Posted on 03/27/2019 10:53:53 PM PDT by Romans Nine
Well started the day out like usual. Got up, got dressed, went to the dinner table, wife brought me over fresh cooked eggs, bacon, toast and large glass of milk. I ate while reading GD.com and Free Republic. Went out to my service truck and something felt a little “off”. I went back inside and the pain hit me like a freight train. Sever abdominal/chest pain. Worst pain I’ve ever felt. I’ve had my eye cut open, kidney stones, fell on a tee post that went deep enough to hit a lung, had a rifle cartridge breech the case in my face, smashed my hand in a road reclaimer tiller, broken my sternum and three ribs but none of that compares to this pain. Wife put me in the car and headed to the hospital. I broke out in a cold sweat and the pain was causing me to almost loss consciousness. We made it to the second town about 20 miles and my wife spotted a Sheriffs deputy and flagged him down. He gave us an escort up the highway until we met with an ambulance. The EMT’s assessed me enough to know it wasn’t my heart because if it had been they would have called in the life flight.
On the way in the ambulance they gave me a shot of Fentanyl. When we arrived at the ER they took me in and within 20 minutes I saw a doctor. At some point they gave me another dose of Fentanyl, took blood for lab work and that Fentanyl sent me into la la land. Doctor oredered an ultrasound and I received that within 30 minutes. It was not conclusive enough so they ordered a Cat Scan and I had that done within another 45 minutes.
Sometime after the Cat Scan the Fentanyl wore off and my pain started to come on hard. My wife told them that the Fentanyl made me delirious so they gave me Morphine. Ah now that was much better. No brain fog and no pain.
I asked the radiologist what she could see since I knew she knows what she’s looking at. She told me that I would not be going home tonight.
Back in the room the doctor came in and told me I have an infected gallbladder full of stones and she would be doing surgery either tonight or in the morning first thing. All of that happened within 6 hours of arriving at the ER. So I got moved to a room, they have me on an IV and are putting antibiotics through me. In 7 hours from this post I’m going in for surgery to remove my gallbladder.
I have read the horror stories on here about the ER wait and hospital care a lot of you have dealt with and let me tell you every single nurse, assistant and doctor here have been fabulous to interact with. After I finish this post I’m composing a letter to send to the administrator about just how good they have treated me and my wife. The surgeon is a woman from India and she was so personable and explained everything and every contingency there was.
I guess most people start having pain more gradually with gallbladder stones but mine has many stones and is infected. The only thing that felt unusual to me over the last few weeks has been an unusually sore back.
So anybody else surrendered your gallbladder to science? What was your experience? They claim I might have some digestive track problems adjusting to the loss of my gallbladder.
By the way, I’m 46 years old, generally healthy, not overweight and do not take any prescription drugs.
Thank the Lord. I was wonder how you were doing when I got up this morning. I’m glad it all went well. God Bless, and have a speedy recovery!!
Thanks for the Ping!!
Lap surgery is great. Godspeed.
Thank You for the Ping BTW.
A Praise the Lord
Good to hear. Thanks.
Glad you are well!
After a CT scan on Monday, I got the news a few minutes ago that the gallbladder and its big stone must go, so I looked back for this thread to re-read everyone’s experiences..
I’ve had cholelithiasis with multiple stones since at least 2007 but pain in the side lately makes me agree with the doctor. It’s time for it to go. I’ve only had surgery on my hands and nose before, so abdominal surgery’s not my favorite idea, even laparoscopic.
On the positive side, all other CT and recent test results are fine.
Great news!
Pretty straightforward procedure.
Praying everything goes as smoothly for you as it has for me!
Post here to us.
Family condition.
My dad had to have a drain for an infected one. About died
All us kids had ours out at some point.
Nasty back pain
Complications remain for us about digestion.
You’ll feel better in the way of your body knowing something bad is fixed up
Sending prayers
Glad to hear everything went well for you & your are doing better. Did you get to keep the used parts in a mayonnaise jar for a souvenir?
Glad to hear that everything went well for you. All the prayers help.
I lost my gall bladder almost 20 years ago, hubbie found me on the floor of the bathroom in so much pain I couldn’t speak.
The food that gave me the most trouble afterward was iceberg lettuce. If you do have problems with food, my suggestion is to get some digestive enzymes at GNC and take them when you know you are going to be eating something that could be a problem.
I was being sarcastic. I’m glad he got good service. Only in the U.S.
Dang it all! And I just had my SarcDetect.dll recompiled last week. Back to IT for another chit hat. =;^)
LOL!
My lap chole was done on Thursday and couldn’t have gone more smoothly. The anesthesiologist gave me something via IV in preop and the next thing I knew, I was in recovery. I haven’t seen photos but reportedly my ex-gallbladder was very large.
Once hospital staff found out I had been a hospital department director all my working life (recently retired), they were very happy to chat hospital stuff.
I’m taking a few days off to recuperate at home and walk. I’m grateful to all the Freepers’ posts here for the encouragement. It made all the difference.
Great news!
Amazing to me how different the hospitals are from when I was a child in the 70’s. Very accommodating, personable and helpful to my wife as well.
Also amazing how quickly and easily they can remove the gailbladder with such small incisions. Three weeks later and I am completely healed.
Really glad to hear your procedure went well FRiend!
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