im having mine out this Thursday, not looking forward to it
I understand your feelings, oh my goodness, yes there is ( well, for me there was) pain after the op waking in recovery... a nurse is by your bed and give you pain killers until the pain subsides and then off to the ward, it will slowly get better over a small amount of time
I had my gall bladder removed last january. The operation itself wasn't too bad. I was kept in overnight as I had a drain in, and wounds didn't hurt too bad, nor took too long to heal. The worst part of the whole thing was the gas they pump you full of. I was in so much pain that night, and it continued to be uncomfortable for the following week. I was pretty much back to normal in 2 weeks, and went away for a couple of days, eating, drinking and traipsing around Manchester. Unfortunately for me, after the surgery, my doctor thought I might have some stones that had moved into my bile ducts, so hr told me I would need an ERCP in a few weeks time. I was more nervous about that than the operation, but thr procedure itself went fine, and I remember the spray on my throat, them injecting the sedation, and that was it. I had massively bad luck though, as on the way home, I started getting pain, and by the evening I was in the worst pain I have ever been in. A trip down A&E, and it turns out I had ERCP induced pancreatitis. I had a 7 night hospital stay before I was let home again. So for me, op was fine, it was a lot of unfortunate stuff after it that made it all a bit of a nightmare.
There are loads of experiences here so I'll just say I had mine removed this July through keyhole surgery , the whole thing went well .
I just wanted to say , for me the worst bit was being told after being in hosp for 5 days , that they had to wait for the GB to "cool " and that it was too "inflamed " to take out .
I was given a date for removal 10 weeks later !! I couldn't face ten weeks of horrendous pain , hospital trips to get morphine , more stays in hospital, anti biotics etc so I referred myself to a private GB clinic. My GB was taken out 3 days later and I have the stones here in a jar Yes it was very inflamed - which is why it needed to come out !! I think they just use cooling etc as another way of saying the waiting list is too long ;-) but if you add up the cost of repeated attacks and care as an in patient that a bad GB attack requires , surely it's cheaper to do a 45 minute keyhole procedure and put the patient out of their misery ?
well im newly diagnosed, about three months now, after suffering for years with excruciating pain and many hospital admissions,gallstones by the way was never ever suggested.
i was offered the op immediately however i chose to try to do it with just diet alone.
it was hard at first as cut out all fats, cakes, biscuits, pies, pastries, cheese and many other foods, but its been well worth it rather than the excruciating pain i was suffering.
i do realise that the time will come when an op is enforced upon me but till then ill perservere controlling my symptoms with diet alone.
ps i did have rapid weight loss at first but things seem to be plateauing now .
Stargirl , the info sheet I got in hospital said it may help if you follow a low fat diet but then in bold it said" There is no research which proves a low fat diet will lessen gallbladder attacks ." My doc explained to me it happens when the GB contracts ( the pain ) and this can be caused by anything even movement .
One of my gall stones had dropped down onto my liver and I felt like I was dying.Like you, I had been in hosp many times but they hadn't discovered any of this - I just felt dreadful and then had massive bouts of pain.I was so grateful to have gotten rid of the sorry thing and the keyhole surgery was very straight forward , in my case anyway .He said my GB had thickened,I am sooo glad I had it out , but best of luck to you till you decide you've had enough .
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I just wanted to say , for me the worst bit was being told after being in hosp for 5 days , that they had to wait for the GB to "cool " and that it was too "inflamed " to take out .
I was given a date for removal 10 weeks later !! I couldn't face ten weeks of horrendous pain , hospital trips to get morphine , more stays in hospital, anti biotics etc so I referred myself to a private GB clinic. My GB was taken out 3 days later and I have the stones here in a jar
Just my thoughts .......
i was offered the op immediately however i chose to try to do it with just diet alone.
it was hard at first as cut out all fats, cakes, biscuits, pies, pastries, cheese and many other foods, but its been well worth it rather than the excruciating pain i was suffering.
i do realise that the time will come when an op is enforced upon me but till then ill perservere controlling my symptoms with diet alone.
ps i did have rapid weight loss at first but things seem to be plateauing now .
One of my gall stones had dropped down onto my liver and I felt like I was dying.Like you, I had been in hosp many times but they hadn't discovered any of this - I just felt dreadful and then had massive bouts of pain.I was so grateful to have gotten rid of the sorry thing and the keyhole surgery was very straight forward , in my case anyway .He said my GB had thickened,I am sooo glad I had it out , but best of luck to you till you decide you've had enough .