Gallbladder surgery day details requested?

farscape66 · 07-07-2004, 08:44 AM

My surgery is tuesday the 13th at 8 am. I am very scared and looking for details on how other peoples surgery day went. I want details, some of my questions are. How long were you in hospital?, How soon did they remove the IV?, Was it laproscopic or big incision?, How long befor ereturn to work?
Did you get to keep your stones? Outpatient or not? Did they treat you well?

Katie G · 07-07-2004, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by farscape66

My surgery is tuesday the 13th at 8 am. I am very scared and looking for details on how other peoples surgery day went. I want details, some of my questions are. How long were you in hospital?, How soon did they remove the IV?, Was it laproscopic or big incision?, How long befor ereturn to work?
Did you get to keep your stones? Outpatient or not? Did they treat you well?

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

farscape66 · 07-07-2004, 11:38 AM

Mine is at 8AM, they anticpitate me being out by 4PM. However, I have a great terror of hospitals and of IV's. I dont understand why the IV cant come out sooner, rather than just before discharge. I find them extremely uncomfortable.
________
I am starting to have 2nd thoughts, since seeing my accupuncturist twice a week, the pain is almost gone. He claims he can teach the gallbladder to work properly and have it ignore the large 2.4 cm stone. He thinks I should keep seeing him rather than have surgery. I does seem to be working.
_______
I'm sure the surgeon would not be happy if I cancelled.

Katie G · 07-07-2004, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by farscape66

Mine is at 8AM, they anticpitate me being out by 4PM. However, I have a great terror of hospitals and of IV's. I dont understand why the IV cant come out sooner, rather than just before discharge. I find them extremely uncomfortable.
________
I am starting to have 2nd thoughts, since seeing my accupuncturist twice a week, the pain is almost gone. He claims he can teach the gallbladder to work properly and have it ignore the large 2.4 cm stone. He thinks I should keep seeing him rather than have surgery. I does seem to be working.
_______
I'm sure the surgeon would not be happy if I cancelled.

Ultimately, the final decision to have surgery or not is all up to you. I only know that I was glad I made the decision to have surgery because of how awful I felt. No, I didn't try any alternative treatments, so I'm biased in favor of surgery. But farscape, only you can make the final decision based on what's best for YOU. However, don't let your fear & anxiety make the decision for you. You need to calmly work through all the pros/cons and make an informed decision.

Thinking of you,
Katie G

farscape66 · 07-07-2004, 01:33 PM

Well, surgery is cheaper as it is covered by insurance and my herbs and accupuncture are not. I am trying to make the final decision now. Thats why I'm looking for other surgery experiences.
Your experience is one of the few positive ones, I have read many negative posts on this topic. However, 2 co-workers had it done and said it was a breeze. One of them had it done at 7PM, was out the next morning and installed a garage door opener that afternoon. Then less than a week later went on a ski trip. Now thats a fast recovery. He laughs at me when I express concern. He was even my age when he had it done. Now that was a miracle.