gall bladder surgery--tips to recovery? easy process?

[greybeard]

Gonna have it jerked out sometime in the next few weeks. No symptoms..primary doc just found it this week in an unrelated abdominal scan. Full of stones and he said 'at your age, just as well go ahead and get rid of it'.
I'm assuming outpatient/day surgery but I don't know anything about it and haven't had the surgeon consult yet. That happens Monday.
Piece of cake or problematic?

 

[Caustic Burno]

Depends you are not going to run a race for about a week. The air they blow you up with can and does hurt like heII as your body tries to absorb what they don't get out.
I was pretty sore for about three days
The bad part comes later as you find the stuff you can't eat anymore as your body won't tolerate it.
High percentage of people have digestabilty issues after its removed

 

[M.Magis]

About the same issue as CB for me. Wasn't a big deal, spent most of the next few days on the recliner. I could get around, just a bit slower than normal. It definitely changed the way my body handled certain foods. I still eat all the same things, but it doesn't always go well afterward. Most people I've know that had it done said the same thing.

 

[jltrent]

They make three holes in you. One to blow you up, one to cut it off and one at the belly button to suck it out. The third day after mine was removed came a big snow a couple years ago and I was on a tractor feeding and moving snow although it was painful from hitting the frozen ice chucks with the tractor. Like others have said if you don't already have stomach digestion problems you will after with some food. Also I got immediate relief, as I mean right after I woke up from surgery, from the side pain. When I went back for the follow up the doctor pointed at a big word (Cholecystitis) in my file from the test on the removed organ and said I bet that had been bothering you for a while.

 

[M-5]

gallbladder - No problem .

if they fix a hernia while they are in there it Hurts like hell and takes a few days to over that and a few months to over the mesh barbwire they use.

 

[dun]

I had mine pulled long before the 3 hole method when they actually slit you open and got hands in there. Other then being stupid and thinking I could start bucking hay a couple of days after, the only complication I had was explosive diarrhea. Fortunately I had a doc that new the simple fix.

 

[Ky cowboy]

My wife regrets having her' s taken out. If it's not giving you trouble, I'd leave it alone. I know she wishes she did. I Think it does more good then bad even if it's functioning less than it supposed to.

 

[Caustic Burno]

GB have you had a hida scan I know I misspelled that it is a test of gall bladder function if you have gall bladder disease. That is serious shyt can become gangrene killed my grandmother

 

[JSCATTLE]

I don't have any personal experience with it but I work with a guy that had his taken out . All I know Is 20 or so minutes after he eats you better not stand between him and the bathroom door . He said he wasn't like that before his was removed.

 

[Anonymous]

My wife had hers removed a few years ago. Took 15 years of not sleeping through a whole night, back hurting, and 4 BAD attacks that sent her to ER in severe pain. Doctors could never diagnose the problem. She did experience the post-surgery problems everyone else talked about but they were minor and a short while afterward she could eat anything that she could before. Like someone mentioned above, the relief was immediate, she felt better as soon as she woke up from surgery. She says it's the best thing she has ever done.

 

[Son of Butch]

My 90 yr old grandmother came through her gall bladder surgery just fine 40+ years ago before laser surgeries.
But she was a tough old bird, her doctor was surprised to find stones outside of the gall bladder.

Seems it had ruptured several years earlier and healed leaving stones on the outside. Looking back, there had been an episode when she was quite ill and in pain, but refused to go to a doctor, surviving on 7up and aspirin for a few days.
We kind of assumed that was when it happened. There is no way that I'd be tough enough to go through that.

 

[dun]

I don't have any personal experience with it but I work with a guy that had his taken out . All I know Is 20 or so minutes after he eats you better not stand between him and the bathroom door . He said he wasn't like that before his was removed.

There is a simple fix. There is a product (by prescription) called Questran, it's a powder that is normally used for high cholesterol. what it does is binds the bile salts into a more or less solid. Depending on the severity, any where from a half teaspoon to a couple of teaspoons once a day is all it takes. The negative is that it will make for a hard stool so you have to take something like metamucil along with it. I had to take it for something like 10 years but the problem eventually went away. It's the only thing that made life normal for me. I had mine removed 35 years ago and that was the only downside to it.

 

[ranchersswiss]

I had mine taken out 7 years ago through laparoscopic surgery. recovery is fast, got back to work after a week.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I don't have any personal experience with it but I work with a guy that had his taken out . All I know Is 20 or so minutes after he eats you better not stand between him and the bathroom door . He said he wasn't like that before his was removed.

