Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] How should I wait before having my gall bladder removed? Was hospitalized a week ago with fever. Could I simply change my diet (seriously) and just not have the surgery? How much is this consult costing me? Not sure if I trust the pending surgery in a few weeks. Should I seek a second opinion? Ann
[|AI|]  Hi.how frequent are the occurrence of your symptoms? High fat/ high cholesterol food intake is a predisposing factor to formation of your gallstones. Based from your course of the disease description, you may have a chronic calculus cholecystitis. This means that your gallstones may have been there for a long time already, and the symptoms are intermittent in presentation, usually bouts of colicky attack/pain or feeling of belatedness occurs after a fatty food intake. This is an not emergency case, but you have to have a sense of urgency in dealing with this matter, as it may be converted to an acute attack which will be emergent to deal with. Low fat diet is encouraged, along with antispasmodics, prior to surgery to lessen the occurrence of attacks. If you are over 35 y/o and has other co-morbidities/diseases, a cardio-pulmonary evaluation will be requested first, prior to your operation. A consult with a general surgeon is best for clinical evaluation. Diagnostics, such as abdominal ultrasound and liver function tests, will be recommended accordingly. Definitive management is cholecystectomy (removal of gallbladder), laparoscopically, being the gold standard now. The cost is dependent in the institution you are going to. Your surgeon of choice might be of help in that aspect. Hope this helps. Good day!!~ Chat Doctor.