Generally speaking, simple gallstone disease should not cause swelling of your abdomen near your ribs (although some patients with gallstones do complain of having a "gassy," bloated feeling in their abdomen). Swelling around the area of the gallbladder can occur, however, with blockage or/and infection of the gallbladder (in most such cases, patients will tend to have severe upper abdominal pain, and may also experience fevers, chills, nausea, vomiting, and other symptoms of infection). Rarely, the gallbladder can become very enlarged, due to blockage either from gallstones or, in some cases, from cancers of the gallbladder, bile ducts, pancreas or duodenum (in most, but not all, cases of "malignant obstruction," however, this swelling of the gallbladder tends to be relatively painless, unlike the symptosm caused by gallstones).
If you are having severe pain despite being on a very low fat diet, then you need to have surgery sooner than later.
Sincerely/ Robert A. Wascher, MD, FACS
http://doctorwascher.com
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