Having gallbladder removed soon and really scared
Posted , 14 users are following.
I am waiting for a date to have my gallbladder removed. Spoke to friends that has had this done and they seem fine and getting on with their lives but I'm really really scared because I keep reading about people that's had it done and they've had major problems after . Feeling worried.
1 like, 70 replies
louise68650 Alabama
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Hi I'm also waiting and as equally worried xx I've had to take time of work from the pain.. which isn't so good because you think more x try not to worry and stay positive..
Alabama louise68650
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Thank you for your reply Louise. I have made a list of 24 friends and acquaintances who have had their gallbladder Removed and they are all just fine so that helps me a bit but I joined a group on Facebook and although there is many that has had a good result, there are also many that have had some big problems (wish I had not joined the Facebook group) I haven't had pain since last December (had 4 pain attacks in 2016 and ended up in hospital) I have lost 6st.4lb because I was terrified of going under the anaesthetic at 20st.4lb . Still terrified though . Hope everything goes well with you Louise.
Scottie13 Alabama
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Alabama Scottie13
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Thank you for your reply Scottie. Just be glad when it's all over. I was meant to have it done last May but 2 days before surgery I became ill with another problem and since had surgery on the 16th of August to remove my left ovary. All went well with that and it turned out to be just a piece of faty gristle that twisted my ovary. It's strange how I wasn't really scared to have that done but terrified of the gallbladder opp.
Scottie13 Alabama
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gwyneth72826 Alabama
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Alabama gwyneth72826
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LellyM Alabama
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Hi Alabama,
first of all, don't worry. I had my GB removed a few years ago and I have never regretted it. You have to remember, it is usually only people who have a bad experience who post stuff online. Those of us who have a perfectly routine experience don't have a story to tell.
The op its self doesn't take long - I am guessing under 30 mins ( I was fast asleep!!).
When I woke up it was a bit sore and sitting up was tricky - my abdomen looked like I had ben the victim of a frenzied stabbing attack. I think this was the most shocking part for me. I did not expect 5 or 6 separate wounds.
I was sent home with co codamol for the pain but after 2 or 3 days I didn't need them. Back at work after 2 weeks.
Immediately after the op avoid lifting anything heavy and try to limit bending as this wont help. If you have the urge to sneeze, take a fat pillow and press it firmly on yr stomach against the pressure of the stomach muscles (it will hurt less when you do sneeze).
Other than that, stick to a loweish fat diet and get ready to feel well again!
Lel.xx
Alabama LellyM
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Thank you for your reply, haven't had pain since last December but I have lost 6st.4lb had believe that's why haven't had pain . My doctor is still advising me to have gallbladder removed.
Mrsoscared Alabama
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Then gave it removed as yr consultant obviously knows what's going to happen,and that means it's only going to get worse, as mine did and I very nearly ended up dead. I truly think I have been a fool Alabama.and should have just gone strait to a good surgeon at the time of my first episode and had it removed then, one I was 3 years younger 2 it would have been a whole lot easier 3 I wouldn't have wasted 3 years of my life 4 my family have suffered no end of worry over this for 3 years also and it's took its toll on them.5 it would have saved my mental and emotional health that it has really damaged and affected me big time.and 5 it would not have become infected full of puss and gangrenous and very near took my life !!!
so their I give you 5 good reasons to listen to your consultant and gave it removed.
and I also managed it with diet for 2 years by losing 4 and half stone and eating low to no fat.
And lost most of my muscle mass which I've now got to try to rebuild not to mention the repairs I need to do to my mind !!!
JUST DO IT.
Alabama Mrsoscared
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Lynne1965 Alabama
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Straight after surgery I knew I felt different - better. And after about seven weeks I was completely better. Recovery was pretty good. I just had to eat very small portions for a while. I can now eat anything and am completely well and recovered.
If you have gallstones and gallbladder problems that are symptomatic, they won’t go away and will only get worse. On these forums plenty will tell you of their problems, but for the majority this operation is a complete success.
lynda20916 Alabama
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Most people do well after gallbladder removal, some do have problems, but they can be sorted out. It's natural to be worried, but opting to keep a diseased gallbladder is not a good decision. They don't get better. They get worse, and can even become cancerous. So don't lose hope! xx
Mrsoscared Alabama
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Hi Alabama.
well no one was more terrified than I, so much so that I've just wasted 3 years of my life in agonising pain much of that time, and list 4 and half stone.
i was to scared of the surgery and was being told many diffract things by the NHS no hope services.
so they really confused me a lot which just added to my fears and anxiety overall.
but I'm now 25 post opp,done privately by one of the very best surgeons in the country.
and I had no choice to do it or I was likely to be dead within hours to days he said.
