gallbladder removed still experience some abdominal pain.

Abdominal pain, nausea, gas, bloating, and diarrhea are common following surgery. Postcholecystectomy syndrome (after gallbladder removal syndrome) may include all of the above symptoms plus indigestion, nausea, vomiting and constant pain in the upper right abdomen. Sound familiar? You're right -- gallbladder attack symptoms. Up to 40% of people who undergo gallbladder surgery will experience these symptoms for months or years after surgery. How is this possible? You no longer have a gallbladder and that was the problem, right? Look to the whole biliary tract. Now that the gallbladder is no longer present to act as a reservoir for bile, the common bile duct may expand as the bile backs up in the bile duct between the sphincter or muscular opening at the small intestine and the liver from which it flows. If it drips constantly into the small intestine this can cause problems of a different kind. However, this syndrome with accompanying pain appears to have the flow of bile obstructed by either a narrowing of the sphincter or a malfunction of the sphincter.

Functional biliary pain in the absence of gallstone disease is a definite entity and a challenge for clinicians. Which is to say that at this point in time, they don't really know what to do with gallbladder problems that aren't related to gallstones. Often, following cholecystectomy, biliary pain does not resolve. Which means after gallbladder surgery you may just be stuck with the pain.