What was it like getting my gallbladder removed?
Yesterday was eleven weeks since my gallbladder removal surgery. Today was my annual wellness exam with my GP doctor. Everything is going pretty well. Got the usual refills on my meds and paperwork to get blood work done.
I am so thankful I got my gallbladder out. It’d been bothering me off and on for years now. My GP was aware of this. They even had me get an ultrasound about a year and half ago to see what might be causing the discomfort and general awareness that I have a gallbladder. Nothing showed up on that ultrasound.
A little over twelve weeks ago, I could not fall asleep thanks to discomfort in my abdomen. As the hours moved from the middle of the night to the wee hours of the morning, the discomfort turned to pain.
I woke up my Sweetie and had them take me to the ER. There an ultrasound revealed gallstones. Thankfully the gallbladder was not inflamed, but the pain still sucked ass. I was given pain meds and told to schedule an appointment for the next day with a surgeon. The surgeon I was to see was actually working the ER that night. They stopped by to see how I was doing and let me know that my gallbladder really did need to come out.
This was my first surgery ever. I’ve had moles and wisdom teeth removed, but nothing major like this. I was excited to get my gallbladder removed. I was almost always aware of where exactly it was located in my body thanks to a dull ache that was pretty much constant. I was also scared because surgery with anesthesia is a big deal.
The surgery went smoothly. The recovery from surgery went fairly well too. One of the hardest parts of recovery for me was that I wasn’t able to sleep on my stomach until over two months after surgery. I’m stomach sleeper, always have been. It was a relief to be able to sleep on my side after being stuck on my back for most of those two months. I was overjoyed once the internal scar tissue healed enough that I could sleep on my stomach again.
The three biggest parts of recovery for me were difficulty sleeping (see previous paragraph), discomfort from the internal scar tissue, and figuring out what foods were okay for my gastrointestinal system post-surgery. The external incision sites gave me no trouble. The pre-surgery soap the hospital had given me was glycerin free, so I just continued to use that to clean them daily. Overall, I healed up nicely and in the typical amount of time.
The surgery was done laparoscopically. So I have four fairly small scars, though you can’t really see the one in my belly button. The largest one is the one just below my sternum, where the gallbladder was removed. It’s only about an inch long. Once the external wounds were fully healed, I started putting Mederma Advanced Scar Gel on them to help reduce the scarring. I’ve used it successfully on other scars in the past to dramatically reduce the size and darkness.
The main reason I couldn’t sleep on my stomach for so long was due to discomfort from internal scar tissue. If I moved in certain ways, the scar tissue would pull and cause mild pain. Slowly that decreased with time. I did call the surgeon’s office a few weeks post-surgery to make sure that what I was experiencing was normal. Indeed, it can take up to ten weeks post-surgery for the scar tissue to stop pulling and causing discomfort.
I’m still figuring out what foods my body is or is not okay with post-surgery. If I get it wrong, I usually end up running for the bathroom a half an hour after whatever I consumed that my gut didn’t like. All dairy is basically on the NOT GOOD list. Though I have found that I do okay with hard cheeses, but that’s about it. The more fruit and vegetable I eat, the happier my gut is. So I’ve been working hard to eat more of those daily.
Have you had your gallbladder out? What was your experience like?