so I went under at 6:30pm beleaving it was the end for me and I was not going to wake up,that's my fears and deranged way of thinking I'm sorry to say but true, and I woke up at ten to 8 pm ,so 80 mins later singing lol.
and that was after being awake nearly 200 hours in agony I might add, I think in the preceding 200 hours I had a total of 17 hours broken sleep, so you can imagine how week I was and how deluded my mind was,yet I was awake 80 mins later singing and I'm 53 so the surgery all going well is a breeze basically is how I now see it, and feel such an idiot for being so scared and causing myself so much stress and despair I really do.
i went up to my hospital room had no pain Meds apart from the local annasthisia I believe they inject into the abdomen after the opp.but was then walking along the hospital corridor by ten pm all be it really slowly .i then ate soup and toast around midnight,I stayed awake all night because I was scared ,sorry again but I'm an extremely anxious person, my surgeon mr Charles imber.do google him.
came in to see me at around 11am in the morning,told me I had made an excellent recovery and was discharged at mid day and told I can eat anything I want .and that's exactly what I have done.ive had Chinese takeaway pie and chips from the chip shop and no probs really as far as I can see.so I don't know why all these people say you must eat low fat and so on , I did discuss this subject with my surgeon and told him but I've read online how you must do this and that etc ,to which his reply was , it's all b s .
yr gallbladder has gone that's what's causing your problem ,you can now eat as normal right away.
i have put on 12 pounds in weight since leaving the hospital 25 days ago of which I'm happy about.
i cannot even see where I had the opp done now and neither can anyone else as the tiny scars have healed already to the point of not being visible.
ive taken it pretty easy so far.but am walking 2 lies everyday for exercise and eating well.had bait of issues with constipation for 2 weeks but that seems to be resolving now.
get slight stab pains here and their under my right rib from time to time lasting say up to an hour but in comparison to the pain before it's like being kissed by a butterfly and if that's the small price I have to pay for life . I'll take that please.
by the way my surgery was elected but kind of turned into sort of emergency surgery after I had a private ct scan done and took the results into my surgeons office.he called me and said get to the hospital now or you are not going to be around basically.
i had a 2.3 cm stuck in the cystic duct the gallbladder neck, for 3 years, and a further stone 2.1cm in the gallbladder.
my gallbladder was full of puss and completely gangrenous and had to be drained from inside of me before he could remove it .he did this without spilling one drop or any blood loss at all. And once removed I never even had a single bruise?
and I think I'm doing fine now.
i think the choice of surgeon is the most important consideration with regard to this operation personally.
and if you can manage it privately ide say do so.
i believe if I had it done on the NHS ide be dead now.'as they would not even ct scan me and would have been going in blind to that mess , at best I beleave on the NHS mine would at best have been converted to full open surgery .
'My advise to you and anyone else now.
dont be a fool like I feel I have been. And if they say it needs to come out , listen to them and have this simple yet serious operation done asap as it very near cost me my life. But I think I'm going to be fine now.
dont let fear and anxiety and everyone else's experiences cost you your life. We are all different with different diagnoses and situations yet needing the same operation.and as many specialists have repeatedly said over and over, if you are symptomatic, generally it only will get worse and you will end up having it removed anyway as you like me will have no choice.
good luck and let me know how easy it was afterwards.
Alabama Mrsoscared
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Hi and thank you for your reply. The surgeon I am booked in with is a Mr Bailey, did my friends gallbladder opp and is the leading surgeon at Southampton hospital, he also works private. Where is Mr Charles Imber from ? I am interested in looking him up but I am in Southampton England and don't know how far away Mr Imber is. I suffer from anxiety and worry so much about the operation. I am not in pain and haven't been in pain since last December ( had 4 pain attacks in 2016) but have been on a diet and lost 6st.4lb and believe that is the reason I haven't had the pain since last year. Thanks again
Mrsoscared Alabama
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Alabama.
i don't know mr bailey but I did research on Southampton general and found reports on the hospital acquired infection rates and they were not good.
mr imber.
his name is Charles Jason imber.
he is at the London digestive centre.
41 well beck st
and he serves the private hospital the princess grace in Nottingham place next to Harley street.
he is a pioneering British uk surgeon in bikers and hepatic surgery.
in 2012 he was the first U.K. Surgeon to perform successful keyhole liver transplant useing the givinchy robot system and to perform pancreatic cancer resection the same way.
he is also the lead of liver surgery I think it is at the royal free hospital in hamstead London.
just google top surgeon London and put his name afer it Charles imber.
and the first six pages on google is pretty much about him.
he is one amazing and lovely man.
regards.
