Me lose Gallbladder?!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Ok, so Thanksgiving dinner was great. As always, I ate way too much…but that may the last time!

After I returned home Thursday night, I felt tightness in my stomach, and thought I just had some bad gas. Well, 3 hours and 6 antacids later, I was on my way to the hospital with the worst pain in my gut that I have ever felt! I couldn’t even sit still, it hurt soooo bad!

After bloodtests and an ultrasound, gallstones were found in my Gallbladder. So, Saturday morning I had my Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy. I awoke 3 hours later with 4 small incisions around my abdomen, a tube draining pink goo out of my side, and one less internal organ. Throughout the following night I suffered through sitting up and walking to the bathroom and around the hospital trying to rebuild the extremely sore muscles in and around my stomach.

For those three days I ate nothing but chicken broth, jello, and italian ice. :ick:

But Sunday morning, I was treated to “healthy” eggs, french toast, and my release form. :smiley: So, now I am sitting at home resting, and will probably be taking the next 3 days off from work.

Now, mind you, the only surgery I’ve ever endured before this was my wisdom teeth removal…but, this was certainly one of the most painful experiences in my entire life!

And I don’t know what hurt worse, the original pains from Thursday night…or the nurse yanking the draining tube out of my abdomen!!! UGHHHH!!!

So…ummmm…how was your Thanksgiving?!??

2

Well, mine wasn’t painful or anything. Honestly though, try having a baby. There’s some pain for you! I had no drugs at all, yikes!

3

Having a baby is what started my gallbladder problems to begin with. They kicked in about 7 weeks after Lil’ Snoopy was born.

I couldn’t have mine out because my insurance was expired before I could get surgery scheduled. I dealt with random attacks off and on for a few months and then they went away.

So did they let you keep one of the gallstones? :smiley:

4

Me lose Gallbladder?!

That’s unpossible!!
[sub]Sorry…it’s the first thing I thought of.[/sub]

5

Yeah, those horrible gut wreching pains you dealt with for one night??? I had those for a year. Nothing I ate for a year stated in me.
The doctors kept putting it off telling me that there was no way that it was my gallbladder since I was too young. The nurse kept telling me she knew that is what it was and felt sorry for me.
You also lucked out with only having four holes poked in you. I had six.
Take it easy and enjoy your recovery time. It does get better.
Now you just have to be mindful of what you eat. Greasy foods might not agree with you anymore.
TMI (for a while they will just go right through you)
You have my sympathy. As in sorry you had to go through this cause I know it really really hurts.

6

Oops, vanity search brought me here… :wink:

Glad to see you’re (kinda) doing alright, idiotboy.

Well, I can’t remember it hurting much, but it felt extremely weird and terribly uncomfortable when the nurse yanked a catheter out of my willy. But that’s another story.

7

On a Thursday night in late 1987, I was sitting in my favorite chair, watching LA Law, when the first pain hit. Like Idiotboy, at first I thought it was gas. Then it kept getting worse. I began vomiting yellow stuff (bile, I found out later), and my husband was trying to talk me into going to the ER. With the irrationality of a really sick person, I said “I can’t go to the hospital because I can’t get dressed!” Then hubby laid a hand on my shoulder, and I said “Don’t touch me!!” My mom, who was listening in from the living room, said “Take her to the hospital now!” So, hubby bundled me into my ratty bathrobe, put a pair of his socks on me, put me in my mom’s wheelchair and got me to the car, then to the hospital. At that point in time, the docs had just started the laparascopic gall bladder surgeries, but unfortunately, my gall baldder was too distended. It had partially adhered to my rib cage, so I got a beautiful 6" vertical incision for my troubles!

A couple of years after that, there was a class action lawsuit filed against Jenny Craig (the diet center) regarding gall bladder failure. Seems that a very low fat diet, followed by a period of eating high fat again, has a tendency to trigger gall stones. Upon reflection, I realized that that is what had happened to me (not through Jenny Craig. The super-low-fat diet was of my own design. I was eating maybe 15 grams of fat a day. Of course, at some point, I got tired of eating like that; just a few hours prior to the attack, I had pigged out on some Pepperidge Farm Sausalito cookies).

