Gallbladder surgery

[Freyja]

Has anyone here had their gallbladder removed?

I just came back from the ER where I found out I have a fairly large gall stone. They´ve put me on a waiting list to have my gallbladder removed and was wondering whether anyone could share their experience with this kind of surgery. How long your recovery took, whether you´ve had any problems afterwards, etc.

TIA

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

I had my gallbladder out in December 2006. It was very easy. I had a fabulous recovery which really surprised me.
I was at the hospital at 12 p.m. and home by 6:30 the same night. I slept on the couch in the recliner for about a week because it was easier on the staples to sit up a little. Once the staples were removed I was able to lay flat totally.
I had surgery on Tuesday, driving by Friday and dancing (albeit not well) with my DD at her Christmas dance class by Saturday.

Good luck!

 

[Freyja]

Thanks for the quick reply. Glad to hear you made such a speedy recovery. How many days were you away from work (if you work out side the home)?

 

[momof1princess]

had mine out laproscopically in march, 1996. surgery was a friday morning, i went home from the hospital that evening, and was back to work the following monday morning. easiest surgery i ever had. i had no gallstones, but my gallbladder was packed with crystals that form gallstones-the surgeon called it gallbladder microcrystalline disease. best of luck

 

[Dax]

Had mine out about 4 yrs ago..

Mine was done laproscoplily(sp?). A few small incisions (4 total) and I was out of the hospital by the lunch time. I was a bit sore for a few days..bending was a bit tough, but was back to my normal self with 4-5 days.

Life after gall bladder removal though has been.....interesting...not overly pleasent...

 

[Tuffcookie]

I had mine removed in Oct of 2009. I went to the ER with terrible pains. Mine was inflammed so they wouldn't let me leave. I was in shock when they said they were admitting me! I had the surgery at 11:00 AM and I was home by 5:00 PM! (the surgery was done by laposcopy)

I was off work for a week. I was afraid to eat anything for a long time. Finally, after about a month of watching my diet, I started eating my regular diet. I have not had any problems since!

TC

 

[Shmily1]

One of my BFs had hers out last week. She had issues with it for a while but then it started inflaming her pancreas and the pain got so bad that she had it taken out. She would have been back to work already they are waiting on her pancreas to go back down. She said the surgery was easy and she felt so much better afterwards. The only problem she had was that when they put her to sleep she woke up fine, but her bladder didn't. She had to stay an extra two days waiting on that!

 

[kimblebee]

I had my gallbladder out and it was just day surgery. As the PP said, I slept in a chair for the first night because it was just more comfortable that way. I didn't have stitches or staples, just tape over the small incisions so I was careful for a few days. I had a 6 month old at the time and couldn't pick her up for a few days. There was a thread about this a day or two ago and you should be warned that you may still have pain after you have your surgery. I had my gallbladder out in 2001 and I still have pain every once in a while. I have had test after test and the doctors can't find any stones or any blocked ducts so I just have to live with the pain.

Good luck with your surgery

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Thanks for the quick reply. Glad to hear you made such a speedy recovery. How many days were you away from work (if you work out side the home)?

I could have gone back the following Monday, quicker if I had to. But it was right before Christmas and the surgeon was feeling generous so he signed me out for 2 weeks. He blamed it on my long commute (2 hours each way so it was long). But by the second week I was Christmas shopping and just having a fabulous time relaxing.

 

[Hoodie]

I had mine removed in Oct of 2009. I went to the ER with terrible pains. Mine was inflammed so they wouldn't let me leave. I was in shock when they said they were admitting me! I had the surgery at 11:00 AM and I was home by 5:00 PM! (the surgery was done by laposcopy)

I was off work for a week. I was afraid to eat anything for a long time. Finally, after about a month of watching my diet, I started eating my regular diet. I have not had any problems since!

TC

This exactly. My doctor wanted me out of work for 2 weeks, but I was able to work from home after a week. Had to watch what I was eating for those 2 weeks, but have had little to no problems with anything since.