Alabama Mrsoscared
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Beenthruit Alabama
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Alabama Beenthruit
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Thank you for your reply. And yes it is true what you are saying, think I'm trying to give myself reasons why I shouldn't have it done because I'm scared but I know in the back of my mind it has to be done. I do have a lot of gasy wind but don't know if that is a symptom or not.
Scottie13 Alabama
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Mrsoscared Alabama
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Mine was 5,800 but mine was a little complicated what with the gangrene etc
but I know that it broke down to 3,000 for the hospital with one nights stay as he insists you stay one night.
but of course if your happy with mr bailey it's free !!
i wasn't happy and I did my research to find the best ,
'that way I could justify that I had given myself the best possible chance.
regards.
Beenthruit Alabama
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I realise now it was affecting me in so many other ways. I’d been feeling generally unwell for some time before the attacks: lack of appetite, tiredness and night sweats. Also I’d have unexplained bouts of diarrhoea: we’d go out for a meal and as soon as we got home I’d have to dash to the loo. Husband who’d eaten same meal was fine and afterwards I’d be ok. Of course I realise now that restaurant/pub food is generally very fatty whereas at home I’ve always cooked with minimal amount of fat. You only have to watch tv chefs loading butter and oil into a frying pan! At the time, I felt these things weren’t specific enough to consult my GP over. Honestly, once you have the surgery, you’ll realise so many niggling little health issues were due to your ailing gallbladder or that’s my experience anyway. X
Beenthruit Scottie13
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Just because a surgeon is London based and good at PR doesn’t mean there arent equally good surgeons elsewhere in the country. If the friend was happy to recommend the Southampton surgeon, I think that’s a pretty good recommendation.
Also part of my NHS role was occasionally helping doctors preparing literature promoting their private work, so I know the sort of thing that is said.
I looked into going private at one stage. Last January, after losing weight over Christmas and still being in pain I was desperate. It went against the grain as I’ve always believed in the NHS. My surgery, a cancellation, came through so I did not have to resort to this. With two open surgeries, 2 CTs, MRI, ultrasound and 2 ERCPs begins me, I dread to think how much it would have cost: probably bankrupted us!! Private does not necessarily equate to better, but you do get your own loo and tv!
Mrsoscared Beenthruit
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Sorry to pick holes here but no one said mr imber was better because he is London based neither did I say anything about his pr ?
i simply said I done a lot and I do mean a lot, of research into the top ten general surgeons in the UK
and after many months of research I found mr charles imber to be one of the very best and he is , that's not pr that's statisticall FACT.
he is a uk pioneering surgeon who has carried out many U.K. First ever performed successfull life saving operations. And to say you know about pr litriture as you worked in the NHS and what they do to promote their private work is to imply that he is a liar !!
and I'm sorry but I don't think he could get away with calling himself a pioneering uk surgeon if he was not because I don't beleave the gmc would let that slip sorry.
on the other hand as you said you worked for the NHS and you know what sort of literature they had you prepare for their private work ! Sorry but that says it all to me as we all know what outright liers the NHS are and you just reinforced that, the NHS sent me away to die as far I am concerned,and if my operation was carried out on the NHS I cannot say for sure but I do beleave ide be dead right now as I simply do not beleave I would have got a surgeon with his skill level on the NHS,by luck of the draw as it were ,because let's face it ,that's what you get on the NHS !
Or I would have had it on the NHS, I was due to gave the operation done on the 1st of September at frimly park hospital I presented myself at a & e twice in the two weeks up to my scheduled operation in absolute agony ,they were lovely to me the front line staff but refused to give me a ct scan or even an ultrasound !
i told them my condition had changed I had all my previous blood work ups with me on both occasions,they done blood work up could see for themselves just how much further my white blood cell count had elavated from the previous ones.i also produced a private ultrasound report I had done some 5 days earlier,concluding that I had significant chronic cholecystitis with inflammation and a thickened gallbladder wall to 9mm.that report with the combined elevated white blood cell count of 19 on the day in a and e ,normal wbc being 4 to 11 as you will know, means I had infected gallbladder according to nice guidelines and the gold standard for this condition again according to n i c e guidelines is in hospital on intravenous antibiotics and intravenous fluid nil by mouth to get the infection under control and they offered me paracetamol and sent me home lol.
our great NHS.
i then called the surgeons Secretery and said my condition had changed somewhat and I felt I needed a ct scan, she replied I'll put it to the surgeon and get back to you,of which she did,and his reply was !
no ct scan !!
so I said on account of that I'm cancelling my operation as of now.
and that's when I decided I need to go to plan b
and do it privately as I'm not getting the care I need from the NHS.
they were happy to go into me BLIND as it were and would likely have killed me in doing so ,given that my gallbladder was distended full of puss and gangrenous.
so I'm so sorry to say this but the NHS failed me and my healthcare on an unprecedented scale as far as I'm concerned it's a lottery,and I did not fancy the gamble with my life.
please do go take a look at mr Charles Jason imber. On his site found on google, and decide for yourself he has an unprecedented track record and is one of our best surgeons.
i did also say he works for the NHS as they all do.
he is a consultant hepatobilery pancreatic surgeon at the royal free hospital in hamstead London for the NHS.
and is the clinical lead in liver transplantation at the royal free for the NHS.
and I personally think his credits speak for themselves .
