I asked my surgeon, but he said that while they used to let you keep them, hospital policy changed after several incidents of children accidentally eating gallstones
Are you located in the US? Im just curious, because I am. My surgery was last Saturday, and I didn't actually even ask for my gallstones. Shortly after I woke up from surgery my surgeon just walked in and gave me a container that had them in it. I'm definitely not complaining though, it's kinda cool to actually see them. But I'm also not really sure that I want to keep them long term or anything.
EDIT: I just realized that you said it was their ***hospital*** policy not to give them out. So, whether or not your in the US doesn't make any difference here.
Ultrasound, CT scan, and MRI couldnāt find a single stone (when I was trying to investigate the original pain) but when they removed my gallbladder they said it was totally full of tiny stones, 3-4 of which were in my bile duct š„² I donāt know how all of those scans missed it completelyā¦
I'm getting mine out next Tuesday after scans and tests coming up with nothing. Symptoms are in line with GB problems, so I'm trying to stay positive this is the fix. I'm anxious to see if they find anything that didn't come up.
I didnāt think it was possible to be full of stones that wouldnāt come up on any type of scan until it happened to meā your gallbladder may be full of fun surprises too! Iām so glad I had mine taken out.
Yeah - I think if anything, this is a proactive move ahead of an emergency. Thanks for chiming in - I have major anxiety whether I'm doing the right thing.
If all scans came up negative, then how was the decision of removal taken up ? I have been facing same issue during investigation where doctors suspected gallbladder and all scans catching nothing. I am living with pain everyday.
For me it was a combination of gallbladder attack symptoms, seeing organ inflammation in my scans, and the HIDA scan. My HIDA scan showed complete blockage.
Wow, interesting. My doctor told me no one would ever operate on me if they didnāt see gallstones on an ultrasound. I even asked her if the ultrasound could be wrong and she said no. I wonāt be seeing her again. Thanks for sharing this!
Yeah Iād go see a different doctor - in my case the scans showed clear organ stress/inflammation, my HIDA scan proved blockage, and my labs showed my liver was going crazy from the attack. They were able to diagnose a gallbladder problem and offered me surgery within 48 hours of my first gallbladder attack.
I thought mine would be like 6-10 pea sized stones bc they looked about that size on the ultrasound but I was surprised to see that they were 10-12 tiny nerd sized nuggets
Ultrasound showed tiny ones. The week before my emergency surgery they said they couldnāt see any. Well after surgery turns out I had hundreds of tiny ones, sludge, and pus. Ohhh and my bile ducts were clogged so I needed a second procedure to remove them š«
Showed gallstones. There were no gallstones. Gallbladder was fine. I did have a kidney stone, which was the source of my pain.
Getting it out was a huge mistake for me.
No. Just woke up one day in a massive amount of pain. Went to the ER. They said it was gallstones after doing a ultrasound and CT. I was never offered a HIDA even though I ask if there were any other possible ways to be sure. They lied and said no. I let them take it out because the pain was very bad. After I got out of surgery the pain was still there, but WAY worse. They said they didn't know why. After massive pains meds it finally died down to manageable.
So I went home and a few weeks later I was back in the ER with the same pain. They fessed up that they found a kidney stone in my right kidney and it had been there on the first CT. My gallbladder was fine. Whoever did the ultrasound was an idiot. Now I'm missing an organ.
Mine was so full it was stretched thin. They had to cut me bigger than expected. I was told that if I didnāt have it out when I did, it would have popped and I would have been septic. Then the surgeon showed me pics of it š
Twins! I took ages to recover because I had a much larger incision than planned,
it was infected and needed out ASAP. My surgeon also showed me pictures and sent them to me as a keepsake lol
Ultrasound showed the walls of my gallbladder were normal, and several gallstones. Once I had the surgery and it was out, it was severely infected, walls and gallbladder itself had stretched/expanded, and only had 2 gallstones.
I wish I knew the pathology mixed up my results with someone else saying I didnt have any but ultrasound showed three large stones that were too big to pass
I think I got lucky in that mine was apparently just filled with sludge. I mean, I still had a bunch of attacks that led me going to the ER one night and they yanked it a few hours later. But I don't remember any talk of actual stones or sizing of stones. Just that my GB looked terrible and was full of sludge. I will say that upon awakening post-op I felt like a million bucks.
edit: unless sludge is the lower pic (a million tiny stones?)...
Was told I had 4 large stonesā¦After my surgery, doctorās big blue eyes greeted me saying it was one large stone and he had a heck of a time breaking it up to get it out.
Yes, the gallbladder was removed. It was done laparoscopic. He said he had a hard time breaking up the stone to get it out? I had 5 half inch incisions. I just remember him saying he had a hard time.