Idiotboy, I wish you a speedy recovery.

8

Been there, done that, glad it’s over with. I had my gall bladder removed two years ago.

9

Yeah, that’s kinda what I was aiming for. :smiley:
Thanks to all for your kind words. I’m feeling much better now. Just feels like I did about 6 million situps now…it’s a strain to stand up, cough, or climb stairs.

I’m sure childbirth is a bit more painful, but since men will never have the good fortune of feeling such pain, I think this would be a close second to kidneystones…
And no…they wouldn’t let me keep my gallstones! :frowning: I was a little upset about that…

norinew yeah, I heard ALOT of horror stories about the OPEN Gallbladder surgery. I am thanking jebus right now for making it the “easier” way!

But I’ve generally been an unhealthy eater. Mostly out of financial and convenience reasons. It always easier to pick up a couple tacos than browse the grocery for fruits and veggies. Since my wife and I got married, we’ve always said “oh, we need to start eating better.” I think this was just the kick in the ass we needed! :smiley:

10

Mine was extricated in 1999. Two of my scars are somewhat visible, and the other two are quite difficult for me to find. My gallbladder attack led to my only (knock wood) ambulance ride because the people at work thought I was having a heart attack.

I took a week off work, but I really could have gone back after the weekend (surgery was Thursday) - I can say I don’t miss the offending organ at all.

11

Yeah, that Idiotboy’s really got some stones! Or, at least he did. And, man, he sure had gall! Now, he’ll have to get by on chutspah. Or, fox’s paw, or Nessie-paw, or something like that. Rabbit’s foot, perhaps.

The trick is to go beyond the pail without kicking the bucket.

12

Well, the wife did say my face was a bit pale following the surgery…

Chutspah, huh? Can Irishmen actually have chutspah? Or can I substitute that with a shot of whiskey?

13

Had mine out, laprascopically, 18 months ago. The GB was gone, and my very mild pain[duration: 5 yrs] vanished. Six months later, the same level of pain returned in the same spot. My surgeon seemed very un-interested in this occurence, I’ve never seen a doctor who cared so little about a patient. I consulted a GP on the recommendation of a friend. He too was un-interested, so much so, that he never called me back to tell me what he’d found out from his colleagues. What’s up? I realize this case isn’t too interesting, since my only complaint is mild [one or less] pain. But geez, shouldn’t I have gotten an answer from one of them? Got another appointment for early January with ANOTHER healer, perhaps third time will be the charm.

14

Ah yes, the joys of Thanksgiving Gallbladder Surgery.

I got inducted into the club on the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving, four years ago. Such fun to spend the day in a hospital bed, eating a big double helping of saline IV and nothing else.

Apparently, I got a stone lodged in the comon bile duct in my sleep, and missed out on the whole “it started like gas” bit, waking up to the “Holy shit, is this a heart attack?” bit.

Gangs o’ fun, that. Especially when I spent the next eight or nine hours sans painkillers of any kind, while the ER doc tried to figure out what was wrong with me. I’ve heard some ladies say that gallbladder/stone pain, at its worst, beats out labor pains.

I’m willing to buy that.

quiltguy154, that’s bizarre. Have either of the doctors in question ruled out something like diverticulitus? As I undertand it (IANADoctor, of course) a ruptured diverticulum can lead to a wicked infection, at the least. Not something to take lightly.

15

Good luck to you. Had mine out in '83. The old open surgery didn’t hurt as much as the attacks used to, so I felt lucky. From here on in, it only gets better. Sit near the bathrooms the first time you go out to eat, just in case, and you’ll be fine.

Skeezix, it depends on the attack and the labor. The attacks aren’t as exhausting, but you don’t get a feeling of progress, just the pain. I always felt my attacks in my back, so it was two years before I went in to see a doctor.