I am very relieved however, I am very puzzled that I no longer have chronic diahorea after having gall-bladder surgery. I was prepared for a worsening of this condition but the opposite happened. Can anybody explain why I now have normal bowel movements after surgery? My doctor says it doesn't make sense.................

I am also having normal bowel movements to everyones amazement. I told my doctor and he seemed to think that later in recovery I would have runny stools. In fact he laughed about it which pissed me off. I am at 3 weeks post surgery. I am doing very well.

Well at least I'm not the only one! :) The only thing I can think of is that perhaps my Gall-bladder was not functioning very well in releasing the bile which maybe caused the diahorea in the first place, and now it is just being released from the liver and not obstructed??? I asked the surgeon and my primary doctor and they both just raised their eyebrows like I was nuts.........and say that it is unusual. I am now 6 weeks post-op and doing great! Glad to hear you are as well. Have you resumed eating a regular diet?
Cheers to unexpected benefits:)

yes, I am amazing everyone in my family (who have all had their gallbladders removed) because I don't have the runs and I can eat what I want. I ate some salad at lunch that made me feel a little bloated but maybe I ate too much. I even ate Ice Cream which I could not eat at all for months before surgery. No nausea. I was in Heaven. I just keep waiting till the diareah begins but so far nothing. You give me hope. Thanks so much. Maybe we are just blessed!!!:angel: Did you have the laporascopic surgery (belly Button kind?) I did


Well at least I'm not the only one! :) The only thing I can think of is that perhaps my Gall-bladder was not functioning very well in releasing the bile which maybe caused the diahorea in the first place, and now it is just being released from the liver and not obstructed??? I asked the surgeon and my primary doctor and they both just raised their eyebrows like I was nuts.........and say that it is unusual. I am now 6 weeks post-op and doing great! Glad to hear you are as well. Have you resumed eating a regular diet?
Cheers to unexpected benefits:)

Yep, Belly button for me too! Although the recovery wasn't the breeze they suggested it would be..........Had the surgery at 10am and was released from the hospital at 2pm, the 45 min. ride home was not great......and the tylenol 3 they gave me were useless:( My primary doctor gave me better stuff which did help though:) I am so glad that a friend stayed with me those first two days. The only thing that is a little wierd about the recovery is that I had a knot about the size of a baseball above the belly-button. My doctor thinks it is a hemotoma(?) or in other words a big blood clot. It is slowly going down in size but am scheduled for a ultra-sound next week to confirm this. How easy was your recovery?

Mine was pretty easy mostly because I was on morphine.;)
Surgery was at 9:30 and I was home by 2:30. We have a 45 minute drive home too. I barely remember it.

I remember waking up in the hospital once and feeling all of those staples like a million ants bites and the nurse came over and put something in my IV and that was the last thing I remember of the pain.

I remember walking to my car (no wheelchair, I thought that was cool) the next thing I remember was being in my bed for a long time. I could get up to go to the bathroom by myself. My husband only stayed out one day with me. I got Percocet which helped a lot with the pain but gave me nightmares. Day 3 I went to IHOP with my Dad and had stuffed French Toast. It was great and did not upset my stomach. I was only doped up 3 days but sore for 5. I felt like someone kicked the heck out of my insides. I was only out of work for one week. No gas. They told me I would have gas so I bought a woopie cushion and made noises to see if my boss thought it was really me make gas noises. He was glad I was back to my ole foolish self.

I am sorry you had such a hard time. That knot sounds painful. I have had a lot of surgeries including a hysterectomy so this was nothing compared to that but it was no walk in the park either. I just think I had really good drugs!!! I am such a chicken they have to drug me up pretty good.:)


Yep, Belly button for me too! Although the recovery wasn't the breeze they suggested it would be..........Had the surgery at 10am and was released from the hospital at 2pm, the 45 min. ride home was not great......and the tylenol 3 they gave me were useless:( My primary doctor gave me better stuff which did help though:) I am so glad that a friend stayed with me those first two days. The only thing that is a little wierd about the recovery is that I had a knot about the size of a baseball above the belly-button. My doctor thinks it is a hemotoma(?) or in other words a big blood clot. It is slowly going down in size but am scheduled for a ultra-sound next week to confirm this. How easy was your recovery?

I am having some pain today but it may arthritis. I just have some back pain like in the upper back shoulder area. like i said it may be arthritis or poor posture.

Did you experience any depression after your surgery? I don't know if it was the surgery or that a lot of things have been going on but I have had a dip in my mood.

Mine was pretty easy mostly because I was on morphine.;)
Surgery was at 9:30 and I was home by 2:30. We have a 45 minute drive home too. I barely remember it.

I remember waking up in the hospital once and feeling all of those staples like a million ants bites and the nurse came over and put something in my IV and that was the last thing I remember of the pain.

I remember walking to my car (no wheelchair, I thought that was cool) the next thing I remember was being in my bed for a long time. I could get up to go to the bathroom by myself. My husband only stayed out one day with me. I got Percocet which helped a lot with the pain but gave me nightmares. Day 3 I went to IHOP with my Dad and had stuffed French Toast. It was great and did not upset my stomach. I was only doped up 3 days but sore for 5. I felt like someone kicked the heck out of my insides. I was only out of work for one week. No gas. They told me I would have gas so I bought a woopie cushion and made noises to see if my boss thought it was really me make gas noises. He was glad I was back to my ole foolish self.

I am sorry you had such a hard time. That knot sounds painful. I have had a lot of surgeries including a hysterectomy so this was nothing compared to that but it was no walk in the park either. I just think I had really good drugs!!! I am such a chicken they have to drug me up pretty good.:)

I had some uppper back pain also, but I attrubutated it to being sightly hunched over and not being as active. Sitting and sleeping in a lazy-boy chair certainly didn't help;). As far as being depressed or a little down after the surgery I did experience that. I thought that perhaps it had something to do with all the drugs that had been pumped through my system during surgery and during my recovery. I am fine now and actually in a better frame of mind knowing that I won't have another attack;). I think my recovery took a little longer cause they did some exploring looking for adhedsions around the bowel and colon. I was experiencing pain for a good ten days. Hope this helps.

I just called the doctor to tell him. They gave me Vicodin but I would rather eat dirt than take that stuff. It makes me sweat , it makes me itch all over , and it makes me mean, and does nothing for pain so I asked for Percocet which did not do any of those things. I don't know what the diffference is.I had some uppper back pain also, but I attrubutated it to being sightly hunched over and not being as active. Sitting and sleeping in a lazy-boy chair certainly didn't help;). As far as being depressed or a little down after the surgery I did experience that. I thought that perhaps it had something to do with all the drugs that had been pumped through my system during surgery and during my recovery. I am fine now and actually in a better frame of mind knowing that I won't have another attack;). I think my recovery took a little longer cause they did some exploring looking for adhedsions around the bowel and colon. I was experiencing pain for a good ten days. Hope this helps.

Dixie, they gave me Vicodin post surgery while I was in the hospital and when I got home and it made me sick and nauseous the whole while, and it does that with a lot of people. Anyway, I'm glad you guys are having an easier time with your post surgeries than a lot of people. I think that the people who have had sick gallbladders without stones, for a long time, have a rougher go of it post surgery. Apparently the bile in your system knows where to go instead of sitting in your stomach and small intestine and making you sick. Also, I've talked to several people who have experienced the depression. There is a long thread about all that. My depression finally left and it has been almost 4 months post surgery. But I ended up taking a med called Colestid to stop my bile salts diarrhea. It's great that you are doing so well! I hope it stays that way. Sophie

turns out the Vicodin and maybe my diet was making me severely constipated. I took some Magnisum Citrate which was not the most pleasant tasting stuff but it worked withing 2 to 3 hours and I am feeling a lot better.

I agree that the earlier your diagnosis is the easier your surgery is. That is why my Dad (who had emergency Gallbladder removal) told me to see the doctor because he said that it sounded like I had some symptoms so I was ready to see the doctor. I am such a baby that when I am sick (like nausea) I will go to the doctor. Some people are tougher than me and do not realize they are sick until they have stones. Mine were microscopic. My main symptom was nausea with a little pain on right side. I had no pain compared to what I have heard some people have with stones. I knew that if I waited the pain would be worse so I was ready for surgery. I am a really big chicken when it comes to pain.

I think I had really good medication during surgery because there was only once (after the recovery room) when I felt like a million ant bites where the staples were and the nurse quickly came and put something in my I.V. and that was the end of that.

The depression may be a combination of the surgery itself and so many other things that have gone wrong lately. Talking about it helps so much. I have talked to my husband and a good friend and may go see someone. My husband said he would go with me which would make it easier.

Above all I am stressed with working and raising three children. You have this surgery and you have 4 days off to recoup. I think it takes more than that for you to recoup and you not have to go back to work so soon. I know it is not Brian Surgery and I am happy they can do it laporscopically but it is still a hard recovery. You feel like someone kicked you from the inside repeatedly.


Dixie, they gave me Vicodin post surgery while I was in the hospital and when I got home and it made me sick and nauseous the whole while, and it does that with a lot of people. Anyway, I'm glad you guys are having an easier time with your post surgeries than a lot of people. I think that the people who have had sick gallbladders without stones, for a long time, have a rougher go of it post surgery. Apparently the bile in your system knows where to go instead of sitting in your stomach and small intestine and making you sick. Also, I've talked to several people who have experienced the depression. There is a long thread about all that. My depression finally left and it has been almost 4 months post surgery. But I ended up taking a med called Colestid to stop my bile salts diarrhea. It's great that you are doing so well! I hope it stays that way. Sophie

Hi again!
My surgeon said the smaller stones don't usually cause the terrible pain that some people suffer from during gall-bladder attacts. The smaller stones and or the sludge in your gall-bladder can make it so your gall-bladder is not functioning 100%. I think this means that your gall-bladder does not throw enough bile to break down the fats, which means they go right through you:confused: :confused: which would cause diarrohea. For people that start having diarrohea after surgery I have heard that if they eat fiber in the morning it will help assorb the excess bile:( although this is just what I have found when researching side effects of gall-bladder surgery.
My family doctor told me, dixiepeep, that full recovery time is 6 weeks, it is major surgery. You need that time to get back up to speed. It sounds like you have a full-plate with working and children, try to carve out some time to relax and heal. Remember sleep is the biggest healer, try not to get sleep deprived:nono: so mind and body can rest and heal. Personally I don't know how you :angel: managed, I could not of gone back to work if I had wanted to after 4 days!

The doctor acted the surgery was nothing and I would be able to go back to work. I should have told him that I had to lift things(which I don't) it is still hard to get three kids up and dressed, drive 20 miles to school and work and work 40 hours a week. Even my husband acted like I should be jumping through hoops or something. I told him it takes 6 weeks to heal. I am so glad it is Friday so I can rest some this weekend.

I think some people look at the small holes and just don't realize all of the trauma that has occured inside. It is kinda like saying that because a bullet hole is small it shouldn't hurt;) It is not the hole in the skin, it is the trauma and pushing around of organs to repair it that is painful!!!!!I know that my husband would have been squealling like a stuck pig if it had been him:)))

What a lot of people don't realize that in order to remove the gallbladder, the liver actually has to be lifted and moved around...thats stress and trauma in itself. I'm glad you gals are beginning to feel better. Good luck! Soph