4 ms·

What I needed was sleep. In order to get that sleep, I had to have my gallbladder removed. Once that was done, I had to stop eating dairy. Now I can sleep again

What I needed was sleep. In order to get that sleep, I had to have my gallbladder removed. Once that was done, I had to stop eating dairy. Now I can sleep again. I feel much much younger. I cannot believe how long I was going on listlessly, unknowing that my laziness was a side effect of health issues.

voisin 4y ago
How did you come to realize you needed your gallbladder removed?
- swamp40 4y ago
  It usually tells you quite loudly.
  - ghastmaster 4y ago
    It took me nearly 20 years to realize it was dragging me down, which is now known to be common in my maternal genes. I had a night after dinner with fever, queasy, lack of urination, and upset stomach. I was subsequently affected with stomach and bowel pain and inflammation when I ate for a couple days. About a month prior to this episode, I had a slight sharp pain on the right side under my rib cage(typical location for male gallbladder symptoms). At the time I figured this was due to a misalignment in my spine(quite typical for me at the time). I put together the current condition(associated with food intake) and the previous pain to conclude that I needed to have my gallbladder checked. I went with the least invasive, lowest false negative, and least expensive check first, an ultrasound. Thankfully(more on this later), it showed a polyp near the base of the gallbladder. With my symptoms and ultrasound report, I was a candidate for removal. Two years after the described episode I had it removed. I opted out of pathology and let the surgeon open up the gallbladder and report to me. He found no polyp! It was full of stones. They varied in size from a grain of sand to 7mm. The ultrasound technician was correct in their assessment of the image, however, the image was misleading. Every one of my siblings and my mother have suffered for years without any of the typically significant acute symptoms of cholecystitis. One of my brothers suffers occasionally like I did, but every single test for gallbladder issues comes back negative. Anecdotally, I ran into a person who had all tests show negative gallbladder issues, yet had it removed to see if it helped. It cured her bowel issues. Prior to my knowing what the issues were(20 years), here are the symptoms I can 100% associate with my gallbladder problem. Walking up stairs caused increased heart rate and fatigue after smoking a cigarette. Occasional slight queasiness after eating meals(they must have been high in fat). Rare episodes of fever, nausea, bowel discomfort after a meal that I wrote off as food poisoning or altitude sickness in one instance. General malaise. My mother and I both were very aware of some of our symptoms, but it was incredibly easy to associate them with other things we had come in contact with. Mold and fragrances are two that come to mind. When I was eating "healthy" I noticed significant improvements in my energy. At the time I didn't realize the "healthy" eating I was doing was low fat. That low fat was reducing inflammation in my gallbladder allowing me to get proper rest. Not eating dairy(maternal genes as well) is reducing inflammation in my gut, allowing me to get proper rest. Good luck and godspeed!
    - kraquepype 4y ago
      Can you elaborate on `My mother and I both were very aware of some of our symptoms, but it was incredibly easy to associate them with other things we had come in contact with. Mold and fragrances are two that come to mind.`? My mother and I both have sensitive skin, she had her gallbladder removed. I've lived with overly sensitive skin for most of my life, but never thought it could be gallbladder related.
      - ghastmaster 4y ago
