Thinking it's gallbladder. Please send non-pain vibes my way

 Just wanted to update everyone.  Pain been going on 3 days straight now.  Had pain for about 5 weeks total (came and went until 3 days ago).  Finally dragged myself to the Dr. today.  Now wish I'd done it sooner.  Still not 100% convinced, but that's her gut feeling.  Really don't want another surgery, I wish they could just give me gallstone meds now.  

For those wondering, I've been having back/stomach pains.  My stomach feels bloated, but mostly it's right up under my ribcage, radiating around to my middle back.  I think it's supposed to be on the right side.  It's more of a chronic dull pain, but getting sharper.  

Now I wish I'd let them take the dad-gum thing when I had my wls.  Really don't want another surgery now, though.  Until then, it's hellooo pain pills.  I plan to sleep the next week with any luck.  Next stop is an abdominal ultrasound.  Dr. also considered pancreas or liver.  I watch too much HOUSE because I start going all hypochondriacal.  

Oh, and while I'm posting, if you happen to be on here tomorrow, look for my 1 year update!

Sorry you are feeling so bad - I know how that feels!  Hope you feel better soon!

My recommendation, and what got me through until I had my surgery was to eat the most bland, boring diet. I refused to let one of the other surgeons operate on me so I had to wait 4 days which ended up being best because my gb was so infected and inflamed. Pain meds did nothing for the pain I experienced with the inflamed GB. I had lortab and muscle relaxers laying around, and to no avail they didn't touch the pain.

I can tell you that GB surgery was the easiest by far and it was my 4th lap abdominal procedure in 16 months. I did have to kick all full fat foods off my menu for several months. Avocados, full fat dressing, peanut butter, nuts, EVOO, all that great stuff that was helping me maintain was off my "can eat" list. I ever had to stop eating tomato based pasta sauces, all ketchup, barbque sauces.

You might not experience these things, but it's best to be forewarned. I really struggled with eating after gb removal just because the fat free or low fat stuff had more sugar and more salt which just tasted horrible.

I'll keep ya in my thoughts girly.

 Thank you!  That's what my Dr. said as well.  She told me to eat bland, easy to digest food (no raw fruits or veggies).  She also suggested low fat.  

For right now, she didn't say anything about surgery, and I am really hoping I can get it taken care of without.  But I will do whatever can remove the pain.  Because of my acute asthma, and the difficulty I had coming off oxygen after this surgery, I was advised to try and steer clear of surgery.  But this pain is probably worse than anything I experienced post op with the sleeve.  I hate being in pain.  How do people tolerate pain?  I just don't know.

I don't know what she could possibly be suggesting about pancreas or liver, but gallbladder sounds a little less scary.

Thanks for the thoughts!

I understand the apprehension of anesthesia issues. After my leak repair, I landed in ICU on a ventilator and coma for 4-5 days with only a 10% chance of survival because of anesthesia complications so I'm right there with you. I even asked my surgeon if he'd do the gb surgery with an epidural or spinal or something to avoid anesthesia, and he said "if that sassy mouth of yours is able to move during surgery, I'm not operating on you, I don't need you telling me how to do the surgery!" I laughed so hard because he knows me all too well. He also scoped my sleeve, and removed hoards of scar tissues from my abdomen, around my liver, and small bowel because of all the abdominal procedures I had endured in such a short amount of time (3 surgeries- lapband placement, revision to VSG then the leak repair) then I had 2 jp drains placed for several weeks after leak repair, and  had 2 pigtail drains inserted at 7weeks out for abscesses so I had tons of scar tissue from all that mess.

I did ignore the symptoms and just tolerated the pain for 2 months before the pain became unbearable and I was not able to eat or drink, and my husband made me go to the ER. My gallbladder had to come out, there was no other option. I had read about all the "gb cleansing" and unfortunately, my GB was just too icky to not have surgery.

I can tell you that I was awake, alert and eating Teddy Graham crackers and drinking grape juice within 45 minutes of coming out of surgery, and was home within 1.5 hours of waking up.

Wow. I'm newbie here and was reading your story. You had gone thru a lot. I was wondering- you said your doc did your sleeve thru a scope? I didn't know that was possible.glad things are good with you now. I am waiting for approval.do you regret having surgery at all?

No my sleeve wasn't done through a scope. He scoped my sleeve at 8 months post-op to check diameter, and to make sure everything was okay in there. My complications were directly related to the damage the band had done.

I have absolutely ZERO regrets, and would go through every struggle, obstacle, down day to live the life I have today at almost 2 years post-VSG.

Thank you. I thought about the band but decided on vsg.glad to hear you have no regrets.

 
Check out her blog tomorrow..... It is her one year surgiversery !!!

She has a very well documented accounting with weekly updates.


frisco

 
Hey BB.... Hope you feel better !!!!

And go to emergency if it gets real bad......nothing worse than being in agony while waiting days for a dang appointment for a scan. They can have all those tests done in a matter of hours in the hospital. Oh... and if you develop a temp.....call the doc ASAP !!!!!

And on the subject of anesthesia..... I just had hernia surgery 2 weeks ago and prior to surgery I met with the Anesthesiologist and mentioned to him that I had trouble coming out of it after my VSG. He looked it up in my records and confirmed that I did have problems breathing coming out of it and they re-inserted the breathing tube for a while longer.

He said since I had lost so much weight it was gonna be a completely different story this time...... and he was right..... I remember coming to....like I woke up from a nap.....very calm. So with your weight loss it should be a lot easier.... That's "If" you have to have surgery and I'm hoping were talking about some kind of med that will fix you....

Hang in there !

frisco