so unexpected thing is unexpected

Went to ultrasound; doctor states I have gallstones?

God, that word just lacks style so much. The question mark is more a product of my lack of ability to put this in context or like, you know, wtf? I am going to be consulting with a surgeon, or so my doctor reports. I feel this entire thing is a product of the fact that this morning I was texting svmadelyn about how pretty the hospital is. And it is! Glass and steel and a garden and all modern and comforting and now, you know, surgery.

Okay, yes, of course I googled, but you know, people who have had this or done this or whatever, give me an idea of what level of panic I need to be graduating to? I am more at the stage of "what the hell".

*sighs and hits google* I reserve the right to be really weird about this for a while.

ETA: I am breaking my soda only on weekends rule. Wikipedia is so very--informative. I've named my gallbladder Horace. If something has this many issues, it gets a name that is easier to use for hating it purposes.

Comments

[dhrachth.livejournal.com]

My Dad should have gotten his gallbladder out but was afraid of surgery and kept putting it off. He had various complications and eventually it ruptured and he ended up with emergency surgery, a giant scar, and three weeks in intensive care.

My grandmother had hers out, just like her doctor recommended, and was back to normal in a couple weeks and much better off afterwards.

Although I'm sure some doctors are a bit surgery happy and recommed removal prematurely, you can make yourself a lot worse by letting fear of surgery get to you.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I think that's pretty much my freak-out place; I've never been under general and the idea of it freaks me out. The closest I came was a drip for what they called twilight sleep when they were biopsying my lungs when I had pneumonia; I was very stoned and really zen, but still conscious and had my memory (which was in retrospect informative, but at the time I was mostly finding the video just hilarious--lungs! Tiny tiny cutting thing! Cool!

Thanks for commenting!

[doire]

Saw this through friendsfriends, so, "hi". TMI from strangers

I've not had my gall bladder removed. I've learnt to spot the first warning twinges and knock them out with a massive (1.5gm) dose of ibuprofen. The anti-inflammatory effect seems to stop it - and the pain relief is good too.

First few times at 3am I thought I had appendicitis, but then it was diagnosed through ultra-sound and I was told I would have to have it out eventually. But for me attacks seem to be stress rather than food related and are now typically a year or so apart. If they became more frequent again I'd go for surgery, but for now I'm okay.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm hoping the surgery consult thing will give me some options on when to have it done and it's not something that needs to happen like, in a month or something.

[twicet.livejournal.com]

Surgery in many forms and I are now close acquaintances! I had my gallbladder removed in the late seventies and haven't missed it for so much as a day.

The new keyhole surgery is so much better. Your hospital will most likely have you go in for a pre-op app. where the anaesthetist will check you out, ask questions, take a list. You will also be seen by a nurse another chance for questions, all of which are important. As a retired nurse, I can tell you everyone is scared, especially if it is the first time you have had surgery.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I'm very likely to make horrible, horrible jokes and then try not to hyperventilate. I am betting they will find this normal and kind of sad.

I should make sure I have good jokes available in case.

Thank you very much. Seriously, this entry I am totally going to be re-reading regularly.

[anjak-j.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain...literally. Gallstones are part of the reason I've been to A&E so many times in the last nine months.

The sooner I get my gallbladder removal operation, the better. *pokes the NHS*

I had mine out 3 months ago

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

Surgery is minor and keyhole so you end up with what look like small random stab wounds on your torso. I was kept in over night and then released but had to go back for another procedure due to being a freak of nature (check my past posts on my LJ for details). Then I was off work for about 2 weeks. First few days I was very sore and a bit loopy on painkillers but was surprised at how quick I recovered In short, do not worry it will be fine and you will undoubtedly feel a lot better after wards.

I have found since that I need to eat little and often rather then large meals at one sitting and that keeps my digestive system happy. You will find that you will not ever digest fat as well as you used to so avoid high fat foods or accept that they will just go straight through you very quickly. I also take a fish oil supplement on a daily basis to assist with fat digestion and I would recommend that.

It really is worth it to get rid of the agonising pain of gall stone flare ups. I feel a lot better since I had mine done.

[quinn222.livejournal.com]

I see you already have a ton of replies but just adding: Had it done, wasn't the most fun I ever had. I was uncomfortable for about a week, real pain for a day or two. I've had some tummy issues since as sometimes my body doesn't really want to deal with fats but nothing really major.

