I spent the night in the ER!

I spent all night in the ER at Parkwest...i had severe abdominal pain so i called my surgeon's afterhours emergency line and they instructed me to go there....after 6 hours, i was told i have HUGE gallstones! I have an appt with Dr. Boyce this afternoon. yep, thank God my bariatric surgeon will also do GB removal (if necessary).

For those of you who've had lap GB removal, how long were you off work? Do you think if i had it done on Friday i can come back on Monday?

I was off work for 2 weeks if I remember correctly.  But I did not have your traditional gb removal.  I went to the ER at 2:30 am on a Monday.  At 7:30 Dr Houston was doing my removal.  I had about 40 or 50 gallstones and one had fallen into the bile duct.  They watched me all week long (I was in the hospital for 6 days), did lots of labs, and he told me that they had to go back in to retrieve the stone.  But, they had 3 possible ways they could do the surgery.  One was a textbook case only and would need a specialist to come in.  Dr. H consulted with several doctors about my case, and then went in again on Friday morning of that week to perform an ERCP procedure.  While in there, he saw that the stone had gotten dislodged on its own and was gone.  However, he found scar tissue from my gastric bypass procedure and removed it.  So I had 3 procedures done in one week. 

Hello... sorry about the gallstone attack.
I've been there and glad that i no longer have my gallbladder.

I was out for 2 weeks, but if all goes well and they do the laprascopic surgery, AND you work in an office type environment, one week will be plenty.

I was feeling better after the week and the follow up, but I "decided" to use the 2nd week.  I'm glad that I did, to make sure that I was totally rested.

Also if you did not know, your BM's will change for a little while.  Most people will experience diarrea for the first few months or so (I cannot remember how long for me it's been a while).  But everyone is different.

Once they take out the Gallbadder the bile just continues to "seep" into the intestines instead of getting stored, this is why usually most people will have the diarrea for the short time.

Hope I did not scare you, just want you to be prepared, and remember that EVERYONE is different!

Michael.

Oh man - I hate that you're having gb problems.   I hope everything goes well and you have a quick recovery.  

Dennie