Gallbladder Surgery
Hello Jill -
Aaaaw - that sucks! Sorry to hear there is more surgery in your immediate future. But find hope in the fact that if your doctor does it LAP, you'll probably be home that night (I was with mine, 15 years ago) and back to a very stressful 80 hour work week within the week.
Unfortunately, GALL BLADDER's going BAD after weight loss surgery is very VERY COMMON!! I wish ALL doctors removed the gall bladder when they're doing the WLS surgery. My doctor (in Washington) made it a requirement - after 20 years of surgery, he was tired of having to put his patients back through a 2nd surgery, almost ALWAYS within 6 months to a year of WLS. Id already had mine taken out at the point of my bypass, but if I still had one, he pretty much required that I sign a waiver (or hold harmless, whatever it's called) of some sort, saying he could remove it at the time he was doing the RNY.
Just thought I'd toss that long blurbage into this post in case any NEW PREOPs out there are reading this.
IF you still have a gall bladder you might want to seriously consider TALKING TO YOUR DOC about getting the sucker taken out at the time of WLS! Yep, some will say it's an "ethical vs unethical" kinda thingie that keeps the docs from automatically removing it (the ol' if it's working, leave it alone, theory) but you as a patient can REQUEST it. Bottomline, the odds are against YOU that your existing gall bladder won't need to be removed.
I've lost track of the thousands of people I've seen, heard, read, over the last 5 years with OH, that have had WLS who end up with gallbladder surgery after WLS and rapid weight loss.
Good luck to you Jill - can't wait to see you tomorrow!!
Hugs - Lei
I just had this done last month. It was no big deal. I felt like I was back at the begining again after surgery as my tummy wouldn't tolerate much, but I also hadn't been allowed to eat for a week prior to surgery. The recovery was much easier than for wls and easier than the hernia repair I had as well. Good luck! It will be fine!
Jen