[trish786.livejournal.com]

A lot of people actually have gall stones, but most of them don't have any symptoms. And generally, they won't remove your gall bladder unless you are having symptoms (eg. recurrent infections,or symptomatic gall stones). The surgeon that you are seeing may offer you several options, mainly surgery, ERCP (a scope is passed down through your mouth, pass your stomach and eventually will arrive at your bile duct, where it can pluck out any stones present), shock-wave lithotripsy(shock waves are used to break the stones into smaller pieces in hopes that it will pass) or doing nothing at the moment,

As for surgery, if it's done laporascopically, the recovery time is much better as there are only 3 or 4 1cm long incisions that need healing (the op basically involves 3 or 4 1cm incisions, the main one being in your belly button where the camera goes through and the others to hold instruments).Once the gall bladder is removed, the instruments are removed and the incision sites are stitched up. These sites heal up nicely and are not that noticeable after awhile. As a general of thumb, only <10% of these ops fail and and end up being open incisions (laporatomies). If you're worried about the anesthetic pov, as someone else has already mentioned, the anesthetist will meet with you before the op to talk about these things with you. Your surgeon will be mentioning all of these things to you when you see him.

Anyways, i hope that this helps. My only disclaimer is that as a medical student in the UK, my info is mainly from the NHS. Nevertheless, this should also be relevant where you're at.

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

Just friended you and now my first post is going to be all about innards. Oh yay!

My assvice: Get it out. If you keep it for long enough, it will stop giving you massive pain when you eat the wrong thing and start giving you massive crippling pain at random times for no reason. Which is great when you're like, driving. Or in public. Or in a trial. Or basically, anywhere that it would be really inconvenient to be suddenly completely nonfunctional and also barfing. These attacks? Can literally LAST FOR WEEKS.

Belly hurt afterwards, I didn't like sitting up and my shoulder ached for 18 hours after the surgery, which is a common side effect of anything laparoscopic. But yeah. Other than being achy and tired, I felt better very fast. Digestive-wise, I haven't had any major problems with digestion, unless I eat a super-duper large and fatty meal, in which case I can expect that my stomach will exact it's revenge about 30 minutes later. So I try not to do that -- at least in public, or very often.

[calligrafiti.livejournal.com]

My maternal grandmother, mom, and sister all had gall stones that led to gall bladder removal. No idea how I missed out. I didn't really know grandma that well (she died of lung cancer when I was around 7), but after recovery lack of a gall bladder didn't really seem to affect Mom or my sister. On Sis you can't even see a scar. They went in laparoscopically, through a small incision in the navel. And that was at least 10 years ago, so they may have even less invasive treatments now. Good luck!

[ghfan-98.livejournal.com]

I had mine removed 11 years ago. After about a year of mild attacks (which I had thought was just indigestion) I had the mother of all attacks which landed me in the ER thinking I was having a heart attack. When they suggested surgery I was so happy at the prospect of relief, I didn't have time to get nervous. It was a simple in-out procedure, I was home by 7 pm the day of surgery. I had it done on the Friday of a four day weekend and was back at work on Tuesday.

[shrapnelshrike.livejournal.com]

If you have to get it removed, laparoscopic is the way to go. I had mine out in 2008. It was outpatient, and I was limping around the house again by the next day. The anesthesia is kinda scary, but it's better than your gallbladder fomenting revolt with your liver as backup.

[aliciajd]

When I was 54 I had emergency gallbladder surgery after a 3 day gall bladder attack. I was told my recovery would be more difficult than it would have if I’d had a scheduled, routine removal because I was exhausted and run down from the attack. I had the surgery on a Thursday and stayed overnight because I reacted a bit to the anesthesia by vomiting. Otherwise, it would have been a same day surgery and I would have gone home by 5 pm. By the time I went home Friday, 24 hours after the actual surgery, I felt fine. I never took the pain pills that they gave me just in case. I was a little weak, but no pain at all. Stomach was a just bit sore, as though I'd strained the muscles a little in exercising.

I went back to my full-time desk job on Wednesday morning, six days after the surgery. I was tired at the end of the day, but had zero pain.

Forty years ago, I took care of my aunt after her traditional GB surgery. She wasn’t able to return to half days on her kindergarten teaching job until ten weeks after her surgery.

What a wonderful advancement in modern surgery techniques!

[renshai.livejournal.com]

I had my gallbladder out in grade 11 or 12 - it was very much minor, despite the fact that apparently I had more gallstones than the surgeon had ever seen before. I was up and about in a couple days, and back playing rugby in a couple weeks.

Actually, everyone in my family has had their gallbladder out - apparently it's a hereditary defect for us. Mom says she should have seen if we could get a group rate.

