Gall-Bladder surgery yesterday, Severe pain when I breathe

I had gall-bladder surgery yesterday morning and since I was in the recovery room every time I breathe in or cough my rib hurts and I get severe pain when I breathe in or take a deep breath in. They told me that it is just gas but I know its not because the vicidon takes the pain away and they told me that pain medicine will not take the gas away.  I feel like something hit my rib making it hard to breathe.  None of my other ports hurt just the one near my rib cage.... Idk... but I am in severe pain, my doctor told me to double up on vicidon when i feel that pain but i still feel the pain through the doubled up medicine.  It hurts to breathe, It hurts to move, It hurts to cough, It hurts to do anything. I don't remember feeling anything like this when I had weight loss surgery RNY on 4/08/13. I never remembered feeling anything like this when I had my c-section 08-17-2010. I think this is by far the most severe pain I have ever felt in my life..... What should I do??

It really sounds like gas.  Just because you didn't have this much trouble with gas from other lap procedures doesn't mean that you cannot ahve trouble with it this time.  I have had a number of lap surgeries, and sometimes the gas was really bad and other times it wasn't too bad.  My mom had her gallbladder out and had NO gas pain.

I am a little confused because first you say you know that it isn't gas because the Vicodin makes it go away (and they told you that it wouldn't help the gas pain much (which is true)), but then later you say that your doctor told you to double the Vicodin dose but that even with the double dose you can still feel the pain.  Those two things are contradictory.

Getting up and walking usually helps disburse the gas.  Other than that, I would keep in touch with your surgeon if it gets worse or doesn't dissipate in a day or so.

Lora

What I should have said is sometimes I can feel the pain through the doubled up vicodin 

I had my gallbladder out last Thursday. I can't say that I was in that much pain, but i do have I high pain tolerance, and only took Percocet afterwards  and after the RNY. I did feel like someone kicked me in the ribs the first first two days, and it was hard to take a deep breathe or sneeze. My throat and neck hurt the most, from the tube. I still hurt a little if I lay on my right side or move to fast.  

Hope you feel better soon.

I was interested in how they get your gallbladder out of those little holes so I watched a surgery on you tube. You don't realize it but is actually a little ruff, or at least this surgon didn't look like he was very gentle. Your gallbladder is on the underside of your liver so they actually have to pick you liver up a little bit and pu**** out of the way. So your insides have been through a lot for a simple surgery.

The first Laproscopic surgery I ever had was an emergency cholecystectomy because my gallbladder was "Fixin to explode" or so said my doctor in Atlanta. It was infected, and he said if it burst, it was likely "Game Over". So they did the surgery, and then the next day a second procedure because my liver ducts were blocked or something. For SIX weeks I had the most horrific pain. I remember when I had my second laproscopic procedure, I did a lot of research and made sure I walked walked walked afterwards, and I had only a couple of days of medium to mild pain. But that was lower in the abdomen, so I wasn't sure if that was why it was mild.

When I had my RNY I was sure it would be awful and so had plans to get a lot of walking done. I was surprised at how remarkably un-painful it was. I've since had another Laproscopic procedure and except for that FIRST one, none have been that bad. But that first one (gallbladder) was horrific. OF course I did have those complications, and it wasn't a typical gallbladder issue, in that I had a raging infection. (prior to the surgery).

I pretty much adhere to the thought that "IF pain is 'severe' enough to label it severe, and I'm post-surgical, I need to call the doc." There is NOTHING that pixels on a screen are going to tell you that is better than what your doc can tell you.

My anaesthesiologist for my RNY said that compared to the gallbladder, the RNY is a piece of cake... there are a LOT more nerves involved in the gallbladder... and he said that I'd probably think nothing had been done to me inside after the RNY compared to the GB surgery. He was spot on.