Some people have continuing "issues" after eating, but my doctor told me that the chances of that happening are greatly reduced if you ease back into a normal diet within 2-6 weeks. She told me that during that time the body is adjusting to not having the gall bladder and the ducts will expand to accomodate. After the first month of recovery, the body has largely adjusted so trying to increase your fat intake after that can cause problems.

I've had a couple of instances of cramping since, but not nearly the number of times before I had it removed. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made!

Hopefully they can get it laproscopicly. Traditional removal has a 6 week minimum recovery.

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

My husband had his out 3 years ago. In and out in a few hours. He stayed in bed a couple of days and moaned like husbands do, but it wasn't too bad. Hope yours goes well. Good Luck!

 

[Freyja]

Thanks everyone! Good to hear you had quick and quite painless recoveries. I´m hoping not having to take too much time off from work, but since I´m on my feet all day at work the doctor said I should expect to be at home for 7-10 days.

 

[Dax]

This exactly. My doctor wanted me out of work for 2 weeks, but I was able to work from home after a week. Had to watch what I was eating for those 2 weeks, but have had little to no problems with anything since.

Some people have continuing "issues" after eating, but my doctor told me that the chances of that happening are greatly reduced if you ease back into a normal diet within 2-6 weeks. She told me that during that time the body is adjusting to not having the gall bladder and the ducts will expand to accomodate. After the first month of recovery, the body has largely adjusted so trying to increase your fat intake after that can cause problems.

I've had a couple of instances of cramping since, but not nearly the number of times before I had it removed. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made!

Hopefully they can get it laproscopicly. Traditional removal has a 6 week minimum recovery.

I ended up getting IBS...my dr said this was a problem with some people..and i was REAL easy on my diet..

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I have had mine out 7yrs ago? My dd had hers out at 16, 3 yrs ago.

Give yourself a couple of weeks of recovery time. Need to be by a bathroom at first.

I ended up getting acid reflux with the removal. Not fun.

Anyway, you still have to watch what you eat.

However some people have no issues and some do.

 

[Freyja]

I have had mine out 7yrs ago? My dd had hers out at 16, 3 yrs ago.

Give yourself a couple of weeks of recovery time. Need to be by a bathroom at first.

I ended up getting acid reflux with the removal. Not fun.

Anyway, you still have to watch what you eat.

However some people have no issues and some do.

 

[Dax]

I have had mine out 7yrs ago? My dd had hers out at 16, 3 yrs ago.

Give yourself a couple of weeks of recovery time. Need to be by a bathroom at first.
I ended up getting acid reflux with the removal. Not fun.

Anyway, you still have to watch what you eat.

However some people have no issues and some do.

Still do 4yrs later...its a crap shoot on when it will affect me(no pun intended)

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I had a gallbladder attack in late January/early February. My gallbladder surgery was scheduled for 6 weeks later, the day after St. Patrick's Day.

The surgery was relatively easy. It was done laproscopically, which means they have three small incisions and fill your abdomen with gas and use a camera to help take out the gallbladder.. I went in about 7AM and left by about 1PM the same day. I was sent home with antibiotics and Vicodin.

My recovery time should have been about 1 - 2 weeks.

My scars are still pretty noticeable 3 months later. But I don't have any dietary restrictions. Some people end up not being able to eat very greasy food. I seem to have lucked out there.

You can stop reading there, if you want.




My experience is not normal.

About a week after my surgery, I experience horrible pain on my right side. We went to the ER and had a CT scan and a HIDA scan because they were looking for a possible bile leak. They did find fluid but didn't think it was bile. They diagnosed me with constipation and sent me on my way.

Less than a week later, I had the same pain, only moved (now in the upper center, right under my sternum). At this point, I knew there was something wrong and went back into the ER. I was diagnosed with a bile leak and stayed in the hospital several days while they treated it by inserting a Jackson-Pratt drain on my right side and a stent in my bile duct to help the pressure in the duct and stop the leak. They said the leak was caused by the fact that the bile duct didn't close all the way. I was sent home with instructions on how to empty and flush the drain, and I was supposed to follow up with the drainage stopped.

