My brother and I were still in grammar school when my mom was diagnosed with gallbladder disease. Suddenly, the family diet involved a lot of baked chicken and a lot less salt. Diet and medication kept her gallbladder in check for a number of years; eventually she had to have it removed.
The gallbladder is a little sac that hangs just underneath the liver. It stores bile made by the liver — the bile is used to help digest fats. There are two ducts that carry bile from the gallbladder to the small intestines: the cystic duct and the common bile duct.
You can actually live (and digest) just fine without a gallbladder. Without your gallbladder, your liver sends bile directly into your small intestines. Your body may digest food a little differently, but you may not notice any changes.
Gallstones form from things in the bile (like cholesterol). They can also form if the gallbladder isn’t emptying correctly. Some are as small as a grain of sand; gallstones of this size usually don’t cause a problem. Some can be as large as a golf ball; larger gallstones can block a duct and cause serious problems. People who are overweight and people who are trying to lose weight quickly are more likely to get gallstones than people who are a healthy weight and people who are trying to lose weight gradually.
Most people with gallstones don’t have any symptoms! If you don’t have any symptoms, you probably don’t need treatment. Pain is the most common symptom (we’ll take a look at more symptoms next); it’s often the pain that sends you to the doctor. Gallstones are sometimes found by accident by ultrasound during pregnancy.
Imaging tests like an ultrasound of your stomach will help your doctor determine whether gallstones are the cause of your pain. You may also have a gallbladder scan, a test where an x-ray tracks dye through your liver, bile duct, gallbladder, and intestines.