Uh, yeah. This is definitely not a ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ scenario! 
Don’t worry, I’m quite embarassed enough talking about it as it is..:eek:
Athough I have considered taking pictures of my incision to show my nephews, they think it’s cool Aunt Sissy is gonna have a big scar!
Gotta come up with a better story than “Aunt Sissy had an operation” though. Something involving spies and/or knife fights and “you shoulda seen the other gal”.
Nosy question: Did you have any inkling before they put you under that you might wind up getting unzipped vs the laparascopic version? or was that just a nasty surprise when you woke up? What was the reason they had to go old-fashioned?
Yeah, except they knew I was going in for surgery.. I did tell the Nurse that’s what I was gonna tell people, though!
And no, the Horror movie zipper came as a big shockeroo. they even tried to do the laparascopic, I have the scars from it, too. The gallbladder itself was all shriveled up and wrapped around two very large stones, like a big old peanut, sorta.
My husband’s (Jimbo’s) dad told him that it took him a good year after his incision surgery to feel completely normal again, and I think Jimbo took at least that long, too. Not to discourage you or anything (it looked like he felt much better quite soon afterwards), but it is a long recovery from a large abdominal incision - don’t expect to be 100% in a few weeks. Take it easy on yourself.
But did you get to keep your bellybutton? One of my surgeries ended up with them gutting me like a fish and after they made a faux bellybutton. And it isn’t even centered!
Yeah, my bellybutton is still there, but it has staples in it!
Cat Whisperer, I am feeling a little better each day, but yeah, “normal” is gonna be some time from now… didn’t know you and Jimbo were married! how about that.
Nine years come August. 
Got my staples out yesterday, and shot about half a roll of film of the cut first… My nevvys’ll love it!
Is it bad if I read that initially as you having gotten your staples out and, as a result, having shot half a roll of film out of your gut?
Anatomy is hard.
You will have a very tiny scar on the b.b., and the one from the laparoscope will be visible but small and hopefully soft, while the two over the liver/g.b. area will fade to nothing over a matter of months. Mine did, anyhow.
Continue healing!
vivalostwages Mmm, I got a big scar, they had to open me up. Probably be there long term.
Yeah, they replaced my Gallbladder with a Polaroid LOL
Oh, you had the open?! Yikes. Guess I missed that part. I narrowly escaped that.
Yeah, they tried to do it labrascopically, but had too much difficulty. I have both scars, both from where they tried and the big huge one!
What was wrong?
I worried that I would have the same situation, with my g.b. being horribly infected and inflamed. Lucky it didn’t burst.
It was all shriveled up, and was hidden in my liver, had 2 really big stones and was just hard to see, plus was inflamed. The Doc said I was a real pain in the ass LOL
Mine had contracted around the stones–there were so many of them. :eek:
Do you suppose we lost any weight by having them removed?
I think I lost more weight living on yogurt and broth in the hospital :eek:
When I had mine out, laparscopic surgery for gall bladder wasn’t yet wide-spread, but ‘minimal incision’ was. However. . .my gall bladder had distended to the point that it had partially adhered to my rib cage. :eek: Therefore, it needed a huge incision.
How big? mine;s gotta be nine inches or better!