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Gall Bladder surgery!



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I'm at 11months and almost at 100lbs lost, (only 50 to go) so happy, however last Wednesday I experienced the worst pain in my life .... Gall bladder attack. Spent three days in hospital, doing ok, not great and i don't want to eat, I have no appetite whatsoever. My surgeon is taking it out next week. Has anyone out there had both surgeries? Are they similar in terms of pain and recovery afterwards? Are you back to eating normally? Has it affected your weight loss? Appreciate hearing from you ????

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I had my gall bladder removed at 23 months postop. Suffered through 4 excruciating attacks over the previous year before doing it (yea, dumb idea). But recovery was a piece of cake. Surgery at 8am Wednesday. Discharged at 12:30. Stopped at the grocery store and then went home and puttered around the house for 3 hours before making myself lay down. The next day was Thanksgiving, went to grandmas and ate a little bit of everything. I was tired that day but that's it. Made myself couch surf the next three days and back to work on Monday.

But my VSG was a pretty easy recovery too. Shopping days 1 and 2 postop. Traveling days 3 and 4. Back to work in 7 days. I'd say the gallbladder surgery was about 25% discomfort of the VSG surgery, if that.

No change in appetite postop. Can't tell you about weight loss cause I was already in maintenance. The biggest difference for me was coffee. I had to give it up because it gave me heartburn. But after having my gallbladder out I can drink it no problem. Yeehaw!

Good luck! Be glad you don't have to go through another attack. Nothing is as bad as that. (And I say that after having broke my back and having two vertebrae in my a neck fused)

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I had mine out at 6 months out(12/29/15), I was down 80 pounds and had a stone the size of a manderian orange. I had a little pain with laying down and getting up from laying or sitting but only took day of surgery and a long lunch the next day off of work. By the third day it was really just the itching and the allergic reaction(to the strips)that was bothering me.

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I had my gallbladder removed 8 months post surgery. I was down 100 lbs at the time. It was super easy. Surgery was at 8:00 am. I was leaving the hospital by 12:30 and home by 1:30. Surgery was on a Friday and I was back to work on Wednesday (actually I was on a flight for a business trip on Wednesday). I was on liquids the day of surgery and back to regular foods in 2 days. It didn't impact my surgery at all and I'm down 130 lbs

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All excellent responses, just what i wanted to hear - thanks all :)

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Just had my gallbladder out yesterday. Sorry to say I am not having as smooth a time as @@Kindle . I'm in a lot of pain, with nausea. Having a difficult time eating and drinking. Absolutely NO appetite. Not hungry at all. Can't get comfortable at all, standing, sitting, laying down. Hope it gets better soon. I'm actually taking off the max time off work. Glad I did. My Gastric sleeve surgery didn't seem this bad....but as I look back at earlier posts.....yes it was. I had just forgotten. I'll forget about this in time, too. But you should hear that it's not a walk in the park for everyone. sorry.

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I had my gallbladder out 22 years ago, At that time, they kept you for a week in the hospital, on IV painkillers.

It took me a year from surgery to truly get back to normal. After surgery, I developed lactose intolerance, and a lot of foods I previously had no problem with gave me indigestion. I particularly remember Peanut Butter giving me horrible indigestion. Around one year, I noticed that those things resolved themselves.

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Just had my gallbladder out yesterday. Sorry to say I am not having as smooth a time as @@Kindle . I'm in a lot of pain, with nausea. Having a difficult time eating and drinking. Absolutely NO appetite. Not hungry at all. Can't get comfortable at all, standing, sitting, laying down. Hope it gets better soon. I'm actually taking off the max time off work. Glad I did. My Gastric sleeve surgery didn't seem this bad....but as I look back at earlier posts.....yes it was. I had just forgotten. I'll forget about this in time, too. But you should hear that it's not a walk in the park for everyone. sorry.

Sorry you're having such a hard time. Bummer. Hope you feel better soon.

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I had mine out at the same time as my sleeve. Back in 2002 I had a string of gallstone attacks and they were horrible. If felt like I was going to die. So I didn't want a repeat of that experience.

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I wish mine would've been removed when I had my sleeve surgery, but there were no stones in it then. I did this after losing the weight. And I'm not even done losing yet. I'm glad it's gone, and that I never have to worry about another attack. But I'm having a rough time. That, and not winning the powerball. Kinda ruined my week. :lol:

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All 4 people that I actually know IRL that have had the sleeve have all had to have their gallbladder removed :(

I keep wondering how I will know if I need mine out after surgery??? Apparently, you just know.

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Oh!!! You will know, trust me.

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@@Mrs_O Yeah, you totally know when you need it out. Read up on the symptoms so you know what they are when you have them. And go to the hospital. I was stupid and writhed on my bathroom floor for about 6 hours. If I had gone to the hospital I would've gotten morphine and the pain would have been gone, and maybe even the gallbladder!!

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@@Mrs_O Yeah, you totally know when you need it out. Read up on the symptoms so you know what they are when you have them. And go to the hospital. I was stupid and writhed on my bathroom floor for about 6 hours. If I had gone to the hospital I would've gotten morphine and the pain would have been gone, and maybe even the gallbladder!!

You know I keepAsking people what it's like but I honestly never thought to look the symptoms up for myself. As much research as I've done on this sleeve and my brain just didn't even think of that for some reason. I think I'm delirious with excitement for the surgery!!! ????????????

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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