Gallbladder Removal Success Story! I Finally feel better!!!

Did you also have back pain?

I have had keyhole removal, now day 5.

Did anyone experience bitter taste in mouth and reflux post op? I'm hoping it is temporary while my body is adjusting.

I'm 23 and ended up with gallstones while pregnant with my second child. I talked to my surgeon who said I could try to wait off the surgery but every night I hurt I wanna get it out but I'm so scared I've never had surgery besides wisdom teeth removel and I've never been put under just looking for some advice.

WARNING!!!! Loooooong Post Alert!

Hello fellow Gallbladder sufferers!

I started reading these posts 12 days ago.

That's when my Demon Organ decided to rear its ugly little head!

I want to start by saying ALWAYS TRUST YOUR BODY!

You know it better than any Dr ever could so never stop fighting for your own health!

Here goes:

I am a 41 year old Female, average weight, with 1 Child and no Medical issues except Endo and PCOS.

13 days ago I went to sleep feeling perfectly fine. The next morning I woke up with terrible Crampy, Stabby, Achy pain in my RUQ Underneath and just below my R Ribcage, pain in my R flank and just below my R Shoulder blade. I was also EXTREMELY nauseous. I have never felt this pain before!

I never even had that level of Nausea while dealing with morning sickness. I spent the day in bed, on my phone desparately trying to find answers. The only logical conclusion was Gallbladder! I already had a regular cracking scheduled with my Chiro the next morn so I toughed it out for the night. So I go in and my Chiro poked my ribs, pushed down on the opposite arm and said I had an issue with my GB. Crazy, right? Fast forward a few hours and my pain/nausea intesified so I went to the on-call clinic at my Dr's office since it was a Saturday. She wasnt in so I saw someone new who told me to run, not walk to the ER. All he did was ask my symptoms and pushed on my abdomen. He said its your GB. So I went. 4 hours later I was home starting my first antibiotic and popping a pain pill because all they could find was a UTI. A UTI that I had zero syptoms of AND I was still in pain! My blood work was normal, Urine showed a UTI and sono only showed sludge in my GB, no stones or swelling. 2 days later, on Monday morn, I called to make an appt with my GP but she was out for all of Thanksgiving week so I went back to the on Call I had seen. He was shocked to see me. This is now day 5 of constant, around the clock pain and nausea. So he said yes, I do have a UTI but thats not the source of the pain, etc. He was still convinced it was my GB. So he had me end the antibiotic I was on, got a shot of Rocephin, wrote a new RX for Bactrim, ( just to be sure we cleared out the UTI) took blood and Urine (which I have still not received the results from) and scheduled another test.So 2 hours later I was getting a CT with and without contrast. But before I could even pull back into my driveway, I got a call from the Nurse saying my CT was clear- no sludge, stones or swelling of my GB and I was perfectly healthy except for a small cyst on each of my ovaries. ( I always have cysts due to PCOS but that was not the origin of my pain) While getting a clean bill of health is great news to most, I was devastated! I started crying because NO ONE WOULD LISTEN TO ME! I felt like I was going crazy. I started back-tracking through every pain, all the nausea and wondering if I was really going Coo Coo! I was not going to sit around in the state I was in and just "wait out my symptoms" as suggested by the Nurse. I called her back and demanded a HIDA scan be scheduled immediately. The Dr agreed and said they would get right on it. So again, I am telling the Medical Pros" what to do! Well, they didnt! This was on Wed, the day before Thanksgiving. I called them and the Imaging place multiple times all day and nothing had been ordered. So Thanksgiving consisted of me, in my Jammies, on my Mom's couch watching my entire Family enjoy the day while I was hurting and feeling awful! Fri morning I started making calls again and still nothing. I knew my only option was to wait it out all day Fri, Sat and Sun. I was dammned if I was going to rush back to the ER just to be turned away again. I told my Husband to never take me back unless I was bleeding profusely, had broken a bone or had passed out from the pain. I made it through the first 2 days but barely. The days felt like they were a million hours long and the pain/nausea was relentless. My beautiful, amazing 8 year old Daughter was off school all week and I was a lump! I felt so horrible physically but I also felt like I was letting her down by not doing a thing with her. Terrible Mommy Guilt!!!! I woke Sunday feeling a bit worse and had developed Thrush downstairs and in my mouth due to the copious amounts of Antibiotics but I was determined to push through. I didn't make it long. My sweet husband made a special trip to get me a Ginger smoothie as I was convinced it would cure me....I think I was delierious at this point. 4 sips of the smoothie and my pain/nausea went through the ceiling!!! Somehow he convinced me to get into the Car and he rushed me back to the ER. It was 11:30 am. This time I was running a fever of 99.4 which I had never done in all 10 days. Then it was like Groundhog's Day when the very same ER Dr walked into my room! My heart sank. I just knew I had made a very BIG mistake! What happened next was Miraculous!!!!

HE BELIEVED ME!!!!!!!!!

He said 10 straight days of pain/nausea was too long and that a Surgeon would be by shortly to discuss removing my GB that day.

He re-did my blood, Urine and Sono ( Blood and urine came back fine-no more UTI and Sono still showed sludge-No Stones or swelling) and then they gave me a BIG, FAT dose of Morphine and Zophran. I felt like a Zillion Bucks!

