The delightful emergency gallbladder surgery thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hi, I’m Maserschmidt! You might know me from such posts as “please please god never another kidney stone again” and “cataract surgery - I can see!”

Today’s - or rather yesterday’s excitement - was driving myself to the emergency room at midnight Monday (or earliest Tuesday morning if you must) in the throes of what I thought was the worst attack of gas ever. It felt like I had a volleyball in my upper stomach (think less “Cast Away” and more “Alien”), and was super-excited to find the ER waiting area was full of people. The good news was, they have an app now that tells you when to expect to be admitted, and it said “20 minutes to 1 hour, 25 minutes.” (spoiler alert: they underestimated)

Well, so I guess after 2 hours of what I’ll call writhing in my ER waiting room seat in agony I was sent to a bed in the back of a room. I should be clear about the pain, I guess: in the eleven or so times I was asked to rate my pain on the 1 to 10 scale, I said, “well, if a kidney stone was a 10, I’d say this is 7.5 or 8.0.” I guess in gymnastic terms: decent enough routine, but it failed to stick the landing.

Anyway, I finally saw a physician at around 2:30, and she did an ultrasound and exclaimed, “wow, your gallbladder is massive!” Exact quote there. So, we knew the problem, and they gave me a little morphine and a little antiemetic and sent me for a scan.

A note on morphine here: I don’t know if it’s the morphine that sucks, or the 4mg dosage that sucks, but one of them sucks, and the pain only moderated, it definitely did not go away. I told my brother the doctor this and he said when he had one of his big kidney stones he begged for Toradol and also got morphine and that sucked too.

Anyway, we’ll lightly skim over my two subsequent requests for additional medication, eventually granted when they got around to it (my soon-to-be surgeon told them to dose me at 7:30, and I guess the shift changed and they ignored my call button and I got it at 8:25).

So, I got general anesthesia (don’t remember a thing) and surgery at 10:30, and out came the gallbladder, and I was ambulatory and out of the hospital by 2PM.

Post-anesthesia was fine by the way. As I was wheeled into pre-op I overheard a nurse in one bay asking another patient “what was your last experience of anesthesia?” and the lady replied “fine, but I couldn’t stop crying” and the nurse said, “yeah, that’s normal”, but none of that for me.

My mom is 87 and she says if it’s hereditary, it comes from her side, it’s been all over the family (including my brother), and her grandfather died from a burst gallbladder and they could hear him screaming down the street. Lovely!

I’m very sore today, but grateful that laparoscopy exists, and surgery in general.

Feel free to share your own stories!

2

Had my gallbladder out about… ten years ago, now, I think? Fifteen?

It was in the evening. I’d come back from a picnic earlier in the day, and started feeling this sharp pain in my back. It moved to my stomach, and I could feel that picnic lunch coming back up. Went to the bathroom, yarfed up my stomach contents… and the water in the toilet bowl was bright red with little dark red clots floating in it. :dizzy_face:

So, obviously, I freak the fuck out. I desperately search for my phone, find it, and start dialing 911. I’m literally at “91” when I realize that, despite vomiting what looked like a liter of blood, I didn’t taste any blood in my mouth. It was acid bile and… sugar?

And that’s when I remembered that the last thing I ate at the picnic was a second helping of blackberry pie.

Drove myself to the hospital, and they got it out the next day. I was home by that evening. They did it laparoscopicaly, which I agree ranks up there among the best medical advances in the last half-century or so. The day after my surgery, I had a bunch of weird bruising - basically, my whole stomach turned purple. Didn’t hurt at all, but concerning enough that I got my dad to take me back to the hospital. We’re sitting in the waiting room, and this older guy hears me explaining the issue to the nurse. She goes back to do nurse things, and this guy asks in amazement if I’d really just had my gall bladder out the day before. He’d had his out a couple decades earlier, and they’d opened him up like a filleted fish. It was weeks before he could get out of bed at all. I explained about laparoscopy, and how it makes recovery so much easier, and while he was impressed by the technology, there were a couple minutes before that where he was looking at me like I was the baddest motherfucker on the entire planet.

3

I had mine out in the mid-1990s. I started feeling a bad pain in my side when I was at work, went to the doc, and eventually was referred to a gastroenterologist. An ultrasound showed no stones, but it was decided to yank it anyway. I got the laparoscopic surgery, and was lucky to do so, as it was rather a new procedure at that time. I think I remember the doc saying that if it had happened one year earlier, I would have had the old-school fileting. Although they found no stones, the doc said my gall bladder was really inflamed, and I always wondered what was up with that.

