Sorry to hear that. I had mine removed 8 years ago. I wish they never had removed it. The side effects of having no gall bladder is awful which of course they never disclosed.

I think you need to wait at least a month, but wound healing is different for everyone. If you have stitches that require removal then you should probably give it 2 weeks after that.

But seriously, a web forum? Ask your treating physician.

hey now! i did talk to my dr about it :) it was the first, well, second question i asked! he told me that it all depended on how i felt. i feel ok, still not wanting to run, but just curious to hear other's experiences....

I had mine removed 8 years ago and I must sadly admit that I still suffer from phantom pains and my digestive system has never been the same. They should never remove gallbladders...they serve a huge purpose!!! It frustrates me everyday. It is all about $$$.

I had mine out last year after a few GB attacks. I took two full weeks off from any training outside of walking my dogs in the evening. the next two weeks were very easy effort and short workouts to see how I felt. After that four weeks I went back to normal. My doc was the one that said nothing for two weeks, then easy for two weeks..

no problems since then

best of luck

Unless you want to live with the symptoms that caused you to go to the Doctor
you have no alternative. You just need to make sure the surg knows what he is doing
I didn't and payed a large price ie over 5wks in hospital lost over 39units of blood
had to live with a tube hanging out my side for a total of 11/2 yrs. and continued gall
bladder attacks for almost 5yrs after surg.
Would I do it again yes but much more selective about the surgeon
Mike

Oddly enough, I just had mine taken out.

I was having episodes of nasty vomiting for no apparent reason and would wake in the night with odd pain and nausea.

MY 3 hour CT scan showed my gall bladder basically shut down/stopped functioning and the bile that the gall bladder stores was backing into my liver, thus causing my ALT and AST counts to sky rocket. NOT GOOD.

My procedure was simple (new technique). one lapro incision:)

After MONTHS of feeling awful and having previous doctors telling me (and treating me for this as well) that I had a virus, I feel so much better.

Because the diagnosis took so long, I developed scar tissue in/around the gall bladder/liver which also had to come out.

I was told to take it easy for at least a week or two and then can resume training as long as I felt good.

My wife had hers removed and they discharged her the same day - borderline criminal IMO. Her restricted duty was prescribed for a week, but three weeks would have been more appropriate. Complications were numerous. A week of recovery is not enough. I'd say, two weeks minimum before evaluating your condition and the prospect of activity. Once you get back into it, frequent short workouts will probably be the most direct path back into training. Above and beyond anything else, listen to your body. When it says stop, don't simply slow down or take a break .... STOP. A bad workout hurts more so than a mediocre workout helps.

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell

Taking one's gall bladder is barbaric. The quality of life after it is removed suffers.

Surgeons should fine another way than to simply remove it.

sure and they should find a way to cure cancer and aids too

lazy bastages

I had mine taken out in an emergency surgery at age 26 (10yrs ago). I had many golf ball size stones and gangreen (sp?) of the gb. I had "stomach" issues for years, but noticed something different on a long bike ride one day...the next day I was in the ER. It took me a couple of months to recover and I had to go back in the hospital due to a gall stone being passed and causing pancreatitus.

I had weird bowel movements for several months after, but would consider that side of things normal now. I would have to say that it was a successful surgery and I didn't have much of a choice but to have it removed. I can't remember how long I took off the bike back then, but it was probably 2 or 3 months due to the pancreatitus.
David K

Its the surgeons attitude. They think that the gall bladder is a useless organ but its not. They should try to do more to save it.

I had mine removed 10 years ago.

I asked the doctor the next day whether I could go back to racquetball(pre-triathlon), because I felt so good.

It was the easiest, least painful surgery imaginable and absolutely NO post-surgery pain.

The pain prior to surgery was unbelievable. The only comfortable position was sitting on the stairs in fetal postion. During that period I went days without sleep.

The only negative effect post-surgery is that I am now sensitive to high fat foods. The foods will sometimes cause GI distress or at least create a flow-through process i.e. eat and 30 minutes later it is coming out the other end. No peanut butter(natural) within 4 hours of a run.

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

The gall bladder is nothing more than a muscular storage tank.
There are two ways for it to empty, the bile duct and the common duct.
When it is removed the bile duct is severed leaving the common duct
which is the larger of the two and at that point instead of having a
storage tank for bile you have a continuous drainage into the small intestine.

but it helps you digest pizza and ice cream =)

Your right when you ingest fatty foods the muscles contract
to squart bile upon the delicious fatty mess

That continous drainage can cause havoc on the digestive system.

     I missed my afternoon work-out today because I was stuck in the hospital taking a gangrenous gallbladder out of a very sick, septic 78 year old who ignored his symptoms for a week. He comes in near-death and everybody expects me to fix him up immediately without any complications. "Have you done this operation before, doctor?" Never mind the fact that his delay in presentation creates nearly impossible surgical conditions. Everything bleeds, structures tear apart with the slightest of traction, my pulse is 120, I'm breaking out in a sweat. The son from New York who hasn't visited dad in five years, indirectly threatens me on the phone..."you'd BETTER take good care of him". He's probably already got an attorney.
So yeah, keep your gallbladder as long as you like. I'd rather go for a bike ride.

Go get'em mileswimr I'm on your side.
Unfortunantly people without the proper background don't understand
the problems involved. Perhaps too much type A in the wrong place

I had my gall bladder taken out in January. Started running easy after 4 weeks. Doc had no problem with that. I had that bloated feeling for about a week as,before I no longer noticed it. I ran a 1/2 mary May 2. The best thing I could have done. Those attacks were horrible. Once I realized almonds were a issue,my problems were solved. It was like it never happened. I am 51. Listen to your body and your Doctor you'll be back sooner than you think

The only thing that took me so long as continued misdiagnosis.

I did not hit any of the 4 Fs - fat, forties, female, or fertile.

Given those facts it started off as an acid reflux, then ulcer, next hepatitis, and finally after getting away a GP they did an ultrasound and sure enough gall stones.

I love laprascopy! Prior to that gallbladder removal sounded like hell.

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

I appear to be the odd man out here, but I had mine removed almost exactly one year ago. I've never been happier. If your GB ruptures because you fail to take it out the surgery to remove it in an emergency is terrible (basically cut you open from your navel to your spine). The lap procedure is relatively straight forward. I was back running in about 5 days (though I started slow and short). It took me a week to 10 days to feel "normal" again. I've found the side effects (more frequent and looser stools) to be nominal and certainly better than the GB attacks i was experiencing, and certainly better than the risk of having the GB rupture, or like one of the posters above mentioned, going gangrenous.

I'd listen to your body. My doc basically said to do what you feel up to. I thought I'd be back at it 2 days later ... I was wrong. But after 5 days I felt good enough to get back to some slow, easy runs.

I also love how several of the posters have mentioned how "barbaric" it is to remove the GB or that Doctors need to find a different way of treating it, as if doctors would not take a less invasive measure if they could. Gall Bladder removal is not "ideal", but you can certainly live without it without significant alteration of your lifestyle.

Granted that one could not have been saved, but why are gallbladders not opened up and the stones removed? It is barbaric of surgeons to think that the removal can not cause side effects which affect the quality of life.

Even Wikipedia calls it a small non-vital organ.

And since I have been on a drug study for this already, it must be a larger problem than doctors are willing to admit.

to peacefrog and others who have offered non-sarcastic and relevant feedback, I appreciate it.

Im going to keep walking through the weekend and see how I feel Monday, certainly not going to rush back into training.
Thanks.