Symptoms of Gallbladder Disease

The majority of people who suffer from gallbladder disease do not even know that they have this condition. This is because in more than 60% of all cases the gallstones are silent which means that they cause no symptoms at all. If symptoms of gallbladder disease do appear, then in the majority of those cases they are only mild to moderate. It is only in the severe cases that surgery or the removal of the entire gallbladder will become necessary in order to relieve the person suffering.  

Recognizing the symptoms of gallbladder disease is not always that easy, even for the doctor. The only way to determine that the gallbladder has thickened and gallstones are blocking the passage of bile is to either have an ultrasound or x-ray examination. This is because the symptoms are often mistaken as other conditions that are quite common and even considered to be harmless if they only happen every now and then. Some of the most commonly recorded symptoms that accompany gallbladder disease are constipation, diarrhea, gas, burping, indigestion or bitter fluids that repeat after eating certain foods, headaches, bloating and pain caused by deep breathing. 

Of course those symptoms of gallbladder disease are not the only ones that may occur. Tenderness and pain on the right side, biliary colic or very severe pains in the abdomen, jaundice and fever are also symptoms of this disease. If you know that you have gallstones and you are suffering an attack that also causes a fever, then that is a good time to get medical help right away. Such symptoms need to be treated immediately and considering the pain that goes along with them, there is probably nobody that will complain about relieving the discomfort. 

If you notice that many of the symptoms of gallbladder disease occur together or if there is always one of them happening, then you should inform your doctor of that so that they can refer you to a specialist in order to have an x-ray or ultrasound test taken. If many gallstones are found or the gallbladder itself is inflamed, then surgical removal is your best option since the symptoms will only get worse and more painful.