Gallbladder surgery then Disney World

[bookgirl]

I went in for lap surgery over christmas break, I ended up with a full open proceedure. I did go back to my classroom two weeks later but for a good two months I was in lot's of pain and fatigued easily. I'd do it AS SOON as your hubby is home, just to give yourself time.

 

[MSSANDRA]

I dont eat red meat or pork. If I do eat meat its lean chicken and turkey. Then I dont drink a lot of soda, but mostly water, skim milk, and OJ. I eat whole wheat pasta and bread. I walk a lot. I park further away from stores than most people. I dont eat a lot of sweets and if I do eat them at all its for a snack and they are 150cals or less. I also use my wii fit. Please whatever you do though dont take diet pills. We think that is part of my problem w/ my liver (I have liver disease ontop of gallbladder problems).

Sounds like you are doing EVERYTHING right. I ws pooh sized when I had my gall bladder (no longer and never again) but it did and does make the recovery a little longer and a little harder so getting as far as you can before the surgery will be a huge help!!!

 

[SaraMc]

I had mine out last June, and it took me about a week to get back into the swing of things. I did take it a bit easier at work . However I went to Disney before I got my gallbladder out and that was NO FUN. Icecream and alchol triggered attacks for me. So did cheese and gravy. So I had to watch what I ate the whole time I was there. I had my demerol with me just incase but all in all it was ok, no attacks but I sure did miss my Mickey Premium Bars...

 

[dana1003]

just curious to know what everyones symptoms were? i posted this in the diabi,ities board..i had a sharp pain on my right side under my ribcage for over 12 hrs..i took percoset and naproxsen for the pain..went to my dr after it turned into a dull ache and he said it was probably gas..had a mri and ultrasound a month ago and found nothing remarkable..told me i had a small cyst on my liver and that my kidney stone was possibly still there..this pain did not feellike the kidney stone pain i had last time..anyone?

 

[wdwmom0f3]

The doing it now would mean back to work the hour I left the hospital. I really have NOBODY to help me out w/ my kids. So, no sitting in bed waiting to heal...its right back to work that hour.

You don't have any sick time? No friends to help you either? Can a family member come to help you for a couple of days? What about someone from your church? You will be fine within a couple of days. You will not be able to lift anything for about a week, but other than that you should be fine.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

just curious to know what everyones symptoms were? i posted this in the diabi,ities board..i had a sharp pain on my right side under my ribcage for over 12 hrs..i took percoset and naproxsen for the pain..went to my dr after it turned into a dull ache and he said it was probably gas..had a mri and ultrasound a month ago and found nothing remarkable..told me i had a small cyst on my liver and that my kidney stone was possibly still there..this pain did not feellike the kidney stone pain i had last time..anyone?

Mine was full of stones and the pain started suddenly one day. I had just finished eating Mexican food and I felt like I was having an extremely bad case of heartburn. I ate two packs of tums and nothing helped. It was pain in my chest and lower stomach. I had to undo my pants and that still didn't help. My DH thought I had gas too, but I knew better. This was unlike anything that I had ever had before. I ended up going to the ER where they did an ultra scan and found them.

The DR. who did my surgery said that it was common for women who had just had a baby, and I had just a few months prior.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Mine was full of stones and the pain started suddenly one day. I had just finished eating Mexican food and I felt like I was having an extremely bad case of heartburn. I ate two packs of tums and nothing helped. It was pain in my chest and lower stomach. I had to undo my pants and that still didn't help. My DH thought I had gas too, but I knew better. This was unlike anything that I had ever had before. I ended up going to the ER where they did an ultra scan and found them.

The DR. who did my surgery said that it was common for women who had just had a baby, and I had just a few months prior.

This sounds similar to me as well. The only thing that seemed to relieve the pressure at all was taking baths. FWIW, I have had gallstones and kidney stones: the kidney stones were 1000x worse! Those kidney stones were worse than days of labor followed by an emergency c-section.

OP- I had a 1 year old when I had my gallbladder out. My surgery went fine and I didn't have any problems with him (he was a big baby!), but they did make me stay in the hospital overnight to be sure I wasn't trying to lift him right away. I was back to myself in a couple days. IMHO, this surgery was a breeze compared to c-sections and knee surgery. However, I had a friend who had his out right after I did and he ended up with complications and being out of commision for 2 months! So, you never know. Good luck.

