I had my daughter on 10/31/07. I unfortunately gained a lot more weight than is recommended, and now like after my son- I am left very overweight and trying to figure out how to successfully lose the baby weight. I am nursing, and a few weeks ago I started having this horrible stomach pain which my Dr. said sounded like gallbladder issues. Since nothing worked before, I tried cutting out fat completely, and it does help a lot. I am still waiting test results to find out if it really is my gallbladder, but no fat diet helps a lot. I am a little nervous because if I have to have surgery, I dont know how thats gonna work with a nursing infant- I guess I could pump or supplement for the time I am in the hospital. I was just wondering if other people have had similar problems- I recently learned that it is common in women who have recently had children (probably due to the weight gain?). It really sucks to try to function with this pain, completely cut out fat from my diet, and I am back to work on top of all that. Wah- poor me. hah. I am trying to be optimistic- at least maybe this will force me to eat more healthfully and maybe I will finally lose the rest of the weight I gained.
I went on a nationally known diet in 1991 and one of the disclaimers that I had to sign before they would accept me on their program was regarding the link between their program(they are still in business too) and gallbladder disease. Well, I wanted to lose weight so I signed on the dotted line (although my lawyer husband-ex now---, at the time, was angry that I did).
I lost 40 lbs in 6 weeks and ended up with my first gallbladder attack. I have had both angina and multiple gallbladder attacks. I can tell you the later is worst! I was deathly ill with it. I hope you won't let it get to that point. I tried to tell my doctors at the time but because I had been dieting and was obese they kept telling me my symptoms were either a result of bulimia or "in my head"!!
Well, exactly one year later, I did have my gallbladder removed. I had a very horrible year that was unnecessarily filled with a lot of pain.
Get it taken care of. It is something serious and you will feel 110% better afterwards.
P.S. This is hard to believe but you can still get gall stones after you have it removed!! So, going on a lower fat diet will probably be necessary.
When I eat too much of the wrong kinds of fats, like saturated, I get a lot of G.I. distress and yes "the green apple quick step" follows. It's like having a built in mechanism now of when I've over done it.
I'm sorry this is coming at such a "beautiful" time(post delivery) for you. I hope the nurses can tell you how to best to keep nursing while you are recuperating. Good luck!
Preserving breastfeeding through a surgery can be challenging depending on how much support you get from the surgeon, anesthesia, the nursing staff, hospital and your family. Sometimes physicians don't know as much about breastfeeding and medication safety as we would all like. Some tips:
1) See if the hospital where you are having the surgery has a lactation consultant on staff. She (or he I guess!) should be willing to help you while you are an inpatient with pumping.
2) Some hospitals allow babies to room in with their mothers. You will need a family member there just for the baby, of course, but you may be able to have your baby stay on site with you.
3) Have you been pumping? If not, you might practice and store some milk, and that way, if the baby cannot be with you or you are hurting too much to consider breastfeeding during the postop period, your baby still has access to milk. The nursing staff at the hospital should be willing to assist you with pumping. We have had women in the ICU using breastpumps. It is not outside the realm of possibility.
4) You may be discouraged from breastfeeding or encouraged to "pump and dump" due to anesthesia, narcotics, antibiotics, or any number of medications. A good question to ask is: would a woman having a c-section get these medications? If the answer is yes, then why would she be able to breastfeed but you cannot. Sometimes "pump and dump" is the easy answer, but not always the right answer.
5) Can you hold off on the surgery until the baby is 6 months? Most kiddos are beginning to take solids then and your baby's dependency on your milk *might* be a little less at that time (maybe not, and your milk is ALWAYS important!). This totally depends on your pain and clinical picture however.
Asking questions, pressing for answers that satisfy you and make sense to you, and planning ahead will help preserve your breastfeeding relationship. Even best laid plans hit the fan sometimes, though, and if it does, your baby is at a good age to be flexible and move back onto the breast. Good luck!
Last edited by midwife; 02-29-2008 at 11:14 AM.
Reason: typo
I have been pumping for my baby since he was born in February (he was 1 month early--he'd latch on in the hospital, but "lost it" when we got home). I had my first gall bladder attack around the time he was 5 weeks old and have since had two more.
