Hell after Gallbladder Removal

November 19:
All of a sudden at 2am on a Saturday (morning) my gallbladder had enough. Rushed to the emergency room with no idea what was wrong with me. My gallbladder was the culprit, and after being removed hours later, I was told that not only were there stones in there but that it had begun disintegrating and leaking bile internally.

Two days later I rush back to the emergency room with the most intense pain/burning that feels as if its oozing out of the three new non-invasive entry points from gallbladder removal. I was leaking bile, an ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatogram procedure) was performed and they inserted a stent to prevent the bile from leaking and allow the body to heal itself in that area. I cried the entire night until they decided that it was still leaking and an external jp drain was inserted to pull out the excess bile from my body cavity. I developed hospital pneumonia, required oxygen and breathing treatments and as if that wasn't enough, the pain medication they gave me in preparation for my departure caused constipation so bad that a new word was entered into my virgin vocabulary - enema.

December 13:
Two weeks later.... back to the emergency room again... "enough is enough... I want to go to a hospital in Boston, but please give me lots and lots of pain medication first!" The usuall workup is performed and its determined that another stent should be placed via ERCP. Many more tests follow the next week's stay in the hospital (I won't even mention my nightmare of a roomate), blood tests, ultrasounds, an MRCP (magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography), and the HIDA (hepatobiliary iminodiacetic acid) scan. Now I'm having what feels like chest pains, elephant sitting on my chest along with the most nauseating, uncomfortable, and disturbing feeling but I just want to go home and sleep.

January 31:
The two stents are removed via ERCP but because the external jp drain is still between 50-100ml, a larger metal stent is inserted. This will need to be removed in 6-8 weeks I'm told. I now constantly have sudden chest pains/nausea.

Has anyone else had such a nightmarish story? Is this normal? Was there negligence? I haven't been working because I feel so terrible throughout the day and toss and turn at night. I can only hope and pray it gets better, eat healthy (although I was in really great shape and had healthy eating habits well before this all happened) and stay as active as possible.

Very similar experience, but a little differend timeline. I had my gallbaldder removed staying 7 days in the hospital. I'm still recovering and will be home recoverying all of May. It hasn't been an easy recovery and the "easy" laparoscopic surgery was not successful... had to also have the open cholecystectomy with the large incision. All of this came on suddenly.

After released from 7 day hospital stay, back to ER with overwhelming pain as you described. Lots of blank looks, when it was the bile. Had ERCP and another 9 days in the hospital. Pain overwhelming after ERCP. Pain pump used. All very overwhelming.

Also had the roommate from hell, excruitating constipation which I thought even an enema would not resolve, but thankfully it did.

Home for 4 days now. JP Drain removed yesterday and iny pain again. Sore where JP Drain was and insides feel like scrambled spaghitti from removal of drain.

Off pain meds 4 days, now bak on them.

Shunt from ERCP to removed in 4 - 6 weeks. This is a hell of a recovery.  Still off work 5 weeks later.  Very nausea.

How is your recovery now? What else can I expect?