I went home the next day, and I didn’t really have any bruising. I still took it easy and ate nothing challenging for a week or two. I was back at work in a week and a half. I’ve had no issues with eating oily foods since then, ever.

4

My gallbladder surgery came about in a different way. Mine happened about 25 years ago. I had “attacks” about once a month for about four months. The pain always started late at night and would keep me awake, walking around the house because sitting or laying down was impossible. I’d end up calling in sick to work the next day. But I blew if off because afterwards I would be fine. Then the “attacks” started happening weekly. I told my boss I was going to see a doctor because something seemed to be wrong. He said “you think?”.

The doctor said it sounded like a classic gallbladder problem. I was sent to have an ultrasound and an endoscopy. That was the only time I had that drug that makes you forget what you just went through. I imagine I was not happy having a tube put down my throat. I was set up for laparoscopic outpatient surgery (which was fairly new at the time) a few days later, which went well and I was home that afternoon.

5

The surgeon decided my gall bladder was too infected for laparoscopy.

I got the old school incision so the gall bladder could be lifted out intact.

I’m still battling diarrhea. Doc says my body will adjust to no gall bladder and I’ll have less trouble. Bacon and lunch meat are off my menu. Probably peanuts and pistachios are a bad idea. Too much fat.

6

My gallbladder has never given me any trouble, but I know a man whose (long story made short) now-deceased from something else father almost died from getting a berry seed lodged in his common bile duct.

7

Oh, interesting responses from everyone. I forgot to ask what post-gallbladder life was like, I appreciate that info as well.

8

I had mine out… ten years or more ago. Woke up in the middle of the night, felt like I’d been stabbed. Went immediately to the ER, they said my gallbladder basically appeared to be “packed with sand” on the imaging. Got it out within the week (I honestly don’t remember how long it was). Laparoscopic surgery, didn’t keep me down long.

Dinner tonight was deep-fried crispy tacos from the Mexican restaurant down the road. (That’s my way of saying it hasn’t really restricted my diet at all).

9

I had mine out in 2017. Woke up feeling poorly, and after my son got on the school bus, my wife drove me to the ER; after a scan, they took the gallbladder out via laparoscopy. Did not eat the fruit in the fruit basket that work sent me, but eventually was able to return to a normal diet.

10

Like teelabrown, had mine out sometime in the 1990’s, just after laparoscopy became the common method. Mine was a recurring pain, usually triggered when I ate something fatty, and finally came to a head when I got back from Greece (work trip) where the food wasn’t too bad and had a greasy triple cheeseburger and fries and got so bad I couldn’t sleep. Had to spend a night in the hospital since the procedure was still new, but I guess now it’s closer to outpatient surgery.

As for diet, I was told I would gain weight if I didn’t start eating smaller meals (but more frequently) as without the gall bladder food doesn’t get broken down as well. Pretty much ignored the advice, which made me the man I am today (about 40lbs overweight, and that’s after losing 30 lbs in the past 18 months). Such is life.

11

My wife had hers out shortly after we were married. Any of the other emergency stories above mirror her experience, so just the funny bits:

They wheeled her over to the operating wing, and then gave her the pre-anesthesia drugs (whatever those are). She was conscious but pretty loopy. The pre-op nurse came to check her name, birthday, and why she was there. My wife got her name and birthday correct, but when asked what type of surgery she was getting, my wife answered, “they’re implanting lasers under my finger nails.” That produced lots of chart and wrist band checking, and I guess they decided to go with just the gall bladder removal.

The back of our insurance card had a scary line that said something like “must notify within 24 hours to be covered for emergency care.” I called the number and the number and they were confused about what I wanted. Apparently nobody ever calls to notify about emergency care. I did, because I’m not about to be on the hook for US health care emergency surgery because I failed to make a phone call. No problem getting the whole thing covered.

Once the physical recovery was over, the biggest issue my wife has had is getting any doctor to look past the “gall bladder removed” line in her history when she complains about digestive issues. They would just tell her to cut back on the fatty foods, and would never look deeper.

After a few incidents of that I had to go into full advocate mode and forced the doctor to see that her medical history documents these same complaints prior to the gall bladder removal. Once I got them out of their gall bladder fixation, they were willing to look for other problems.

12

I had mine removed in the 90s. I guess I’d had several “attacks” over the years and just ignored them and they’d resolve spontaneously. Then my common bile duct completely obstructed and I was in horrible pain, unable to sleep for two nights.

