Mother's Inflamed Gallbladder

Dear Andreas,

My mother was admitted today to hospital with an inflamed gallbladder. She never had symptoms before but about a month ago she had an ultrasound which showed up 1-2 small gallstones but the doctor said "nothing to worry about".

Last night she was in agony - she had not been feeling well since Sunday night (after a salad with fat/dressing) and then felt worse last night - pain under right ribcage extending up to shoulder and round her back. Her heart started racing and she felt weak.

Pain injections did not help at all and she was also vomiting. When I knew it was the gallstones, I gave her juice of lemon mixed with olive oil as I didn't know what else to do and she didn't want to go to Casualty. I thought it might move the stone along the bile duct and maybe get it out. But it made things much worse, and I felt so guilty that she was vomiting and in a really bad way all night. The doctor on call said it was a stupid thing to do as fats trigger contractions and should be avoided and the lemon was acidic and not good.

Now she is in hospital and they are monitoring her to see if it passes itself - she will have another ultrasound to see where it is. She also has a UTI and they gave her antibiotics. I said to doctors I did not want her to have her gallbladder removed unless totally necessary, but they are inclined to take them out. She is willing to try epsom salts/olive oil but I think the liver cleanse would be too much for her - she is 70 with heart problems and overweight. What do you think? Is there anything I can do meantime? Would I try giving her some epsom salts first thing in morning to relax bile duct? (doctors said they may give her drugs to "relax bile duct" so stone comes out itself).

Thanks for your help,

Val Tweet