gall bladder

bye bye mr. gall bladder

i wish i could say its been fun

you have been my friend over the years

but my enemy this last one

adios

 

I heard the stats may be as high as 75 % of was lose their gall bladders after one year post op. sounds like we should all think about this. Tell us how bad it is...

starting to be a little worried because one of my friends that had the surgery after 1 year had to have her gallbladder removed... yikes i hope i dont have to

i agree. after doing research over a couple years here i have noted and seen that if you have lost a lot of weight over a year or two, it seems that gallbladder surgery may be something you have to have.

the attacks are something i cant describe for people to understand. they feel so painful and can last anywhere from couple minutes to many hours. the intensity differs also, from tweaks to excruciating. sometimes you are vomitting, sometimes not. i find the best thing for me was to take a tylenol (as we can no longer take advil after surgery) and try to sleep through them.  they started out slow, one every couple weeks then get more and more closer together.

the surgery itself was very similar to my sleeve right up to recovery.  i went in around 6am (i was a little late...im always late lol). got my gown on, waited for the anesthesiologist and the Dr. to come give me the low down.  i chose to have dr savoie do this one too. i could have chosen fredericton as that is where i am near but i felt better bout bathurst as he has already had experience with his hands in my insides. knew where everything was lol .

they wheeled me into operating room. little small talk, told me to breathe deep and think of cuba. i woke up in an outer room to operating room. nurses were buzzing around. asked me how i was feeling and if i needed medicine for the pain.  i remember this from last time too that you will hurt a little cause it is this point they start to give you a different kind of pain med and they cant have the two cross. so they will give you some and if you need more give you a little more, till they find your right spot...and there will be one when you feel like you have had an operation but not feel the intense pain. then when they know everything is ok, they take you to recovery (is this was my sleeve, they would take you to your room at this point).

for gall bladder it is day surgery but you do have to stay in recovery for at least four hours, just to make sure everything ok.  after the four hr mark, i tried to get dressed and was nauseous so they gave me a shot of gravol and i laid back down for a few more hrs.  i was awake most of the time, breathing in my little bong like do dad and watching my bf fall asleep (bless him we drove up at 230am from freddy and stayed with me in recovery the whole time).  you can have one visitor with you in recovery so if you have more than one visitor, they can switch places so everyone gets a turn.  if you are in for the sleeve, you can have a couple in the actual room you are in.

once i was feeling good enough i got my prescription for pain meds and released by the dr on duty (he will tell you a totally different story then the nurses and dr savoie so i just nodded and smiled)  dr savoie said no driving while i was on dilodid or while there is intense pain. the dr *****leased me said no driving for 2 weeks. i laughed (must have been the pain meds) im going back to work in two weeks and i cant drive til i go back?? anyway, so that experience was very much the same as my sleeve overall

i stayed at the utc pavillion overnight, just to take it easy.  i had told the dr that i prob would so he had it written on my admitting papers. since i had not signed in there before surgery, my bf took the paper they gave him and signed in there while i was in recovery.  it doesnt cost anything if the dr had it on your papers and is not too much even if it wasnt.  it is pretty close so my bf pushed me in my wheelchair over to it.  it is just like a hotel in that it has two twin beds and a bathroom. very clean. and a common room with nice furniture, tv and kitchen you can keep things in, just label them. you get your own card to get in so you can come and go as you please.  this is handy to know when you have your sleeve incase you have family or partner who wants to stay it will be pretty cheap for them and close.  only thing is it is first come first serve. the office opens at 8am i believe so you will want to get there soon after that. it was not that packed when i was there.

the pain is a little different in that the sleeve was a pretty constant pain, this one it mostly hurts when i am getting up or down from sitting or sleeping and the first two days i felt like i was going to vomit when i first got up. but just take it easy and sit for a sec when you first go vertical.

they made 5 little holes for the sleeve and four for my gallbladder. i can honestly say i will not be wearing a bikini anytime soon lol.  dressings can come off on day three which was yesterday at which point i could have a shower. best feeling in the world. i still have the little pieces of tape over the stitches which falls off on their own mostly. 

i am the exact same weight darn it. didnt lose or gain anything.  had it last thursday and here it is monday and i am already bored.  i took two weeks off though i prob could have had three if i thought i had needed it.  i think i will be ok.  no lifting or mowing lawns for 4-6 weeks but i have been walking around (nothing of any length or distance). thought if i was feeling up to it i would walk around the frex but not sure bout that yet.  i made biscuits yesterday and tidied up the counters at home a little. there is no way i would have been this far along after sleeve surgery.  it is like this but only couple times worse. this could be cause it had been my first surgery ever or the fact that it is more evasive.  so kinda the same in the point that everything is cut in like half, heeling time, pain intensity etc etc.

i tried to get this down now so it would give people an idea, i would have loved reading bout it before so i had an idea the routine.  if anyone has any questions, ill try to remember...they were good meds i had lol

have a great week

p.s just to add, if you gallbladder attacks are very painful and intense you should head to emergency.  i was too stubborn and never did and later learned that this could be dangerous. so please, dont be stubborn and get it checked out if it is anything more than you can handle