I went to a local doctor who knew immediately what was wrong. He pointed out that the whites of my eyes were yellow. He sent me to wait in the waiting room.

His other patient was in his 80s with chronic problems. He told his nurse that the older guy should return in 3 days, and that I needed an ambulance ride to the hospital. The nurse called an ambulance for the old guy and told me to return in 3 days.

What a clusterfuck. I went home. Eventually the doctor’s office called and explained. I drove to the hospital.

Turns out I was very sick. My surgeon told me I was his most challenging cholecystectomy done laparoscopically ever. I remained hospitalized for a week and had a Jackson Pratt abdominal drain.

I met with a dietitian while hospitalized, but ignored what she told me.

13

@Maserschmidt, glad to see your sense of humor is intact and you’re recovering! (I’m not one of the cool kids yet, still have my gall bladder).

14

After not sleeping for two nights, the medications they gave me to prepare me for surgery made me pain free. I fell asleep immediately.

My roommate was an elderly man. His priest came to see him. For some reason, the priest thought it was appropriate to wake me up to see if I needed priest stuff.

It weirded me the fuck out. I thought I was getting last rites. I told him to leave me the fuck alone, then pressed the nurse button and complained. She moved me to a different room.

15

I had had smaller attacks before and blew them off as gas, as I’ve always had digestive issues. Then one night - oh my god! I felt like I had a fiery hot poker sticking all the way through me! I could not get comfortable. I finally decided to go to the ER around 10 o’clock. Mr Rebo drove me. Where of course the pain stopped. We waited though - for hours! - and I was diagnosed with gallstones. We went home, and my poor husband went to work after not sleeping all night.

I had a follow-up appointment and another ultrasound. I still had symptoms, but not that bad. After I finally scheduled laparoscopic surgery they found lots of stones, one of which was about the size of a quarter in diameter. They said that the stones can move around, and the time of my excruciating pain one of them had probably blocked my bile duct.

I eat anything I want, and have digestive issues sometimes. But I’ve always had problems, so I say screw it and eat with abandon. And I’m obese. :smiley:

16

My story mirrors the others, pain that wouldn’t go away, unless it just went away for no reason. Mine was considered challenging as well, they kept me overnight, which was lousy because I had inflammation that prevented me from urinating which got increasingly uncomfortable/painful until I got a catheter.

Today I live a pain free life, and eat what I want. It’s the greasy food that’s bad, mostly it’s fine, but occasionally it’ll be 30 minutes after eating and I will need to make an emergency trip to the bathroom. The eating transition was eased by the fact that my GB probably didn’t work right for years, so I was used to not having a functioning one.

17

I appreciate hearing everyone’s stories.

Haha thanks! But…very glad you’re not in the club.

I’m really wondering about this, as my ability to handle spicy/fatty food had gone down so noticeably in the last year that I’d mentioned it to my wife (as a presumed sign of aging). I guess I’ll just have to be careful for a while.

Meanwhile, I went to bed at 11 last night and had to get up at 1, 2, 4 and 5 for the restroom, so today is a nap day! Thank god I’m retired.

18

I had a very bad experience with pistachios last summer… I ate a handful and got very nauseous and threw up and had a gi upset. Tried again a few weeks later with same results.

I’ve loved pistachios my whole life. Pretty sure my gall bladder wasn’t breaking down fat. I didn’t have surgery until April.

19

I didn’t have a gallbladder removal. I did recently have my stomach valve fixed up. Laparoscopic is the bomb.

I was having many problems keeping my meals down. Not good. Lost weight. And just felt ill, all the time.

After, I’ve had a few bellyaches mostly related to overeating. I have been starving for months.
I was told to eat less, more often, during the day. It helps my type 1 diabetes as well.
So, win, win.

Glad it’s over.

20

Got mine taken out around 15 years ago. Similar story to the rest: had several attacks beforehand that I attributed to something else and that went away on their own, but culminated in a severe attack that sent me to the ER. Or rather, like you, I drove myself to the ER and waited around for hours in pretty significant pain.

Mine was inflamed enough to cause pancreatitis, which resolved itself after it was taken out. My digestion was somewhat “delicate” in the first few months, but after things settled down I’ve had no problems. And I eat a lot of fatty foods.

I spent the night at the hospital and asked for some mild painkiller, like just a Tylenol or something, but they gave me morphine. I just wanted something to take the edge off to help me sleep, but the morphine was like a wave of warmth passing over my body. Not really a feeling I liked, frankly, but I did sleep.