Gallbladder removal - recovery after surgery?

Horace

I had my gall bladder removed in 1998 - I had been unwell for sometime, on a walking holiday in 1997 I was especially ill (not being able to eat properly and feeling weak). There were times when I looked as though I was 9 months pregnant and other days when my stomach looked like a washboard. I became sicker and sicker and eventually I collapsed at home after a particularly vile vomiting bout, I was rushed into hospital where they took some blood and apparently things grew on it (eww) and my stomach looked red and was very hot. I had to stay in hospital and the next day I was given an ultrasound that showed I had some gallstones but my gallbladder was massive. I had a major infection and had to stay in hospital for a week(March) and then I was released, I was scheduled to return in the May for the op.

I had the op via keyhole surgery and I was quite ill on strong antibiotics (I am allergic to most of them anyway), I had to stay in hospital for another week - my gallbladder was badly infected and the stones had been caused by the infection, what made it worse was that the infection had spread to my liver so I was a tad yellow. Following my release from hospital I went to stay with my mum and dad to recuperate aand have my staples out - I was there for a week and then I went home, I was signed off work for 6 weeks.

I was still quite ill and kept getting severe stomach pains and so I had to go back to the hospital for an endoscopy - it clashed with my christmas shopping to I ensured that I only had a local anaesthetic before swallowing the wretched camera but they couldn't find anything wrong. I am now fully recovered but there are foods I cannot eat - I used to love Cheerios and now I cannot stomach them at all. I don't eat overly spicey food eithe nor fats.

If only I had gone to the doctors/hospital sooner when I first started to feel unwell.

Good luck with your op.

Strapped

I had my gallbladder removed 4 years ago by keyhole surgery. Unfortunately, I had lots of small stones and the surgeon pushed one into the bile duct when he cut off the gall bladder, although he didn't realise at the time. They warn you that you will have "gas" pains after the op, and to walk it off. I think that they thought I was just a wimp, as I was still in pain 3 days later despite MUCH pacing of the corridors! I did get discharged but I was back again 2 days later in serious agony, unable to stay still and a distinctly yellow colour. I nearly strangled the SHO when he initially wouldn't give me any painkillers until he located the consultant somewhere on the golf course. With hindsight, I should have insisted that they took my level of pain much more seriously after the op, because other people I've spoken to were up and about much sooner. Not trying to frighten you, as obviously this was a complication, but OMG was I ill. I had to have an MRI done, and might have needed more surgery but fortunately the stone worked its own way out (ouch) and now I am 100% better. I don't regret having the op done though, as I couldn't have lived with the gallstone pain for any longer. Give me childbirth any day. :eek:

anewman

Strapped wrote: »

I couldn't have lived with the gallstone pain for any longer. Give me childbirth any day. :eek:

Wow - have I officially suffered pain worse than child birth?! That's one to tell her when the day comes :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :T :T :T :T

samuela66

JCR wrote: »

My mother's attacks only came on in the evenings too, does anyone know the reason why this should be. She would be fine all day and then about 6pm onwards would start to have pain and feel sick, and was sick a few times.

I have no idea why it was evenngs only for me too! I used to crawl around on all fours and quite often was sick, the pain was unbearable, I do remember going to the doctors and he kindly told me there was nothing wrong with me but my age.......................I was 29:D

Strapped

I was unfortunate enough to have my first attack in the early hours of Christmas Day. Initially I thought I was having a heart attack, and so did A&E. When they ruled that out, I asked whether it could be gallstones, and they said "Oh no, you'd know if it was gallstones, the pain is excrutiating". Yeah, I'm not in pain at all, that's why I'm sat here in A&E on Christmas morning - my son's first Christmas! - because I have mild indigestion :rolleyes:

And anewman? I would recommend dangling your bits into her hand just before you tell her that :rotfl:

Nenen

alba37 wrote: »

Thanks again for the replies.

I am trying to keep in my mind that it will only get worse if I don't have the op! Can anyone tell me before getting the gallbladder removed how they felt day to day. (not the severe attacks) Did you feel yucky which felt like it was coming from your stomach? I'm hoping what feels like my stomach is actually from my galllbladder and this feeling gets better after recovery.