I would have loved to have been lucky enough to have been assigned him on the NHS as so many have but unfortunately that was not my lottery ticket.
Beenthruit Mrsoscared
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Scottie13 Mrsoscared
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Mrsoscared Scottie13
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Scottie.
i know and I agree with both yourself and sick of waiting.
i never took offence and sorry if it came across like that.'im just passionate lol
if you read back through my posts I did say to Alabama.if feel comfortable
with mr bailey then go for it of course.
i am disgusted that I needed to beg a friend to borrow me the money to save my life
but I had no choice !!
im sure you understand.
but he is an amazing surgeon and that does give you the best chance of survival I hope
and would like to think lol.
Scottie13 Mrsoscared
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Beenthruit Mrsoscared
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You clearly have issues with the NHS, as many of us do, and I can understand your anger after what you have been through (you are not alone!), however, I am not to blame. I worked for NHS in a non clinical position ten years ago. You are angry withthe wrong person.
I had some terrible treatment from the NHS, which I formally complained about and I know this has been rectified for future patients, so in a very small way I actually improved the service.
I am angry that anyone should have to resort to having to go private. I have sympathy for your situation and I have already said you probably have a valid claim to recoup the cost of your treatment. The NHS should be a lot better. The doctors and nurses for the most part are good at what they do and work very hard and long hours for a pittance, but they are hampered by severe lack of funding. They’ve had no pay rises for several years and that is a fact. It’s the system at fault not the staff. This is a government issue.
The reason I posted here is because I wanted to help others. I hope I have helped some and I have been helped. I feel disclined now to continue.
Beenthruit Scottie13
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Scottie13 Beenthruit
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Definitely keep doing what you’re doing! I know you’ve helped me and so many more people! 😘 xx
Mrsoscared Beenthruit
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Now I feel I gave offended you and this was never my intention.
bit of miscommunication on both parts I think.'hopefully we are over that now
and can move on ,
'please do continue to help people as you have also helped myself
I did say to you prior,that I was following your posts for some months.
i think you are brilliant.
lets move on and get past this misunderstanding now please with respect.
the forum would be lost without you.
Beenthruit Scottie13
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Lynne1965 Beenthruit
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Please don’t be discouraged. Stay positive. God bless x
Mrsoscared Beenthruit
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Well I've said I did not mean to offend and it's a misunderstanding on both parts
'and I see your carrying it on on here and now you just look to me like yr milking it sorry if we beg to differ but I also have an entitlement to my view also !
so you carry on because I feel no way about anything I said and now your looking like an injured cat
which is a shame as I held you in much higher regard.
but then you did work for the NHS after all so I suppose it was to be expected really.
ile send some tissues your way good luck with your recovery anyway and I do hope you continue to well.
but we part company here me and you sadly
lynda20916 Beenthruit
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You are amazing, and you've done a wonderfully at supporting people! Don't you dare take yourself off this site! ((BIG HUG))!
Beenthruit Lynne1965
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Maybe I misunderstood Mrsoscared? He certainly didn’t understand that all I was trying to do was point out that there are good surgeons everywhere as I don’t think anyone should have to go private if they can get just as good treatment under NHS. He obviously feels let down by the NHS so was forced to go private.
I also have had so much support from complete strangers on this forum. All I want to do is help anyone I can in return.
Bless you x
Beenthruit Mrsoscared
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Beenthruit lynda20916
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lynda20916 Beenthruit
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I think that your knowledge and experience, and your words of comfort have been critical. I understand that getting gallbladders out is considered elective surgery in the UK, correct? I think it's unbelievably stupid if that's the case.
But, I wouldn't worry so much about why someone took offense...it was his interpretation and not your intent. I, too, have experienced this kind of thing on this site, but not frequently. The people who write in usually really need the help! I try to assist and if it helps, good, but if they turn out to be trolls, let them go back under their bridge where they belong. XOXOXOXO
linda282930 Beenthruit
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Please don't leave the forum sick of waiting. You have helped me a lot since
I joined. I'm still waiting for surgery and I'm sure I'll be asking lots more questions and looking for support when I get my surgery date and post op !
Linda x