I FINALLY get my gallbladder out!

best of luck! I have an appointment with a surgeon tomorrow to see what the plan is for my gall stone which was found by ultrasound recently due to RUQ pain! I hope not to have surgery but maybe try the blasting option... but I dont have all the facts yet. I only have one stone and the pain is not too unbearable for me yet so our situations are a little different, and insurance is not an issue here in Canada.

I am glad you will get relief from the gall stones soon! I am the only person in my family that still has their GB and all my family members tell me that the pain can get quite horrible.... good riddance to that darned organ!!!

Good wishes and healing thoughts are being sent from one Becky with a Gall Stone to another :)

B

I'll be anxious the next couple days, just worrying that he'll want to pursue other options first. Since my insurance runs out soon, I just want to get it out and move on.

B-Sorry to hear that you're having gallbladder issues as well. How long have you been having pain? Mine isn't always intense, but I've been careful about what I've been eating. I'm trying to eat low fat foods, which has helped. Still, every few nights I have to take pain meds because the pain keeps me up at night.
We have such similar histories...I've had clots as well, and was diagnosed in 1997 at age 19 after surgery for an abcess and ruptured appendix.

When I first started having trouble .. they found that my gall bladder wasn't functioning and it was taken out laproscopically. Sadly even though I felt bettter.. I wasn't better and went another year or so until the crohn's diagnosis.

Good luck Becky with your surgery. Be sure to take the time to rest up and recuperate. Since this will be open surgery, its going to be a little harder recuperation, but I am sure all will turn out well. Sending healing prayers your way., Hugs!

wishing you the very best with the surgery, you will be finealso wishing you a happy birthday for thursday at least by then the op will be over and done with. Bev x

Becky, I have done a lot of research and the reason a lot of people have D after having surgery is because they don't modify their diet at all. After having your gallbladder out your body can't handle fatty foods. When you eat fatty foods, they run right through you.

My mom had her gallbladder out at age 37 and I've talked a lot to her about it, so I know exactly what to expect.

Oh, and Gail, I've had 2 open surgeries so I'm well prepared for what's ahead. I bounce back rather quickly, partially because I'm stubborn and hate having to rely on people, and partially because I know what to do to regain strength and recover from surgery.

Thanks everyone for your well wishes. I'll update you tomorrow after the surgeons appointment!

We can compare notes tomorrow about our appointments....the similarities continue...though none of my family members have IBD, only me.

Surgery is booked for 830am Friday! He's going to TRY to do laparascopic surgery, but I've had 2 bowel resections and have a lot of scar tissue, so he might need to open me up. There's basically 3 things that could happen: 1-laparascopic gallbladder removal, 2-horizontal incision to remove gallbladder, or 3-go in vertically (where I already have a scar) He can't say for sure until he looks around with the scope how he'll proceed. If he sees bowel that looks like it's kinked or getting squished and causing the partial obstructions, he'll just open me and try to fix everything instead of waiting for another obstruction and doing a resection.

I'm prepared for the worst though. Since I've already done it, I know what to expect. Best case, I'm home Saturday morning, worst case, I stay for 5 or so days.

Things are also complicated by 2 other factors: 1-I have had pulmonary emboli, and they have to make sure I move as soon as I can so I don't get clots, and 2-I'm allergic to IV dye. Usually during surgery they inject dye into your bile ducts to see if there are stones, and to make sure they cut where they need to. He wants to do this, but I have to be premedicated with benadryl and steroids usually when given dye. I'll discuss this in pre-op tomorrow with the anesthesiologist and ask if they can have benadryl in the room just in case. The dye won't be going into my veins, but I'm still worried that it being in my body at all will be an issue.

As for the Humira...I had my last dose last Friday, and once I get home I'll talk to my GI and see what she wants me to do. My crohn's isn't active (at the moment) so missing a dose wouldn't be much of an issue to me. She'll probably leave it up to me, and I'll skip just 1 dose then go back to it (unless he does do a bowel resection, then I will HAVE to skip doses)

Oh, and he did explain why people have D after gallbladder surgery. Normally when you eat your stomach tells your GB to excrete bile to break down fats, then it mixes in with the food, and when it gets to your ileum, your body absorbs some of the bile, and it recirculates back into the GB. The food makes it's way on and exits normally. With CD usually your ileum is affected so you don't absorb the bile, and it going through your colon causes D. After surgery usually your body adjusts, but with CD in the ileum, your body can't "fix" the D. In my head, it makes sense, but it may not make complete sense being typed out. (it helped that he drew it on the back of my chart and explained it)

I completely understand where you're at. For so long, I kept asking, "can't you just take it out and see if I feel better?" It's frustrating....to say the least. Hopefully your GB symptoms don't get worse, and you can just get it out when your CD is under control.

You're freaking me out...really, IV contrast for you too?? Things just get more and more strange... You should be able to be premedicated with solumedrol and benadryl and still have contrast. Ct's just aren't as good when you don't have contrast. It enhances the images and shows way more. My doctors all agree that it's worth the steroid and benadryl doses to have contrast in the CT.

When is your birthday...we have to be pretty darn close in age since I was diagnosed at 19 in 1997.

I'm going to pack my laptop and the hospital has wifi, so I should be online once I wake up, so I can send an email and let friends know I'm ok, and I'll post here and tell you how I'm doing...though I may not remember typing the post, and I will only know I posted because I read something posted by me!

So you're 7 months older than me. Today's my bday :)

Monkiray: So are you all done with surgery? How r things?

B

Yep, surgery is over. It was at 830am yesterday. It was able to be done laparoscopically, so I only stayed at the hospital for a few hours after. I just have 4 little incisions, one in my belly button, one about 4 inches above that, then 2 below my ribs on the right. Yesterday and last night I was hurting more than I expected, but I had pain meds to take. I took a nice long nap this afternoon, and I'm feeling pretty good now, though I'm a little out of it because of the pain meds. I've had some food and I don't seem to be having any side effects (D) from surgery.