Am I understanding you correctly... are you wondering (or shoud I say desparately hoping) if you can do without the surgery? I can really understand your trepidation as I'm awful about hospitals and operations myself. However, in the case of gall stones I think the risks of complications if you don't have the op really outweigh the fear and anxiety about the operation! I didn't even know I had gall stones until I started to feel really ill and nearly collapsed in pain at work one day... MUCH worse than childbirth! :eek: By the time my colleague got me to A&E the pain was less severe and I (who have a testably high pain threshold) was left in a cubicle in A&E for about 3 hours while they waited for the test results. The juniour doc told me it couldn't possibly be gall stones as I wasn't in enough pain... she hadn't seen me three hours earlier and this was despite my dh telling her I had gone through three labours without pain relief etc!
This went on for a while... then suddenly I had a cubicle full of consultants, nurses, registrar and other doctors ... tests had shown I had passed a stone that had lodged in my pancreatic duct and I was in the early stages of pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can KILL! It can be very dangerous and, if it necessitates having the pancreas removed, then I was told you have to take around 60 :eek: tablets per day for the rest of your life! I was treated for the pancreatitis with high level antibiotics and then had my gall baldder removed once the infection had subsided (it would have been too dangerous to have removed the gall baldder while the infection was present).

I suppose this is a very long and convuluted way of telling you that you really should listen to your doctors... they wouldn't suggest an op if they didn't think it was really necessary.
I had my op keyhole... it was fine, although I felt groggy for a few days and had a couple of weeks off work. I'm a teacher which is physically demanding and I also didn't want to risk any of the children knocking into me before I had stitches out etc. I could manage work that allowed me to sit fairly easily though. I then went back to work but felt a bit tired and irritable for a few weeks (the effect a general anesthetic always has on me).

I'm sure you will be fine... I felt so much better once my gall bladder was removed... because I hadn't felt a lot of pain leading up to the attack, I really hadn't realised just how much it was affecting me.
Take care and good luck

speranza

I had my gallbladder removed three years ago when I was 20. I'd been having random excruciating pain on my right side/between my shoulder blades for a couple of years at that point, but the attacks would only happen once every few months. They were the scariest things, would last for hours and I honestly thought I was dying. My doctor said it was all in my head and that I should just "drink some milk and calm down" (the milk probably made things worse!)

Anyway, after one very bad attack I had to go to hospital and that's where they did an ultrasound and found the stones. They decided to leave them alone for a bit to see if they'd settle since just removing the stones would mean they'd probably have come back, but over the next few months the attacks got more frequent until I eventually got pancreatitis and had to have the gallbladder removed. I didn't realise how sick I'd been until after, but I recovered quite quickly.

I do now have a very sensitive stomach and can only eat plain food, so that's something to be aware of, but I don't regret having the op at all!

P.S. I took my own stiches out, which I always mention because it makes me sound really hardcore and actually I'm a big wuss.

alba37

Thanks again to everyone for posting with your experiences.

I really don't want an op... any op! But who does? :rotfl: I know it's for the best, I know I need it done, but I'm such a wimp!!!

Anyway, news is, got the pre-op on Monday & the consultant's secretary phoned today... I have the date for the op, soon.

Penny_Watcher

alba37 wrote: »

I really don't want an op... any op!

Anyway, news is, got the pre-op on Monday & the consultant's secretary phoned today

Hay - good for you! :T

I avoided the op for a couple of years. My 'excuse' was I was either pregnant or breast feeding, or I had a cold or a fictitious wedding to go to . Really very silly.

Look forward to life after the op. You'll feel soooooo much better. I haven't changed what I eat, but digesting anything fatty can take a while. As far as I understand the gallbladder is a reservoir for bile produced by your liver (nice ). Bile breaks down fat during digestion. When you eat fat, a big shot of bile goes into your stomach from your GB and the fat is digested. If you have no GB then bile goes more slowly into your stomach as there isn't a waiting reservoir of it.

alba37

Thanks PW! I was wondering how it all worked after the gallbladder has gone!

My Laptop died the other night, (just when I I'll be needing it most!!) so won't be able to get on here much till I get round to getting a new one. Typical!!

Hopefully I'll get on next week, towards the end of it, gallbladder'less' :rotfl: to tell the tale. :eek: