Katie G

Hi farscape - you are going to do just fine! I know the pre-surgery anxiety can be horrible - I was a basket case before mine. I don't know if my hospital experience will be like yours, but I'll share my story anyway. My surgery was scheduled for a Monday p.m. at 4:30. I had to report to the hospital at 1:00 p.m. to be admitted. I had to stop all food & liquid intake by midnight the day before, so needless to say, I was getting pretty hungry/thirsty and had a headache by the time of admission. Once I was in my hospital room, the nurses started IVs for hydration and for medication. Just prior to surgery, I was given an injection to make me slightly drowsy, and got really bad cotton mouth too. I was wheeled to surgery and don't remember a thing until I was back in my hospital room around 6:00 p.m. I guess the surgery took about 45 minutes, and the surgeon told my husband that my GB was severely inflamed and covered in scar tissue, so it was no wonder I was having so much pain/suffering prior to surgery. Once I was fully awake, I remember asking for something to eat/drink, so they let me have some clear liquids sometime that evening. The oxygen tubing was removed that night. I stayed overnight only because my surgery was so late in the day - if your surgery is in the a.m., you might go home that evening. My IVs were pulled the next a.m. and I was discharged by 9:00 a.m. to go home.

My surgery was laproscopic, so I had like 4-5 tiny incisions to heal. Post-op pain was tolerable, with narcotics. I was off work for one week, returned as a hospital speech therapist full time after that. I still fatigued very easily and didn't feel 100% better until about a month post-op.

I was one of the unfortunate ones who ended up with bile salt diarrhea, but now that I have it under control, it's no big deal. Would I have surgery again even getting bile salt D? YOU BET!!!!!! I immediately felt better from having the GB gone, and all pain attacks, nausea, loss of appetite vanished. In fact, I gained all the weight back and then some that I had lost prior to surgery. Eating was such a pleasure again - I never bothered with monitoring my fat, greasy or acidic food intake after surgery, and had no problems with any type of food afterwards (as far as pain attacks; eating however, did trigger the diarrhea, but that's another story).

I hope I can put your mind at ease farscape. I think you will be glad you had the surgery done. Please post and let us know how things go for you.

Thinking of you,
Katie G