Gallbladder post-op 4 weeks, soreness?

Thank you so much for the reply. It was what I thought but I was a little bit bothered as I seemed to be pain free... Then one little twist while I was asleep and I woke up on that side and now I've had the discomfort that has lasted a few days.

I will just keep taking it easy and take some paracetamol which eases it all. I'd take ibuprofen but they worsen my asthma so I avoid it . Yeah, I'm glad to be back on my own diet again!

Hello,

Mine was done laproscopically and like you, yes, there's still some tenderness deep inside rather than on the surface. I guess we still had the same things cut so that may be why it hurts despite the incision method.

There were some things they only found out when they opened me up. There was an infection and pus in my gallbladder so the operation took a lot longer. I had constant dullish pain in the run up to it and decided I couldn't wait on the nhs so I paid privately. Apparently I wouldn't have made an nhs waiting list but that's the background.

Thanks for the reassurance though. It's my first operation so I'm unsure of what is normal.

Like you I ended up in a walk in centre. They suggested further investigations of which my GP was reluctant to carry out and I had to push very hard for. I was already being treated for anxiety so they told me the pain I was having was all in my head... Glad I forced the issue of referral.

Yes I had to push hard to get the surgery I needed too. I looked at going private but my son-in-law is a consultant and my daughter an ex nurse sill working in the NHS so I felt I had to go on a waiting list. My daughter says just because it's private doesn't make it better, but that certainly doesn't apply to the accommodation or the facilities!!! In the end, because I had two surgeries within five weeks, two ERCPs, ultrasound, MRI, and a CT, I don't think we could have afforded it. Goodness knows how much I cost the NHS !

I think the way people with gallbladder issues have to wait whilst in pain is disgusting.

It's very true, it doesn't get you better care, it's just a way of jumping the queue. They all want their beds because that's profit. In the nhs it's because of the lack of them and the sick people that they need to treat.

In my case they'd have ended up spending a lot more money on me because I'd likely have been an emergency case in the end. It's crazy to think about that v the one hour operation it's meant to be.

All non-urgent care on the nhs can be a long drawn out process. It's only going to get worse before it thinks of getting better. The nice guidelines state that you're supposed to get your gallbladder removed within a week or something like that if you have chronic pains (I think). You'd be lucky to get a gp referral in that time xD.

Yes you're right about getting a referral but of course that's when the 18 week referral to treatment kicks in, so they just try to ignore it. I was just on the limit but others seem to have been waiting even longer. I was getting so much pain, despite eating next to no fat, I couldn't sleep so was absolutely exhausted.

When I was admitted last October with cholecystitis and jaundice and was in hospital for a week, they were going to do it then. I was really ill and was catheterised, on IV fluids and antibiotics and had to have oxygen, yet as soon as there was an increase in demand for beds I was discharged! They tried to manage me as an outpatient - ERCP in November and laparoscopic cholecystectomy in February, but when I turned up, nil by mouth, for the laparoscopy they realised I needed to have the open procedure. Nobody had realised up until that point that laparoscopy just would t work in my case despite two ERCP reports saying there were too many large stones in the bile duct to be removed with ERCP. Had they done the surgery in October, which was my date of referral, as they originally said, I'd have been saved eighteen extra weeks of agony. I'd been having bad attacks since July (pain, sweating and shivering plus no appetite) which were misdiagnosed as kidney stones, so I'd had a lot of pain over the course of eight months but looking back I realise I'd been having minor issues long before then.

Pain like that is the body's way of indicating something is seriously wrong, so why is it being ignored? My GP actually laughed when I told him I was on the waiting list - "elective cholecystectomy! Good luck with that!". So they just put off and put off surgery until it often becomes a more serious medical emergency.