Shortly after there was a PA asking me questions to relay to my Surgeon, I was taken to the Pre-Op room and then I was lights out at 6pm. My surgery was only 45 minutes long.

I woke with new pain, Surgical pain, but no RUQ, flank, Shoulder blade pain and my nausea had hit the road! My GB WAS swollen, it was filled with sludge, it was starting to turn Grey and I had Cholesterol stones lodged into the walls of it!!!!

None of these things, except sludge had shown in any of the testing!

Tests are great but they can be wrong and very misleading!

I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!

I was taken to my room at 8pm that night and released to go hone the next day at 1:30 PM which horribly enough was my 41st Birthday!

But as a Birthday Gift I had my Demon organ ripped out and lost 10 lbs....Silver linings!

I am 3 days post-op and I feel as though I have conquered an entire Country!

I am taking it easy with food, only eating whole, healthy foods until Im off all the meds and then Ill start slowly adding back in. Dr. doesnt think Ill have any issues because Im healthy but Im being cautious just in case;)

Please ask me questions as I know I've left tons of info out!

I am here to tell you, your pain can be solved but you have to FIGHT LIKE HELL!!!

You are your own best Advocate!

Tough Chicks don't need Gallbladders!!!

i have been booked in for gall bladder surgery on the 28 th of this month and im so scared its unreal , maily acared if what i might feel like after and stuff

I had my gallbladder removed a couple of weeks earlier. I was diagnosed with cholelithiasis around two years ago.. I was too afraid of surgery though, that I always avoided it despite being strongly advised. Twice I had developed complications leading to accute Pancreatitis but luckily the blockage cleared if its own without the need of any procedure ( like ERCP). On 2nd episode of accute Pancreatitis, I finally decided to go ahead with the surgery ( a decision which should have been made, a lot earlier).

The US showed, a thick walled, contracted GB with adhesions. The US specialist was of the view that lap. cholecystectomy might not be possible due to severe adhesions. However, thanks to the experience of the operating surgeon, my GB was removed by lap. chole..

The post-op recovery was event less. I was discharged from hospital within 18 hours of the procedure. There was slight pain and lack of sleep for first couple of days but it soon subsided. I was back to my work after a week, and soon switched to normal diet ( less fat obviously). I am feeling much better now and would advise everyone to go for it.. For around 2 years, I suffered with GB pain on several occasions, but fear of surgery kept me away from making this decision ( which should have been made a lot earlier).

My GB was badly deceased, and was sent for histopathology evaluation. It gave may a few sleepless nights but thankfully the GB showed no signs of tumor or malignancy. The diagnosis was chronic cholecystitis.

Though i only have two weeks experience post- surgery, but it is already feeling great..

Everything is temporary, you will get through this! I spent weeks reading frightening stories before and after my surgery and coming across just a few positive stories helped so much. My discomfort started in december as a nagging feeling on right side under ribs, but became full on pain on new years eve with a prime rib dinner. Covid was raging so it took 10 days to get doc appt, gave blood got results 10 days later (somewhat elevated ast alt). Every appt took 7-10 days while they poked and scanned me, said gallbladder looks fine. Pain every meal and losing weight until it puts me in the er late february, there for 30 minutes they knew i needed gall surgery. Spent 1 1/2 days in er, then kicked out for bad insurance and now contracted covid in the er. found my own surgeon had the surgery and felt terrible for weeks on end, I was sure they had botched the surgery because pain continued but slowly I got my strength back (lift weights as soon as you are comfortable). Long story to tell whomever reads this that you will recover, dont hesitate to have the surgery they perform so many they are routine. I am certain I would have recovered much quicker without all the delays as my body was depleted. I now have no pain, can eat whatever I want and even tolerate spicy food better than before.

Thank you for this. I am 4 months in with this dull ache in the middle of my upper stomach, feels like it's right under my ribcage. Feels like its a tight band. I feel stabbing pains sometimes in the upper back mostly right shoulder blade but sometimes it's the middle. Right shoulder aches, and I could swear last nigh both shoulders were giving me trouble. I feel like everything I eat upsets me and sometimes it doesn't. I just can't pinpoint what is wrong with me. Just that I feel achiness around the right side and mid upper abdo. I feel like I'm always 'unwell' and it's one illness after another. Like I'm being poisoned. Ultrasound showed no stones, and GB, Liver and kidneys looked good. Blood tests (I've had numerous!) always all come back perfect except billirubin slightly elevated which was 25 a few months back and now just recently up to 31. Dr has said this is benign Gilbert's Syndrome, but I'm not buying it. I'm not sure where to go from here, where I live there is no option for a HIDA scan as we don't have it. Will have to travel a fair distance (1hr flight, or 9 hr drive) to the nearest city for it. Not to mention the costs behind it (insurance won't cover it as it is a pre-existing condition **rolling eyes).

Would you know if CT scan might pick something up? I just can't live like this. I am slowly developing anxiety around eating and am losing weight. 12kgs since this started 4 months ago. Feeling miserable

really interesting read, I currently have a dull pain on my right side and also in the centre of my chest almost feels like pressure, sometimes worse after fatty meal.

My bile duct is also massivley enlarged so they are talking about taking out the gallblader and I was really worried based on Dr Google but this is re assuring .

Out of interest did you loose weight while suffering, I have lost half a stone in a couple of months.