Good golly, gallbladder!

[butterfly23 423]

I just got out of the hospital for two days due to cholecystitis and gallstones. They say I need to have my gallbladder out, but I have to wait until the inflammation goes down as it is dangerous right now so they gave me two days of IV antibiotics and another 10 day take-home course. Wow it hurt.

I am just under 5 months post-op, been following directions the vast majority of the time and find it ironic that now I have this issue when I've spent the past year eating as healthfully as ever in my life (and ultrasound showed no gallstones prior to surgery and massive ones now). Anyway, I have read a bit about this here and am seeking others experiences post-op with their gallbladder.

I have a surgery consult in 10 days after my antibiotics are done to schedule surgery, but I am hoping to push to December as I am in graduate school school full-time and work full-time until then although obviously I'll follow the surgeon recommendation if need be.

Thanks in advance for any experiences or insight - also for pain management options etc. I am so thankful for this community and knowing I am not alone in whatever comes my way on this WLS journey.

[Trinn 139]

Hey hey! I'm gonna be blunt -- have the surgery, and have it soon.

In 2003, I had increasing gall bladder attacks, and surgery was suggested. However, I didn't want to have surgery, and I was busy with a custody dispute and life -- so I put it off. And it got worse, but I kept saying, "No, I can't do that right now, I have to go to court, I have to work on this thing, I have important stuff, my life won't wait...."

Eventually, it got bad enough that I ended up in an ER with inflammation -- I was told to get an ultrasound and that I really should get surgery soon. I put it off longer. A few weeks after that, I woke up in so much pain one morning that we had to have an ambulance come for me. Diagnosis -- life threatening pancreatitis and extreme inflammation. Again, I tried to avoid surgery, but it was bad enough that they *insisted* I stay in the hospital. It took a week for me to get well enough to have the laproscopic surgery. I did, and almost immediately, I was SO much better that I felt silly for having put it off for so long.

Honestly, folks are not clear on this sometimes, so I'm gonna tell you up front -- you can *die* from gall-bladder related inflammation. You can permanently destroy enough of your pancreas that you're a Type 1 diabetic for the rest of your life. Looking back, I do not regret having surgery at ALL -- I regret that I kept putting it off and thinking that I was too busy to have it. And my life was so much better! I hadn't realized how much the gall bladder issues were causing me health problems until I had it removed. Now, it wasn't perfect -- I have had some digestive issues ever since, mostly when I eat fatty foods -- but man oh man, I look back on that delay as one of the silliest things I ever did.

The sooner you have the surgery, the sooner you'll be well. I'm a grad student myself -- I just had my VSL last week and my classes start next wee! -- so I know how pesky it is to have that happen. But trust me, you want to do the surgery now, and not have a worse emergency and recovery for waiting until December. In my case, I was always, "Just a couple more weeks, just next month..." and I really regret those decisions.

Also, I would say that the recovery is *easier* than WLS, so if you've had that, really, it's about the same. Please, schedule your surgery ASAP. The school will understand. It will be okay. Really, seriously, do this. :-)

[butterfly23 423]

@@Trinn, thank you so much for your reply and sharing your experience. I will take your advice, I see the surgeon soon. I am sorry you had to go through all that! Best of luck with your recovery and your school year and thanks again for your input. I needed to hear that!

[Trinn 139]

No problem! Good luck to you too! I wish I had someone who had told me all this back in 2003! :-)