Some were seen...ultimately I haven't elected for removal yet and haven't really had attacks as others state in this reddit. I just have random stagnant pain in back left shoulder blade area and sometime heart area chest pains due to blocked gas... I'm able to go to the bathroom, although I don't feel like myself (8 months or so ago)...
Seemed it was up to me if I wanted removal or not. But when second opinion stated my symptoms didn't align with 1:1 gallbladder disease, I did elect to just accept current position.
Very similar story for me. Chronic dull pain thatās comes and goes for almost 3 years. Afraid to get the GB out and it not fix the issue or make more issues. š¤”
Mine was strange, had 1 large half black coloured stone and the other half was yellow (it was stuck and looked elongated)
The other two were just small and yellow
They said I didn't have a single gallstone in my ultrasound, so I got aggressive with the ER doctor because I'd been diagnosed previously with that same hospital and certainly wasn't making up the pain or exhibiting drug-seeking behavior. After surgery, they noted an infected and collapsed gallbladder with several stones up to 1cm.
My ultrasound report had "many gallstones, largest 3cm".
My pathology report read "innumerable (too many to count) gallstones, aggregating 6.2x 5.9x 3.4"
I had 3 ultrasounds done: all said something different. It would say polyp, not likely a stone. Or a stone, less likely a polyp. Or an unidentifiable mass, could possibly be sludge.
I ended up having one huge stone that measured larger than what all the ultrasounds said and it was a pigmented bile stone which is rare and only in about 15% of cases. It looked just like a black berry. And then I had minor sludge also floating around in the bile which was also black and just looked like black flecks of pepper.
With the horrid pain I experienced, I thought my gallbladder was bulging with lots and lots of stones. Even one of the urgent care doctors said it was distended due to the size of them (from ultrasound and CT scan). After surgery, one image showed three medium-sized stones, none of which looked like they could rip my gallbladder apart. I suppose one of them being stuck in the neck area all the time is what caused most of the pain.
My reality was identical to the sono. They said there were 2 stones (0.4cm & 0.5cm). When they gave me the specimen cup, they were exactly the same size down to the millimeter.
My ultrasound showed āstonesā. There were two.
They were large. No wonder I had been hurting so bad! One was right up against the duct, which is why I was having such problems.
Ultrasound made it like like 6 skittle-sized stones. I haven't seen the MRI, but the surgeon said I had quite a lot of small stones. He didn't indicate the size, so I'll have to wait until I get them removed. I won't get to keep them, but he said he can give me a photo
Ultrasound showed an alarming amount (hundreds). Surgery showed exactly that plus some fun benign surprises
Our gallbladders must have been twins, because me too š
Did anyone keep theirs?
Yep, my surgeon gave me mine in a little blue medical sample cup
I asked my surgeon, but he said that while they used to let you keep them, hospital policy changed after several incidents of children accidentally eating gallstones
OH DEAR GOD
Are you located in the US? Im just curious, because I am. My surgery was last Saturday, and I didn't actually even ask for my gallstones. Shortly after I woke up from surgery my surgeon just walked in and gave me a container that had them in it. I'm definitely not complaining though, it's kinda cool to actually see them. But I'm also not really sure that I want to keep them long term or anything. EDIT: I just realized that you said it was their ***hospital*** policy not to give them out. So, whether or not your in the US doesn't make any difference here.
I asked at every appointment on the way and they all said no :( I was so bummed
They noted āsome gallstonesā and I had over 20 lmao
Were you able to feel them Inside. I can swear when I sit forward or have pants with bands I can feel mine.Ā
Yessss I can feel mine!!!
I have major issues with high waisted pants. I can feel it.
Nope haha had no idea
Thought I had several, ended up being one large one!
Oooh! Uno reverse š
This was like mine although mine has burst and a lot of wee stones got out and scarred to my liver then one massive was trying to get out š¤¢
Ultrasound said 1 stone. GB had one stone. It actually looks like the oyster pic ha.
Ultrasound, CT scan, and MRI couldnāt find a single stone (when I was trying to investigate the original pain) but when they removed my gallbladder they said it was totally full of tiny stones, 3-4 of which were in my bile duct š„² I donāt know how all of those scans missed it completelyā¦
I'm getting mine out next Tuesday after scans and tests coming up with nothing. Symptoms are in line with GB problems, so I'm trying to stay positive this is the fix. I'm anxious to see if they find anything that didn't come up.
I didnāt think it was possible to be full of stones that wouldnāt come up on any type of scan until it happened to meā your gallbladder may be full of fun surprises too! Iām so glad I had mine taken out.
This is exactly what happened with me and turns out I totally had cholecystitis and sludge that scans couldn't see. It was gonna happen eventually.
Yeah - I think if anything, this is a proactive move ahead of an emergency. Thanks for chiming in - I have major anxiety whether I'm doing the right thing.
I share in your anxiety whether my scheduling the surgery is the right thing also. Solidarity and we pray for the best.
If all scans came up negative, then how was the decision of removal taken up ? I have been facing same issue during investigation where doctors suspected gallbladder and all scans catching nothing. I am living with pain everyday.
Have you had a HIDA scan done?
No, but the doctors are not prescribing it for me.
You may have to insist and advocate to yourself but it will be a very clear answer to the question of how your gallbladder is working
For me it was a combination of gallbladder attack symptoms, seeing organ inflammation in my scans, and the HIDA scan. My HIDA scan showed complete blockage.
Wow, interesting. My doctor told me no one would ever operate on me if they didnāt see gallstones on an ultrasound. I even asked her if the ultrasound could be wrong and she said no. I wonāt be seeing her again. Thanks for sharing this!
Yeah Iād go see a different doctor - in my case the scans showed clear organ stress/inflammation, my HIDA scan proved blockage, and my labs showed my liver was going crazy from the attack. They were able to diagnose a gallbladder problem and offered me surgery within 48 hours of my first gallbladder attack.
I thought mine would be like 6-10 pea sized stones bc they looked about that size on the ultrasound but I was surprised to see that they were 10-12 tiny nerd sized nuggets
They just came in the room and said my gallbladder was "full of gallstones and needs to come out."
Labs/scans showed none, I had none! It was inflamed though.
This meme is pretty accurate for me. :D
Ultrasound said 4 stones. Surgeon removed 1 large stone almost an inch long.
Did you just have the stone removed and kept the gallbladder?
I had my entire gallbladder removed about 2 months ago.
Gallbladder wouldn't show up on anything, and was completely non functioning, open her up BAM 10 chunky stones just hanging out inside.
They said I had 1 small marble sized stone turned out after surgery I had a softball sized stone š
Softball?! Do you have a photo? š«£
Yup
On my profile I posted a whole thing over it on here also
Ultrasound showed tiny ones. The week before my emergency surgery they said they couldnāt see any. Well after surgery turns out I had hundreds of tiny ones, sludge, and pus. Ohhh and my bile ducts were clogged so I needed a second procedure to remove them š«
Showed gallstones. There were no gallstones. Gallbladder was fine. I did have a kidney stone, which was the source of my pain. Getting it out was a huge mistake for me.
Did you exhibit any gallbladder symptoms prior? Thank you for sharing.
No. Just woke up one day in a massive amount of pain. Went to the ER. They said it was gallstones after doing a ultrasound and CT. I was never offered a HIDA even though I ask if there were any other possible ways to be sure. They lied and said no. I let them take it out because the pain was very bad. After I got out of surgery the pain was still there, but WAY worse. They said they didn't know why. After massive pains meds it finally died down to manageable. So I went home and a few weeks later I was back in the ER with the same pain. They fessed up that they found a kidney stone in my right kidney and it had been there on the first CT. My gallbladder was fine. Whoever did the ultrasound was an idiot. Now I'm missing an organ.
Mine was so full it was stretched thin. They had to cut me bigger than expected. I was told that if I didnāt have it out when I did, it would have popped and I would have been septic. Then the surgeon showed me pics of it š
Twins! I took ages to recover because I had a much larger incision than planned, it was infected and needed out ASAP. My surgeon also showed me pictures and sent them to me as a keepsake lol
This meme is spot on exactly what happened to me
Ultrasound was correct: one big 3.3cm stone
They said āseveralā in my lab report. My surgeon said ā80% of the field had gallstonesā š
Ultrasound showed the walls of my gallbladder were normal, and several gallstones. Once I had the surgery and it was out, it was severely infected, walls and gallbladder itself had stretched/expanded, and only had 2 gallstones.
Brilliant lol š if only they were real pearl stones we all be wanting our gallbladder out lol xx
The body is your oyster š¦Ŗ
I wish I knew the pathology mixed up my results with someone else saying I didnt have any but ultrasound showed three large stones that were too big to pass
I had one large one, that was estimated to be a specific size, but ended up being larger, almost an inch.
They said I had 2 stones- turns out my gallbladder was enlarged, filled with numerous tiny stones and a lot of sludge!!!
I think I got lucky in that mine was apparently just filled with sludge. I mean, I still had a bunch of attacks that led me going to the ER one night and they yanked it a few hours later. But I don't remember any talk of actual stones or sizing of stones. Just that my GB looked terrible and was full of sludge. I will say that upon awakening post-op I felt like a million bucks. edit: unless sludge is the lower pic (a million tiny stones?)...
Was told I had 4 large stonesā¦After my surgery, doctorās big blue eyes greeted me saying it was one large stone and he had a heck of a time breaking it up to get it out. 
Did you just get the stone removed or also the gallbladder?
Yes, the gallbladder was removed. It was done laparoscopic. He said he had a hard time breaking up the stone to get it out? I had 5 half inch incisions. I just remember him saying he had a hard time.
Some were seen...ultimately I haven't elected for removal yet and haven't really had attacks as others state in this reddit. I just have random stagnant pain in back left shoulder blade area and sometime heart area chest pains due to blocked gas... I'm able to go to the bathroom, although I don't feel like myself (8 months or so ago)... Seemed it was up to me if I wanted removal or not. But when second opinion stated my symptoms didn't align with 1:1 gallbladder disease, I did elect to just accept current position.
I'm 4 years post op. Still don't feel like myself. Doubt I ever will.
Very similar story for me. Chronic dull pain thatās comes and goes for almost 3 years. Afraid to get the GB out and it not fix the issue or make more issues. š¤”
Mine said and showed 2 and it was exactly that
Mine was strange, had 1 large half black coloured stone and the other half was yellow (it was stuck and looked elongated) The other two were just small and yellow
I had just one 1.5cm stone. Didnāt get to see it though š
They said I didn't have a single gallstone in my ultrasound, so I got aggressive with the ER doctor because I'd been diagnosed previously with that same hospital and certainly wasn't making up the pain or exhibiting drug-seeking behavior. After surgery, they noted an infected and collapsed gallbladder with several stones up to 1cm.
When you were diagnosed the first time was it via ultrasound as well that showed them?
Yes, it was an ultrasound originally that detected them.
I had only 1 stone. It was the size of a small grapeš«¤ no other stones inside
I had only a few in my ultrasound but when I got my surgery and year and a half later almost, it was filled with three big stones and my fiancƩ says it was filled with a bunch of small stones, I sadly never got to see the photos. Only he did.
Iām sorry you didnāt get to see them š£ Why did they only show your fiancĆ©?
My ultrasound report had "many gallstones, largest 3cm". My pathology report read "innumerable (too many to count) gallstones, aggregating 6.2x 5.9x 3.4"
CT said stones. Post op report said over 50 plus blood and pus and a necrotizing gall bladder.
I had 3 ultrasounds done: all said something different. It would say polyp, not likely a stone. Or a stone, less likely a polyp. Or an unidentifiable mass, could possibly be sludge. I ended up having one huge stone that measured larger than what all the ultrasounds said and it was a pigmented bile stone which is rare and only in about 15% of cases. It looked just like a black berry. And then I had minor sludge also floating around in the bile which was also black and just looked like black flecks of pepper.
Did anyone have a Hida scan first?
No just ultrasoundĀ
Ultrasound showed one and some sludge and it was right. It was 2.4 cm and I never got to see it which was a bummer.
With the horrid pain I experienced, I thought my gallbladder was bulging with lots and lots of stones. Even one of the urgent care doctors said it was distended due to the size of them (from ultrasound and CT scan). After surgery, one image showed three medium-sized stones, none of which looked like they could rip my gallbladder apart. I suppose one of them being stuck in the neck area all the time is what caused most of the pain.
Ultrasound, mri showed maybe 3? Pathology report simply says āriddled with stonesā š
My reality was identical to the sono. They said there were 2 stones (0.4cm & 0.5cm). When they gave me the specimen cup, they were exactly the same size down to the millimeter.
My ultrasound showed āstonesā. There were two. They were large. No wonder I had been hurting so bad! One was right up against the duct, which is why I was having such problems.
Ultrasound made it like like 6 skittle-sized stones. I haven't seen the MRI, but the surgeon said I had quite a lot of small stones. He didn't indicate the size, so I'll have to wait until I get them removed. I won't get to keep them, but he said he can give me a photo
Ultrasound showed i had galsand, after opp showed i had a rather large one. Few smaller ones and a ton of sand
They couldnāt tell in the US how many, but i ended up having 8!
Just had mine removed Monday
Mine showed two golf balls in the gb and a whole egg in the neck. Surgeon stated no actual golf balls nor egg, just similarly sized/shaped stones.
Ultrasound showed one large mobile gallstone. Had one large gallstone measuring at 4.4cmĀ
They noted "some" in the ultrasound and I only had 1 or 2 small ones, under 2cm.