Again, about a week later, I came done with a fever of over 103. I called the surgical team and was told to go to the ER again (this was late at night). After arguing with the ER Dr's about what my problem was and why I was there and that a surgeon was coming to see me, I was admitted YET AGAIN. I was treated with antibiotics, my drain was replaced, and I was sent home.

Guess what happened next. A few days before Easter, I come down with yet one more fever of over 103. I call the surgical team AGAIN, and went to the ER AGAIN and argued with the ER people AGAIN about a surgeon coming to see me. I was admitted ONE MORE TIME. This time they found that my leak was coming from accessory ducts that isn't "normal" and was probably clipped during my surgery. This time a cancer Dr. who specializes in the liver was called in to help decide how to fix this. It was possible I was going to need MORE surgery. I was sent home on antibiotics one more time.

My bile leak stopped pretty much right after that. I was finally allowed back to work on April 12th (almost a month later). My drain was taken out sometime in early May (they wanted to make sure it stopped). The stent that was also inserted into one of my bile ducts still needs to be removed, and I will do that right after I get back from vacation.

So, between March 18th and April 12th, I had my surgery and was back in the ER 4 times, admitted 3 times.

I am not even going to get into the fact that this was a teaching hospital and that the interns had no idea what they were talking about when they came to visit me. Or how nobody in the hospital except my surgeon actually was aware of my issues or how many times I had been in the hospital since my surgery. Or how one of the tests (ERCP) was probably the worst thing I have ever had done to me. Or how much I hated having a drain.

 

[kwelch10377]

I had mine out at the end of Feb. Arrived at the hospital at 7am, home by about 5pm. Had a very easy recovery, was back to work in a week. I was also back to eating normally within 3 days and I have had no problems with eating any types of foods now since. The only issue I did run into was I started doing a little too much too soon and I started to get a pain in my abdomin 2 weeks after my surgery. It went away after about a week.

The one thing I will say is that I put off for about a year getting it our because I has never had surgery before. I tried adjusting my diet and for the most part it helped, but in Dec I had several really bad attacks and I finally decided to suck it up and get it taken out. Well after my sugery I found I that it was a very good thing that finally decided to get it taken out because in additional to have gallstones and inflamation I also has very early stage gallbladder cancer. I don't want to scare you as the chances of this are pretty rare, especially for me given my age (32) and that I am a female. Gallbladder cancer typically isn't detected until it is too late and the only way that it would be discovered at the stage it was for me is if I had my gallbladder taken out for the stones.

 

[VAN]

As with most things, everyone is different. I had mine out but it was done lapriscopically (sp??). I was only out of work 4 days. If you need to have a more invasive surgery, recovery will take longer.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

Well, mine wasn't such an easy surgery so I guess I should share it.

It was supposed to be done laparoscopically, but they ended up having to cut me open. I was supposed to be home the same day, but I ended up in the hospital for a week. I wore an ostomy bag on me for a few weeks which was really gross.

I had complications such as having "hundreds/thousands of tiny gallstones" they needed to crush, and I had a condition they found called Mirizzi's Syndrome. It mimics bile duct cancer.

My surgeon ended up calling in a second surgeon to assist, and the surgery took over 3 hours since they had to re-route some things.
SCARIEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME IN MY LIFE!

Anyway, I think people should be aware that there is nothing "simple" about surgery. Even a "routine" surgery such as gallbladder removal can have serious complications.

As for post-op, it took me weeks to recover and I was off work. Nowadays, I just get wiggles in my insides + having certain foods run right through me. I always scope out the nearest bathroom when I am out in public. The "wiggles" are hard to explain. I guess the closest thing I can liken it to is having a baby move inside you when you are pregnant. Sometimes it lasts only seconds, while other times it lasts much longer.

I wish you the best of luck. It is important to have it removed soon, because it can affect other vital organs.

My doc said I didn't fit the profile of someone who needed their gallbladder removed. He said it is common for people who are "fat, fertile and forty." I was 21, skinny and well, I guess the fertile part was right....