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Dear Rocky
Don't worry. Gallstones are just called gall "stones." Your mother doesn't have a small rock inside
of her. But what she does have is a hard lump of a chemical called cholesterol in her gallbladder
or a tube leading from her gallbladder.
First things first. Your gallbladder is a small pear-shaped sac behind and to the left of your
stomach. Its purpose? To store excess bile -- that greenish mix of chemicals that helps digest fat.
Where's the bile come from you say? It's made by your liver. When your stomach is full, you
need bile to help digest the fat you've eaten. Bile drips directly from your liver into your
stomach. But, when your stomach is empty, the valve to your stomach slaps shut. Instead of the bile
dripping from your liver into your stomach, it drips into your gallbladder which holds it until you
eat again.
Sometimes the recipe for the bile the gallbladder is storing is a little off. That's when
"stones" form. Such "stones" can irritate your gallbladder, cause an obstruction or become a home
for bacteria. In all these cases, a doctor is needed. Often, surgery is required to remove them --
but you come out just as good as new. And, by the way, don't worry. More females than males seem to
be troubled by gallstones -- but they tend not to occur until you're forty or fifty years old! I
assume you've got many decades before you're that age, right?
Signed,
Wendell
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