Gallbladder Surgery?

[Mama Lynx]

Okay, Hive ... I'm looking for your stories about/experiences with gallbladder surgery. I'm considering it. How was yours? How is life afterwards? Are you glad you did, or wish you hadn't?

[Abeille]

I had my gallbladder removed when I was 24, after an acute episode and an ultrasound showing the gallbladder was full of stones. It was an easy surgery to recover from, and I don't regret having it done. Mine was done laparoscopically (tiny incisions) and I'd ask if your procedure could be done that way. I'm not someone to opt for surgery as a first resort, but my episode was painful enough that I really didn't want a repeat. Good luck!

 

Edited to add: I haven't noticed any afteraffects, so not sure what you mean about what life was like after surgery. After the initial recovery, everything was as usual.

[4Kiddos]

I had gallbladder surgery five and a half years ago. For two years before that, I had a TON of problems with my stomach- pain and always throwing up. I went to several doctors and they kept telling me that I had GERD- gastroesophogeal reflux disorder. I tried all of their medicines for that and they never helped. Finally my primary care doctor had a new idea. He scheduled me for a HIDA scan which measure how much your gallbladder sqeezes to empty the bile (gallbladder ejection fraction). Anyway, normal ejection percentage is 35% and up. Below that is abnormal. Mine was functioning at 5%.

 

Anyway, I was scheduled for a laproscopic sugery and had it done. It didn't talk too long at all. I went in for outpatient surgery and was home the same day. No hospital stay was required. The surgeon said my gallbladder was much worse than he thought. (He also said it had something to do with fibromyalgia which I also have). The recovery took longer than I expected but I had never had surgery prior. I was down for a week (like unable to do ANYTHING). I am allergic to strong pain medication (morphine, demerol) so I only took one codeine the night of surgery. It helped with the pain but then made me throw up! (AHHH!) After that I managed just fine with OTC medications. The worst part was being in so much pain from your stomach muscles. You don't realize how much you use those muscles until they are cut and hurt everytime you use them. I had four small cuts with stiches. Laughing, coughing, and walking were painful because of this for the first week. After the first week, the surgeon in the check up said I could go waterskiing. (HA! What was he thinking?) After the first week, I was able to go back to work and do most things but I really babied myself because it was still pretty painful. It was probably about a month before I was back to full steam.

 

Life afterwards is great! I used to be stomach sick all the time and as soon as the surgery was done I felt so much better. I could eat anything I wanted! It had been years since I felt that good stomach wise and no pain at all. I still have relatively no problems. The only little thing I have is when I eat a lot of something really fatty like fried foods or fast food. I rarely ever eat this kind of food anyway. But when I do, I just feel kind of bloated and crampy feeling in my intestines for a while after. As far as scars go, now you can only see the two larger scars as the two smaller scars have faded away. The two larger ones might have gone away as well but I got pregnant with my first two months after my surgery so they got stretched! I am so incredibly happy I had it done!

 

Well, this is probably more than you wanted to know! Hope it helps!

[Kalmia]

Had mine out in July. The decision-making factor was that if you do it as elective surgery it can be done laproscopically. Two small incisions (.5 in) on my abdomen and one hidden one in my bellybutton. The procedure was easy. It took me about 2 weeks to recover. The surgeon told me that recovery time would be much shorter, I hadn't planned on a two week break from getting anything done! BUT if you have a severe gallbladder attack you will have to have emergency surgery in which they cut a huge incision in your abdomen. It is a much more dangerous surgery and recovery is even longer. I posted asking this same question before my surgery hoping I could get out of it, but several of the responses indicated that the pain of a severe attack was like nothing else--they couldn't even speak and had to be carried out of the house. That was enough to make up my mind.

 

After the recovery from the surgery, I've had two bouts with pain from eating too fatty meals. The doctor explained that is due to the liver and stomach needing to "learn" how to balance the need for fat digestion with the rate at which bile is provided by the liver to digest it. Other than that I have had no symptoms.

 

You can google images for both open and laproscopic gallbladder surgery scars and see the difference which is extreme. Just make sure the safe search is on!

 

Good luck on your decision.

[LostSurprise]

Everyone is different.

 

I had to have mine out. I had stones getting stuck and I was jaundiced. If I hadn't had an appointment set up for surgery they were considering hospitalizing me after they released the stone manually.

 

The surgery was fine. I would say I was a bit sorer than I've heard some people were. I felt bloated and odd. I could get up within a few hours and walk around though. It was harder to pick up my son from the floor. I was careful about that for awhile.