[rissabby.livejournal.com]

Helpful Hint for surgery preparation. (But, hopefully you won't need it.)

I was told not to eat or drink anything for a number of hours before surgery. My solution; (inspired by the movie Cube; they didn't have anything to drink so they put clothing buttons in their mouths...) chewing gum. I went through two packs because it seemed to help with the nervousness and boredom too.

[teneagles.livejournal.com]

It seems you're more freaked out about the general anaesthesia than the surgery itself. My (GA-phobic) grandmother just had surgery a few days ago; for the first time ever, she had a pre-surgery consultation with her anaesthesiologist, and it made a world of difference. Normally, you meet your anaesthesiologist for the first time as they're sliding the needle in. This one -- he took a complete medical history, they discussed her past reactions to various drugs, and he described the entire procedure he would go through, including what drugs he was going to give her and what the side effects would be. It quite helped set her mind at ease, and it clearly helped the doctor as well -- he adjusted her treatment several times, based on the information she was giving him.

Between the new wonder (seriously) drugs anaesthesiologists have these days and his adjustment of her treatment to accommodate her special needs, my grandmother came sailing through this GA session better than I've ever seen. Seriously: she, who normally comes out of GA and proceeds to vomit for hours and take days to regain full lucidity, this time popped open her eyes and said, "Is it time to go home?" I almost fell down.

Like I said, such consultations are not, in my experience, SOP, so I highly recommend requesting such if it's not offered to you. It really can make the whole thing less of an ordeal.

[issaro.livejournal.com]

I agree with everyone else in that you don't need to panic. You got it diagnosed and are going to be taking care of it. A couple of years ago, I had gallbladder issues that they *didn't* catch and ended up in the hospital for two weeks over Christmas and out of work for three months. But you sound like you're in a much better place than I. Get the procedure done and then you can embark on the lovely discovery of what previously okay foods screw with your digestive system post removal. =)

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Uuuugh, gall stones! The down side is, they can make your life *hell*. The up side is, once they're gone they're gone. My mum had them when I was around twelve - she dropped a lot of weight, was in pain and upset tummy all the damn time (anything with fat in it, even *corn*, set her off). I think she was only in hospital one night, though, and after coming out and getting over the anesthetic & incision, she was right as rain.

[jamesinboots.livejournal.com]

Mroo, I hope it all goes all right. <33333333333

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Gallstones! They can cause you pain worse than labor. I can attest, having had both. My gallbladder was removed two years ago next month.

I had the foul luck to have a severe attack two days before I was due for surgery; we went to the emergency room and they declared my blood levels of something-or-other unsafe and kept me in the hospital for a few days on an IV to stabilize things. The surgery itself wasn't any kind of big deal at all. They put something a little extra in my IV when it was time, and next thing I knew, I was back in bed, a tad sore but not much the worse for wear.

Once they deemed me safe to release back into the wild, I was up and going again in a week or so. A few days spent mostly on the couch will do the trick. At the time, my daughter was just starting to be able to move around; there were a few days in that week where I had to take care of the baby on my own, and I could deal with that fine.

I don't miss the gallbladder. My body has adjusted itself. Certain foods do still mean bathroom trips, but I learned quickly what will set it off, and it's decently easy to avoid them. As someone else has already warned you, general anaesthetic can give you odd mood swings, and it may also depress your appetite, but it's chemical stuff, so don't worry too hard if that happens. It's just the druuuuuugs, and you'll be back to normal soon.

[lurkerlynne.livejournal.com]

God, that word just lacks style so much.

I have a bunion. Much less style than gallstones, which at least sounds nifty and not like something you'd have for dinner. Probably as stew. Gallstones sounds like something you throw at invaders as they besiege your castle walls.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I had my gallbladder out as a teenager after I'd had a few gallstone attacks. It runs in the family.

They removed it laparoscopically and I was out of the hospital by the end of the day, and rested at home for a few more. The thing I remember hurting is -- when they operate laparoscopically, apparently they fill your abdomen with gas to blow it up like a balloon to see things better. And some of the gas was left over afterwards and I felt it rising up through my shoulders, trying to escape, afterwards, when I was sitting up. It was uncomfortable, mostly. I had pain meds, but I remember that because it was really unexpected.

Not so much pain as champagne!

I was really glad to no longer have gallstones afterwards. :-)

[aubergineautumn.livejournal.com]

The surgery itself seems safe. But! If you feel pain afterwards, get an MRI. My mother had emergency gallbladder surgery and IDK why but the doctor left the forceps in....the forceps were removed, and she is now fine!