 

[LWatson]

You don't have any sick time? No friends to help you either? Can a family member come to help you for a couple of days? What about someone from your church? You will be fine within a couple of days. You will not be able to lift anything for about a week, but other than that you should be fine.

By work I meant going back to caring for the kids; I'm a SAHM. My family doesnt want to come down because they are paying for my sisters wedding (you dont want to get me started on this subject because I will FLIP...I'm peeved) which is running min $15,000 right now confused3). I dont go to church. And as far as friends go...no nobody is really here to help. There are a lot of people who I dont trust around my kids for an hour let alone to care for them. If it came down to HAVING to have it then there are a group of women here who are willing to help, but I dont know any of them (the FRG) and I'm not comfortable w/ some stranger watching my kids (esp after last weekend when my friend took her kid to a CDC on post and we had to call the MPs...not saying anything else on that though as its still under investigation).

 

[disney_family_1247]

You'll be fine a week after the surgery if you're having it done laproscopically (probably spelled that wrong). I had mine done a couple of years ago, and it was a breeze.

 

[1osfan]

I had my gallbladder removed 4 weeks ago so this thread hits close to me. I have a liver condition that has required some monitoring and my gallstones were discovered during a routine test - I had never had any pain (at least none that I realized I was having.) This was last summer. My doctor recommended a surgeon and I put off calling him. A few months ago, I had a gallbladder attack and it was horrible. Again, though, I put it off. I am a teacher and I wanted to wait and have it taken out during the summer. I met with the surgeon and scheduled the surgery for the middle of June. One of my biggest questions was about our upcoming Disney trip. My surgery was scheduled 6 weeks before my first trip. The surgeon's response when I asked him about it was "as long as it is a week after surgery - you'll be fine."

I went into surgery at 8:00 and was home by 11:30. The rest of that day and the next day, I was sore and took some pain medication. Within 48 hours, I had no pain at all and within a week, I was back to normal and had no restrictions whatsoever. I could not believe how easy it all was!

Now, 3 1/2 weeks after surgery, I drove 700 miles to visit family and never thought about it. I leave in 12 days for Disney and I do not expect any issues at all.

I will say that I had laprascopic surgery and I would imagine that an open surgery would have been completely different. I also had my wonderful DW at home to help. Not only did she help me, but I doubt those first couple of days would have gone so well if she would not have been there to take care of the kids.

Good luck!

 

[wdwmom0f3]

By work I meant going back to caring for the kids; I'm a SAHM. My family doesnt want to come down because they are paying for my sisters wedding (you dont want to get me started on this subject because I will FLIP...I'm peeved) which is running min $15,000 right now confused3). I dont go to church. And as far as friends go...no nobody is really here to help. There are a lot of people who I dont trust around my kids for an hour let alone to care for them. If it came down to HAVING to have it then there are a group of women here who are willing to help, but I dont know any of them (the FRG) and I'm not comfortable w/ some stranger watching my kids (esp after last weekend when my friend took her kid to a CDC on post and we had to call the MPs...not saying anything else on that though as its still under investigation).

Bless your heart. I don't blame you for not wanting someone to watch you kids that you do not fully trust, I wouldn't either. Well, if you can hold out until November then do it, but I would try my best to work it out to have it done as soon as you can. You will feel so much better.

 

[Mauldita]

On a lovely Thursday in September 2007 I felt a pain like I have never felt before....within 24 hours I was in urgent care being told that my poor gallbladder had expired and needed to be taken off the shelf.....1 WEEK TO THE DAY BEFORE MY PAID DISNEY 9 NIGHT EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!!!!!!! I agreed to the surgery...(not too much choice really) and was told I would be fine to travel. It was laproscopic (and BTW started me on my weight loss from a size 18 to a 4!!!!! yea!!!)


We went, I was fine (extra fine since I was given some happy fun pills for surgery related pain) And two weeks after my surgery rode Expedition Everest for the first time and had no issues! You may experience some food intolerances involving too much grease, but Disney has some yummy non-greasy food options.

Good luck to you! That pain is the worst!!!