 

Afterward, its very common for people to have IBS so be familiar with the causes of that. If I eat too close to bedtime or have to much fat, I get really sick and have a lot of abdominal pain and gas (and diarrhea). I only have a slice or two of pizza. I don't really eat doughnuts or other deep fried things at all. Its not worth it.

[Mama Lynx]

This worries me a little, as I already have abdominal pain and gas, etc. The gastroenterologist has been unable to find a cause. I don't want that kind of thing to get *worse* after having my gallbladder out ... I don't want to risk the pain of an acute attack, either.

 

 

Everyone is different.

 

I had to have mine out. I had stones getting stuck and I was jaundiced. If I hadn't had an appointment set up for surgery they were considering hospitalizing me after they released the stone manually.

 

The surgery was fine. I would say I was a bit sorer than I've heard some people were. I felt bloated and odd. I could get up within a few hours and walk around though. It was harder to pick up my son from the floor. I was careful about that for awhile.

 

Afterward, its very common for people to have IBS so be familiar with the causes of that. If I eat too close to bedtime or have to much fat, I get really sick and have a lot of abdominal pain and gas (and diarrhea). I only have a slice or two of pizza. I don't really eat doughnuts or other deep fried things at all. Its not worth it.

 

[Spryte]

Had mine out in '05. It wasn't a bad surgery, easier than others I've had. But just in case, since I have a history of not recovering well, my doc planned on keeping me in an observation room for 24 hours. I went home at 11:00 that night, but it was nice to know that if there were problems (again, I've had bad surgery experiences) that I didn't have to leave. It was so easy, really, that I went shopping for art supplies the next day. :) ...That was overdoing it a tad, but overall, it really was easy.

 

Mine came out due to sludging and stones after IV Rocephin (known for destroying gallbladders). I did not want to have an emergency surgery to have it out, and we knew eventually it would need to come out, so scheduling it felt safer and better for our family. That way I could choose my surgeon, hospital, the day/time, and plan accordingly. An emergency surgery would have been much worse.

 

Actually, now that I mention the emergency prospect... We nearly lost my father last year, due to an emergency gallbladder removal that went wrong. He spent almost 3 weeks in the hospital, most of which was in ICU. It was awful. And we are lucky to have him here with us now. Since he had the surgery done on an emergency basis, there were big complications. Not something that's normal, but definitely something to avoid.

 

As for life after GB removal... I don't miss mine. No problems at all here.

[Mama Lynx]

Do any of you remember about how long the surgery took? About how long were you under anesthesia?

[Mama Lynx]

And then there's the question of scheduling it now, which would mean a week before Christmas ... or waiting until January and hoping everything is fine until then. Ugh.

[hsbeth]

My first gallbladder issues came on very suddenly. One weekend in 2009 I just began having pain and was awake most of the night. I went to see my doc early the next morning and he was immediately suspicious that it was my gallbladder. He called to make and u/s appt. for me and they just happened to have an opening that afternoon. They said I was "loaded" with stones. My doc called me that later that afternoon and said he wanted to get me in the a surgeon. Again, there was a last minute cancellation/opening first thing the next morning. That was a Tues. and I ended up having laproscopic surgery at my local "day surgery" center two days later. The surgery wasn't bad at all. I couldn't eat the night before but other than that I had no real prep. to do. I was nervous about having general anesthesia for the first time, but had no issues. I was in surgery for under an hour and was home by 1pm that afternoon. The worse pain seemed to be from gas. I'd had three c-secs. prior to that and in comparison recovery was a breeeze. I felt back to normal w/in 10 days or so. I only took pain pills for a few days.

 

I did have to adjust my diet for a bit. Certain leefy greens and anything heavy/greasy did not sit well at all. My body slowly adjusted over the next few months and I have no issues or regrets now.

 

Lab. results showed I had lots of stones and inflammation so I'm glad I got it out when I did.

[Hypatia.]

I had mine removed at the end of February. The gallstones had been confirmed in early January (I was having 3-4 attacks a week, regardless of my diet) but at the time I was pregnant, but that unfortunately ended in miscarriage.

 

I went in early in the morning for surgery and was done by mid-afternoon. They had to pull me off the operating table and take me back out to test my beta HCG levels again to make sure they were going down since the urine test the day before had been positive (this was barely a week after I started miscarrying), so that was just another slap in the face. DH took me home early that evening but I don't remember it. The next day was very, very painful. I needed to have a pillow partway under me when I would lie on my side and sleeping was difficult. For the first couple days I maxed out on my pain meds. After about 5 days things were more manageable, though it was a couple weeks before I could lift my 2 year old.

 

I'm so glad I had it done! The incredible pain is gone and no lingering GI problems, I haven't had to change my diet.