I went to the ER for the last one, where they did blood work to confirm that it was, indeed my gall bladder. My GP put me on antibiotics because my gall bladder was inflamed, so I had to stop nursing. I am still pumping and dumping, though, because I want to continue to give my baby breast milk after I've gotten though all of this. For now we are giving him formula and supplementing with the milk I froze during the first weeks of his life, when he wasn't eating as much as I was producing--man I'm glad I've got that to give him!
I would really encourage you to confirm whether the antibiotics you're taking are for sure not safe while breastfeeding. Quite often doctors will advise mothers to avoid nursing while taking certain drugs as a precaution, but many drugs are alright to take or have suitable safe alternatives.
There is a book called Medications and Mother's Milk by Dr. Thomas Hale and it has almost all perscription medications rated. If there is a LLL near you, a Leader should have access to it. I also have a copy and if you'd like me to do a lookup I'd me more than happy to do so.
There are a lot of good pointers in this thread already, but I wanted to add one more. When I had my gallbladder removed when my son was a week old, I really regretted not bringing him with me before the surgery. I had to be in the hospital a few hours before my surgery was scheduled and I wish I'd known I could have brought him with me and nursed him up until surgery.
I am sorry this has happened at this special time in your life. I never experienced anything like this when I was breast feeding. But I did have gall stones and I spent almost 10 years!! trying to control the attacks by eating low fat because that is what a doctor recommended...the doctors I've seen since thought I did pretty well considering but said I went through much more suffering than I needed to. And now that I finally had the surgery (after several trips to the ER in a few months that year!) I agree and would never put it off like that. As someone else said you can become very ill and suffer a lot of pain. The last few yearsI got so I didn't feel very well a lot of time, I lived in fear of having another attack...had at lest one a year some worse than others, I had to have one scooped out cause it got out of the gall bladder and I was jaundiced and my labs were sky high. And the last year I was in the ER (and once was admitted) before the doctor I had by then finally said, this time it really needs to come out! If you have it done now you can probably have it done by laparoscopy...I had to have the big incision but even then it really wasn't that bad. It did really hurt if I bent over after I got home for a while.... so with children you will need help. Perhaps you can get by eating low fat for a few months if you want to have it easier to nurse your baby, but I really hope you don't let it go very long.
I am taking Augmenten 875 twice/day. Would you please check that out for me? Also, if it IS unsafe, would you please see if the book tells how long it will be in my system?
Nothing tears at my soul like pouring those 18-24 oz. down the drain or in the cats' bowl.
According to Hale's, Augmentin is listed as L1, the safest level (Drug which has been taken by a large number of breastfeeding mothers without any observed increase in adverse effects in the infant.) You might want to discuss this further with your doctor or pharmacist to see if it's necessary to continue pumping and dumping.
My GP wanted me to wean the baby to formula all-together! He doesn't know I'm still pumping--he wasn't very.....supportive.....of my wanting to breast feed Jake in the first place. When Jake was around 4-5 weeks old I got a clogged duct in my left breast. The GP wanted to give me something to dry my milk up instead of help me get it flowing right again. I had to TELL him that I WANTED the milk to flow!!!! I'll ask the pharmacist before I ask him anything regarding breastfeeding again.
Wow I'm so sorry your doctor and breastfeeding. That doesn't sound good at all. The Dr. Hale book and contacting a LLL is fabulous advice. websites like kellymom can be great to visit too.
Anyway I just had to register so I could post and comment and tell my story... I had my gallbladder removed when son was very young and nursing all the time. I went for surgery at 6am and I was home by 3pm. I had pumped milk for that day but he was back to nursing from the source by bedtime. I was on painkillers and I believe I was prescribed oxycodine.. the lower oxy... which is safe for breastfeeding and I quickly moved to tylenol and motrin.
Because they load you up with antibiotics I beefed up on Probiotics, aciphilodolhilis, yogurt ~ the works. You don't want to get a yeast infection in your breast - believe me! It's the worst! From the sound of it I'm sure your doctor didn't warn you about this when he prescribed them... so please go out right away and get a good Probiotics to stave off a yeast infection in your breast. It's a very real threat while breastfeeding, even if you've never had one before.
Hope that helps. Gallbladder surgery is such common place now that rarely will you have to spend the night and breasts do have wonderful built in filters to filter out most meds they might give you. Unfortunately most doctors will just give a standard "don't breastfeed" advice either to cover their butt or because they honestly don't know any better. So do the research.
best of luck continuing to feed your baby that liquid love and hope you find relief soon.
nursing with gallbladder issues
It could be your gallbladder.....
to KimProbable