        I will give you a few examples. The week before my diagnosis and severe attack, I was eating a fatty diet. I was at the office and noticed my stomach feeling slightly queasy. I had just that week brought a box of fridge magnets into the room I work in. This was the first time I had a box of them around me. I could smell the off gassing. I assumed this was the problem, since that was the new thing around me. I removed them and seemingly had relief, until the attack. Placebo... Ten years ago I would visit my parents house and eat fatty meals. I usually had a slight queasiness when I was there. I did not like going to their place. My subconscious mind had taken the queasy feeling and turned it into disdain. They had mold issues. I blew it off as a reaction to that. I know for certain some molds cause a reaction in me, but it is just puffy eyes in the morning after sleeping in a moldy/mildewy place. I went to Denver and did some hiking in the mountains. After eating a meal in town, I was quite sick. It felt much like a cold/flu without the respiratory symptoms. I blew it off as altitude sickness. I am not a doctor... My mother has similar stories. Her first bought she associated with a cat that was in our basement. The cat was gone and her problems persisted. She then began to associate her symptoms with mold. The mold was removed and her problems persisted. She then began to blame it on gut bacteria imbalance triggered by her breast cancer and or treatment of. In the end, she had her gallbladder removed in the E.R. after a stone was lodged in her bile duct. She sleeps great and has more energy than she has had in decades. These atypical symptoms are not easy for a person to diagnose intuitively. Erroneous associations were easy because our diets are not consistent and the symptoms were not immediate or as severe as something like a broken bone. As far as sensitive skin is concerned. Laundry detergent and soaps come to mind as irritants. I get spots and itches from dairy.
    - 4y ago
dlahoda 4y ago
yeah. 75÷ of my lazyness, lack of motivation and no discipline comes from fast harbonhydrates, caffeine and no excercise. and they work in downward spiralling you.
- dobbysfirstsock 4y ago
  How did you get "diagnosed" with this issue? Some days I feel "normal" but some days I have 0 motivation at all. Not sure if that's a normal pattern or not but its frustrating to deal with. Might be worth talking to a Dr about but not sure what they would even do or say.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    I think that everyone has days where they're not feeling motivated. That's when habit can carry you through.
  - drdebug 4y ago
    If you have 0 motivation, it could mean you're just getting bored or saturated or stressed out or simply overwhelmed. In any case, do NOTHING for a day or two, don't feel guilt (that's KEY), tell yourself you're taking a break, play games, go ride your bike, walk in a forest, go to a restaurant, whatever suits you. Make yourself feel good. Take a break. Then the next day start by doing something very very simple. If you're working on a very hard problem then run a simple experiment to validate a case, corner case or not. If you feel like you don't feel like it, then just do some silly 5min task, it may be enough to get you restarted and just feel better. Feel good, enjoy life, then get back to work. Changing Job may do the trick too. Or take some vacation, the idea is to just break the cycle.
    - dobbysfirstsock 4y ago
      This has actually helped a lot. I did a lot of this over the past week. Week before was pretty bad. There is definitely truth to this :)
- bad_username 4y ago
hnthrowaway0315 4y ago
+1 unfortunately I cannot remove the source so have to keep myself sleepy for the a few extra years.
- ghastmaster 4y ago
  Can you elaborate?
  - wccrawford 4y ago
    I suspect they are referring to children.
    - magarnicle 4y ago
      Yep. A friend who just had a kid put it like this: "life now is about being, not doing". Still taking me a long time to get that into my head.
aantix 4y ago
Agree. Nail the building blocks. Nutrition. Sleep. It will all fall into place, instead of having to beat yourself into submission to be “disciplined”.
- hnthrowaway0315 4y ago
  It is just so difficult to get them done right. It's almost impossible. How many people are getting quality sleep? I'm afraid that's a very expensive commodity and even rich people might not do that right. Just a note that my completion rate and tolerance to grit increase dramatically when I had a good sleep, which is very very rare nowadays.
  - npteljes 4y ago
    Rich people have more pills, from what I've seen. I agree that it's very difficult. But it's also very valuable.
SantalBlush 4y ago
Same here. What I thought was a procrastination problem actually turned out to be a sleep problem. Good sleep makes all the difference.

