Thanks in part to your wonderful input, I’m going to get my gallbladder yanked out tomorrow morning. Have to report at 6:30 am, and will hopefully be home by early afternoon - a far cry from what it was in my Grandma’s time, when she got cut wide open and spent six days in the hospital!
I will try to report in when I can - might be on narcotics and loopy for a while!
Interesting thing about pain that I learned after my gallbladder was yanked:
It doesn’t always present as “pain”. Sometimes, it presents as “I feel like crap, and if I try to nap, I have nightmares”.
The moral of this story is “take your pain meds”. It’s a happy ending.
Good luck! A life without heartburn is like a whole new life – you’re gonna love it.
Hope everything goes well. And that you end up feeling very much better when it’s all over.
Here’s hoping all goes smoothly for you! Good luck!
Good luck! I had mine out and it was possibly the easiest operation I have had.
Sending healing thoughts your way.
Oh, you’ll get the good drugs. And they give you something to mellow you out before surgery.
Good luck!
Good luck!
We’ll be thinking of you, Good Luck!
Here are a couple of caveats from a Recovery Room nurse:
The gas used to inflate your abdomen for surgery is going to make you feel kind of gassy and bloated for a couple of days. A lot of people complain about pain in their shoulders from this. Don’t be surprised if you feel this way. Pain meds don’t really help it, but getting up and walking (when the doctor says it’s ok to do) helps to get rid of the gas
You’re going to have pain. This sounds kind of obvious, but sooooo many of my patients tell me that “the doctor said I wouldn’t hurt!” Even though it is laparoscopic surgery, there will be some discomfort, so mentally prepare for that. Most people say it’s not too extreme.
If you have ever in your life been remotely motion sick, tell the anesthesia team before you go to surgery. That way they can load you up with some anti nausea meds before surgery!
Good luck!
Best wishes UC! I hope you’ll feel a lot better when it’s all over.
In my experience, peppermint tea and/or Gas-X helps this tremendously. Of course, this is in addition to getting up and walking!
Restating what has been said upthread: take your pain meds! Take them on time, even if you feel like you don’t need them! It is easier to stay on top of the pain than to get on top of the pain! (I know from extensive experience).
My post-op coping strategy is always this: when they ask me if I’m nauseated, I say yes, even if I’m not. When they ask if I’m in pain, I say yes, even if there’s little pain, in anticipation of the pain that will be there if I don’t get meds.
I’m not advocating lying (I hope!), I’m just telling you my strategies given my dozens of surgical procedures.
Best of luck!
Speaking as a same day surgery nurse, listen to the lady–she knows of what she speaks. The first 24 hours post-op are usually the worst, but YMMV. Good luck!
Regarding the shoulder pain - don’t be too surprised if it is worse than the surgery pain. I couldn’t sleep the first night after my laparoscopy because of my shoulders - the incisions were hardly sore at all.
Regarding recovery - you might not be like me, but I have a tendency to push harder than I should. If you think you’re good to go after a couple of days, give it another day or two. I went back to work too soon, and came back home an hour later - some people in the world know enough to rest properly after surgery. I’m learning to be one of them.
Best of luck to you!
Oh, and when the nurse told you nothing by mouth after midnight, she meant it. Really, nothing by mouth–not even water*. But please brush your teeth…
*unless you have been told to take certain medications the morning of, of course.
Hope the operation and recovery are easy on you, UC. Everyone else has given you good advice, so I just want to send mojo your way!
Good luck with the surgery.
Actually, you can eat after midnight. They say you can’t because all doctors have an irrational fear of gremlins.
Sometime in the future you should come back and tell us if it seems like you fart much more often after having a gall bladder removed, or if my ex-wife was lying about that, too
Hey all, I’m back!
Surgery was not bad at all. The biggest annoyances are kind of ancillary to the surgery - the above-mentioned shoulder pain, throat-tickly cough from intubation, and I can’t pee on my own yet (it’s something my dumb body does - both babies and the appendectomy caused it too).
Since I’m not having inordinate soreness from the incisions and I’m having urinary retention, I’m going to go ahead and ignore all the advice to take my Percocet for now. Especially since the sonofabitching shoulder pain doesn’t respond to it anyway. I’m following urologist’s orders - Flomax and in&out cathing, and I feel like I should be peeing like a champ by tomorrow or so. I’m pretty sure Tylenol will keep things under control, but if it doesn’t I’ll crack open the narcotics.
Don’t worry about me trying to do too much - I’m so going to milk this. As a SAHM it’s rare for me to have true time off, so I’m taking advantage of the opportunity!
Thank you everyone - it’s nice to know lots of people have been pulling for me, and the advice is wonderful as well.
I’m glad everything went well. Trust me, you’ll be very glad you had the surgery.
Here’s hoping you pee soon!