obesity and gallbladder remival

Hi Sandra I asked this question at my appointment I was told my surgeon had worked on people a lot heavier than me I'm 5ft 9 and 18 stone so a heavy girl. All the usual risks with being out to sleep etc but you need to ask the question so that you are aware. good luck I'm still waiting fir my op

Sandra I had my gall bladder 6 weeks ago. I am thin so I cant comment on the obese side of things but I can tell you about my experiences. I found the surgery took a ton out of me physically I was on a pretty strong mix of tylenol 3 and advil for a week or so afterwards. Walking two blocks a week after surgery had me sweating like i ran marathon and for someone who loves to walk that was frustrating to say the least. The bright side is that at 6 weeks post op I am finally starting to feel like myself and I find I can eat pretty much what I want without having any pre op symptoms. All i can suggest is take your time the recovery is a lot longer then i ever expected to get back to being able to do everything you did prior gallbladder problems. So take the recommened time off work if you can because going back too early and dealing with pain at work simply isnt worth it.  Best of luck with the surgery and recovery.  

Hi Sandra, 

I too can't comment on the weight side of things, as I lost a lot of weight due to this problem and am now considered severly underweight, but I can also weigh in with my experience? I went in for emergency surgery, my gallbladder ruptured and caused a few problems so it'll be slightly different from the routine surgery, I ended up in for 4 days,and on a lot of antibiotics & morphine.

As for complications, I think the majority of them can be found online, most of them deal with the general risks of surgery, infections, damage to other organs, breathing problems.  It's a good idea to give it a Google (if you haven't already), I found the site Healthline & Mayo Clinic very useful, and a lot of hospitals (private and otherwise) have their patient information leaflets online, they are a good source of information.

I am a week into recovery and mostly doing great. I am re-introducing fatty foods into my diet again (I'm excited for pizza tonight!) with success so far. I'm allowing my body to dictate what I eat right now, which is a lot of biscuits, chocolate & crisps! Not healthy, I know, but for now it works. I second the above advice to take it easy, let your body dictate your recovery. I found I was able to get up and about pretty quickly (after the 3 days of morphine induced sleep, so no wonder!) and I felt a lot better for just mooching around the house, getting up and about, going outside for a little walk. But, as & when I get tired, I go back to bed. Those first few days I'd go outside for an hour or two & end up back in bed by 5pm! Take it easy, there's no set time frame to recovery. 

A search of this site itself will bring up a lot of problems that other people have had since the surgery. I urge you to take them into consideration, but also try to remember that the majority of people who have had successful surgery will have moved on from sites such as these, whereas the people who have unfortunate complications will still be searching for answers, and rightly so. In the end, I had no choice, it was surgery or die. But even with the choice and having read a lot of peoples stories on here and other forums, I had already made the decision to go ahead with the surgery. A lot of the problems that can happen afterwards can be treated with further medication. It may not be ideal, but there are options. Once a gallbladder has started to go, I believe it's gone and is only going to cause you more and more pain.

I hope you find the information you are looking for

 

I am very overweight , I did loose 2 stone leading up to my op and have lost more since. It was discussed with me that maybe the risks were higher but my blood pressure is low, and apart from asthma which I have lived with all my life and coped well with, I am reasonably healthy.  I feel I sailed through the operation and I know they take all these things into account. When working out drugs and Apart from the first day I would not say I have not had any real pain.  I would say recovery is slower if you are unfit and I let myself get more unfit than I would have liked before hand, but I felt rubbish all the time. I am well on the road to recovery after 6 weeks and still loosing weight , only another 3/4 stone to go :-) try not to worry everything will be fine 

Thank you so much

Hi, JUst to let u know I had my op 5 days ago and  I had no problems at all with weight. I am 5 foot 2.5 inches and 13 stone 11lb. I was 4 stone heavier a year ago and classed as morbidy obese ! Weight was never brought up as being an issue. All my wounds look dry and  havent leaked at all. In fact I have had very little pain in them and from day two I have only been taking pain killers at night to help me have a good sleep. So dont let your weight get you worried  it has nto been an issue at all with me In fact since ive had the op my appetite is very small now so Im hoping to still loose some more