voisin 4y ago

How did you come to realize you needed your gallbladder removed?

swamp40 4y ago
It usually tells you quite loudly.
- ghastmaster 4y ago
  It took me nearly 20 years to realize it was dragging me down, which is now known to be common in my maternal genes. I had a night after dinner with fever, queasy, lack of urination, and upset stomach. I was subsequently affected with stomach and bowel pain and inflammation when I ate for a couple days. About a month prior to this episode, I had a slight sharp pain on the right side under my rib cage(typical location for male gallbladder symptoms). At the time I figured this was due to a misalignment in my spine(quite typical for me at the time). I put together the current condition(associated with food intake) and the previous pain to conclude that I needed to have my gallbladder checked. I went with the least invasive, lowest false negative, and least expensive check first, an ultrasound. Thankfully(more on this later), it showed a polyp near the base of the gallbladder. With my symptoms and ultrasound report, I was a candidate for removal. Two years after the described episode I had it removed. I opted out of pathology and let the surgeon open up the gallbladder and report to me. He found no polyp! It was full of stones. They varied in size from a grain of sand to 7mm. The ultrasound technician was correct in their assessment of the image, however, the image was misleading. Every one of my siblings and my mother have suffered for years without any of the typically significant acute symptoms of cholecystitis. One of my brothers suffers occasionally like I did, but every single test for gallbladder issues comes back negative. Anecdotally, I ran into a person who had all tests show negative gallbladder issues, yet had it removed to see if it helped. It cured her bowel issues. Prior to my knowing what the issues were(20 years), here are the symptoms I can 100% associate with my gallbladder problem. Walking up stairs caused increased heart rate and fatigue after smoking a cigarette. Occasional slight queasiness after eating meals(they must have been high in fat). Rare episodes of fever, nausea, bowel discomfort after a meal that I wrote off as food poisoning or altitude sickness in one instance. General malaise. My mother and I both were very aware of some of our symptoms, but it was incredibly easy to associate them with other things we had come in contact with. Mold and fragrances are two that come to mind. When I was eating "healthy" I noticed significant improvements in my energy. At the time I didn't realize the "healthy" eating I was doing was low fat. That low fat was reducing inflammation in my gallbladder allowing me to get proper rest. Not eating dairy(maternal genes as well) is reducing inflammation in my gut, allowing me to get proper rest. Good luck and godspeed!
  - kraquepype 4y ago
    Can you elaborate on `My mother and I both were very aware of some of our symptoms, but it was incredibly easy to associate them with other things we had come in contact with. Mold and fragrances are two that come to mind.`? My mother and I both have sensitive skin, she had her gallbladder removed. I've lived with overly sensitive skin for most of my life, but never thought it could be gallbladder related.
    - ghastmaster 4y ago
      I will give you a few examples. The week before my diagnosis and severe attack, I was eating a fatty diet. I was at the office and noticed my stomach feeling slightly queasy. I had just that week brought a box of fridge magnets into the room I work in. This was the first time I had a box of them around me. I could smell the off gassing. I assumed this was the problem, since that was the new thing around me. I removed them and seemingly had relief, until the attack. Placebo... Ten years ago I would visit my parents house and eat fatty meals. I usually had a slight queasiness when I was there. I did not like going to their place. My subconscious mind had taken the queasy feeling and turned it into disdain. They had mold issues. I blew it off as a reaction to that. I know for certain some molds cause a reaction in me, but it is just puffy eyes in the morning after sleeping in a moldy/mildewy place. I went to Denver and did some hiking in the mountains. After eating a meal in town, I was quite sick. It felt much like a cold/flu without the respiratory symptoms. I blew it off as altitude sickness. I am not a doctor... My mother has similar stories. Her first bought she associated with a cat that was in our basement. The cat was gone and her problems persisted. She then began to associate her symptoms with mold. The mold was removed and her problems persisted. She then began to blame it on gut bacteria imbalance triggered by her breast cancer and or treatment of. In the end, she had her gallbladder removed in the E.R. after a stone was lodged in her bile duct. She sleeps great and has more energy than she has had in decades. These atypical symptoms are not easy for a person to diagnose intuitively. Erroneous associations were easy because our diets are not consistent and the symptoms were not immediate or as severe as something like a broken bone. As far as sensitive skin is concerned. Laundry detergent and soaps come to mind as irritants. I get spots and itches from dairy.
  - 4y ago

dlahoda 4y ago

yeah. 75÷ of my lazyness, lack of motivation and no discipline comes from fast harbonhydrates, caffeine and no excercise. and they work in downward spiralling you.

dobbysfirstsock 4y ago
How did you get "diagnosed" with this issue? Some days I feel "normal" but some days I have 0 motivation at all. Not sure if that's a normal pattern or not but its frustrating to deal with. Might be worth talking to a Dr about but not sure what they would even do or say.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  I think that everyone has days where they're not feeling motivated. That's when habit can carry you through.
- drdebug 4y ago
  If you have 0 motivation, it could mean you're just getting bored or saturated or stressed out or simply overwhelmed. In any case, do NOTHING for a day or two, don't feel guilt (that's KEY), tell yourself you're taking a break, play games, go ride your bike, walk in a forest, go to a restaurant, whatever suits you. Make yourself feel good. Take a break. Then the next day start by doing something very very simple. If you're working on a very hard problem then run a simple experiment to validate a case, corner case or not. If you feel like you don't feel like it, then just do some silly 5min task, it may be enough to get you restarted and just feel better. Feel good, enjoy life, then get back to work. Changing Job may do the trick too. Or take some vacation, the idea is to just break the cycle.
  - dobbysfirstsock 4y ago
    This has actually helped a lot. I did a lot of this over the past week. Week before was pretty bad. There is definitely truth to this :)
bad_username 4y ago

hnthrowaway0315 4y ago

+1 unfortunately I cannot remove the source so have to keep myself sleepy for the a few extra years.

ghastmaster 4y ago
Can you elaborate?
- wccrawford 4y ago
  I suspect they are referring to children.
  - magarnicle 4y ago
    Yep. A friend who just had a kid put it like this: "life now is about being, not doing". Still taking me a long time to get that into my head.

aantix 4y ago

Agree. Nail the building blocks. Nutrition. Sleep. It will all fall into place, instead of having to beat yourself into submission to be “disciplined”.

hnthrowaway0315 4y ago
It is just so difficult to get them done right. It's almost impossible. How many people are getting quality sleep? I'm afraid that's a very expensive commodity and even rich people might not do that right. Just a note that my completion rate and tolerance to grit increase dramatically when I had a good sleep, which is very very rare nowadays.
- npteljes 4y ago
  Rich people have more pills, from what I've seen. I agree that it's very difficult. But it's also very valuable.

SantalBlush 4y ago

Same here. What I thought was a procrastination problem actually turned out to be a sleep problem. Good sleep makes all the difference.