 

[LWatson]

Thanks everyone. I've never "met" so many people who have had gallbladder problems. We have been trying to diagnose if that was really the problem for aobut 1.5m now, and the results came back this week from the function test that it is infact the cause of the pain.

 

[momof1princess]

i had my gallbladder removed laparoscopically on march 1, 1996. in early january, 1996, i had gone to my local ER doubled over in pain, even sips of water sent me over the edge...i had every test the doctors could think of, even a PELVIC exam(!) and nothing showed any problem. i was referred to a gastroenterologist, who looked at my results and said i needed to have the valve to my gallbladder checked. i did, and it was determined my gallbladder needed to be removed. it wasn't full of stones, but was loaded with the crystals that form gallstones. i had it done on friday, and went back to work on monday. i was sore for several days, but i managed. at the time, i had no children, so i can't say how your recovery would be impacted by having small children to care for. i do know i NEEDED pain medication those first couple of days. i hope your DH gets home soon so you can have this taken care of!

 

[theatermouse]

1 month should be enough healing time for most daily activities, but one thing I would throw out as a reminder (it may have been mentioned already) is to be careful if you do coasters. I had my gallbladder removed at the end of November 2006 and the following March (4 months later) I rode a roller coaster at our local amusement park. Now granted it was one that laid you down, but it hurt me so badly I had to go back to the doctor to make sure I didn't do any damage! I honestly didn't think 4 months later it should have been a problem!

I had a gallbladder attack while at a track for a Nascar race and while in the middle of the gallbladder attack, we had to walk nearly a mile back to the car. I've never been in so much pain! I was told it is similar to labor, but since I didn't have pain with labor (they broke my water, I was in the ER OR 20 minutes later) I didn't know pain such as that. I was told my gallbladder was FULL of stones! It was out a little more than a month later when it hurt so bad to even lay on my right side. It felt like it was protruding!!
I did have to stay in the hospital overnight, though. When I was being woken up after the surgery, I apparently had a hard time coming around so they kept me. I was up & walking around myself that night and started work on my Christmas cards for that year. I did so much better with that surgery than my C-Section. (In 2006, I had 4 different surgical procedures, not a great year!) What was the hardest was not being able to hold my son for the first few days after. He was only 10 months old at the time and quite squirmy. My husband told me that our son (who was barely crawling at the time) drug himself through our house "looking" for me. It sounded so sad!!

To the person who asked about symptoms: I did have pains and it hurt to carry my son across my ribcage area (he was born 1/24/06 and the "attack was in Friday the 13th in October, same year). We had lunch at Sonny's, a BBQ place in NC. The pain kind of felt like I was going to be sick, but mostly a very uncomfortable feeling. Lots of pressure. Then it became sharp pains and feeling like I couldn't breathe. I guess I looked pretty bad because people I knew would look at me with wide eyes and told me I looked terrible. I felt it!!

I still have phantom pains in that general area and my scars are still quite visible, but for the most part, everything else is fine. Greasy food is still a no-no, though! Good luck with your surgery!!

 

[LWatson]

I dont think I will have to worry about this anymore...I'm headed to the ER as soon as I can find someone to help w/ my kids. I'm in the worst pain I've had since it started, and I'm sweating to death (my house is sitting at 65*F and that isnt helping me cool down at all). My right upper ab hurts and so does my back, and I feel like I could throw up at any minute. Wish me luck...and my kids.

 

[bnhasak]

I'm so sorry to hear about your gallbaldder. I hope you have a very speedy recovery and that somehow someway you are able to find trustworthy people to take care of your kids.

Get better soon and I hope the pain is all gone very very shortly.

 

[frtchr]

Good luck with everything!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Prayers for a speedy recovery for you and an easy transition for your kids.

 

[mickey2minnie1]

I had mine out last year and thought after a week I would be as good as new. Boy was I wrong. I went back for my check and everything was in good shape. I told them I was still not feeling myself. They said, "Just because you had the lap you need to remember it was a major surgery on the inside. I felt better about myself when they told me. I thought it was me. It took me a good month to be 100% able and running with my kids. My system was also off. That took a few months. Everyone is different.

Best of luck to you and your family. Pixie dust your way.