There is a simple fix. There is a product (by prescription) called Questran, it's a powder that is normally used for high cholesterol. what it does is binds the bile salts into a more or less solid. Depending on the severity, any where from a half teaspoon to a couple of teaspoons once a day is all it takes. The negative is that it will make for a hard stool so you have to take something like metamucil along with it. I had to take it for something like 10 years but the problem eventually went away. It's the only thing that made life normal for me. I had mine removed 35 years ago and that was the only downside to it.

I'll pass that along dun ..

 

[Caustic Burno]

JSC colestipol works as well pill form same principle as what Dun was explaining

 

[greybeard]

Beginning to re-think this..

This is to be a 'pre-emptive' surgery. I've had no symptoms at all--no pain, and would never have thought I had gallbladder problems. On the other hand (TMI follows) I have, for the last 30 years or so, been one of those people that only has to poop once ever 3 (sometimes 4) days. "Slow progress" thru the digestive tract is how it's been described. Not constipated..just no requirement to go every day. Probably wouldn't hurt if things were speeded up some.

(I've always felt folks that had to poop every dang morning were eating way more than their body needed--like an engine that was blowing black smoke out the tail pipe--more fuel than the engine can burn)

My diet is already pretty restricted because of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Lots of vegs and roughage, tho the doc said I can eat all the beef, lean pork and fish I want as long as I balance it with vegs and fruit so cholesterol is kept in check.

Still, unless the primary doc can convince me tomorrow, (or the surgeon in consult on Monday) that there is a really compelling reason to do this, I'm going to pass on it.

 

[Bright Raven]

Gastrointestinal tract processing speeds vary. In the extreme, some people are known to have one bowel movement per week. I am on the other extreme.

GB: you know you are getting old when the subject of bowel movement and the next doctor appointment dominates the conversation. Between the ages of 65 and 93 when mom died, her bowel movements were always the topic of the day.

 

[dun]

Gastrointestinal tract processing speeds vary. In the extreme, some people are known to have one bowel movement per week. I am on the other extreme.

GB: you know you are getting old when the subject of bowel movement and the next doctor appointment dominates the conversation. Between the ages of 65 and 93 when mom died, her bowel movements were always the topic of the day.

Bowel movements are one thing, bowel MOVEMENTS are a horse of s differnt color

 

[Bright Raven]

Gastrointestinal tract processing speeds vary. In the extreme, some people are known to have one bowel movement per week. I am on the other extreme.

GB: you know you are getting old when the subject of bowel movement and the next doctor appointment dominates the conversation. Between the ages of 65 and 93 when mom died, her bowel movements were always the topic of the day.

Bowel movements are one thing, bowel MOVEMENTS are a horse of s differnt color

:lol:

 

[D2Cat]

Greybeard, once you have had the test required for you (and your doctors) to make a good decision the final decision is up to you.

Some doctors get pretty excited about talking to a patient about pending procedures. I think they have a mental image (at that time) of you helping make their next boat payment! While your in conference with them it pretty easy to follow their line of thinking, and agree to whatever they suggest. Your true decision (your gut feeling) comes to you later....as you drive home...or set in the easy chair thinking.

I'll give you an example. About two months ago is was sent to a dermatologist to check for skin cancer. That doctor noticed on my left had my little finger had a curl to it, and I could not actually straighten that finger. She said I should have it checked out because it could get worse and latter not be able to use it. So I went to a plastic surgeon. It was Dupuytren's Contracture ( a fifty dollar word that meant nothing to me) and could get more contracted like folks the severe arthritis who can use their fingers.

He asked me how long my finger had been that way. I told him I did not know. It was never a bother, probably years! He asked my wife, who was setting there, she didn't know either. He said, "Don't you ever hold hands?" trying to get an answer that would back up his urgency of doing something.

His solution was they inject the finger with something, wait two days, come back in and they straighten the finger and put it in a splint for 3 weeks. And that will PROBABLY solve the problem for the rest of my life.

He mentioned several times during the consultation my insurance would cover the procedure. He even had his asst. write down to order the injection material. He mentioned it was a costly product and they ordered it as needed.

I kinda went along with his line of thinking until I got in the truck and was driving home.

I called my Endocronologist and explained the conference discussion. Her answer was, "Can't make a well person better!"

This is the thought to keep in mind. I called and canceled everything with that dr.