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I was having constant low grade fevers and no other symptoms for a few weeks so I went to have a bunch of tests done. They eventually did an ultrasound on my abdomen and said man your gallbladder's hosed, better get it out before it causes more problems. Scheduled an outpatient surgery for a couple of weeks later and all was well
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Feb 10, 2022 19:07
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RepeatingMeme posted:Had to google in case I was being razzed, but poo poo i never actually considered that gallstones were actually, like, rock lookin things. That's cool and scary as hell our bodies tryin to build mountains when it wants us to die.
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Feb 10, 2022 19:27
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Hardawn posted:How did you end up like this? Could a genetic disposition put you at a disadvantage or were you consuming copious amounts of whatever food landed you in this predicament Definitely genetic, at least for me. My mother is having hers removed soon, two of my uncles had theirs removed, my grandma also should have hers removed but she is stubborn.
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Feb 10, 2022 19:34
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Nice Tuckpointing! posted:Oh cool. I learned. God drat. My doctor said, and I quote, "you're absolutely riddled with gallstones." I wonder if I'll have a similar outcome.
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Feb 10, 2022 19:36
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Nice Tuckpointing! posted:I totally forgot that for a year or two before my surgery, I had a constant, pulsing ache in my right shoulderblade area. No amount of massage or hot baths fixed it, and a few times it was enough to keep me from sleeping. Yep I have the exact same thing. It radiates around from my gallbladder into my back kind of between the shoulder blades. Also some sharp pinches near the heart which I thought was totally a heart attack but nope, gallstones.
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Feb 10, 2022 19:38
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My spouse is getting theirs pulled next Friday. It's a common complication from gastric bypass surgery, and given that their mother, grandmother, and aunt needed to get theirs out within a year of their gastric bypass surgeries, plus their grandfather is waiting on surgery to remove, you guessed it, ....a hosed up gallbladder. Took a CT scan, ultrasound, esophageal scope and finally a HIDA scan to diagnose it as being the cause of the excruciating pain every time they ate or drank. Thankfully the surgeon who did the original surgery is the one also doing this one. No family history on my side but I had gastric bypass a few months after spouse did, so also I'm afraid of my gallbladder also deciding to be a bastard. But hey, I'll take missing my gallbladder if it means I get to be skinny In short: gently caress gallbladders
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Feb 10, 2022 20:05
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Fashionably Great posted:My spouse is getting theirs pulled next Friday. It's a common complication from gastric bypass surgery, and given that their mother, grandmother, and aunt needed to get theirs out within a year of their gastric bypass surgeries, plus their grandfather is waiting on surgery to remove, you guessed it, ....a hosed up gallbladder. The gallbladder attacks I have make me want to eat nothing for 3-4 days afterwards so I am dropping weight so fast it's probably unhealthy.
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Feb 10, 2022 20:16
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Bad Purchase posted:the existence of the gallbladder implies we should be calling our plain "bladder" a urinebladder or pissbladder to avoid confusion I'll take the wine bladder than you.
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Feb 10, 2022 20:17
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I had a scan on mine cause I was pooping yellow and there was a pulsing tennis ball of pain under my ribs. They didn’t see anything so it’s still in there and the problem pretty much went away. But I still don’t trust the fucker
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Feb 10, 2022 21:00
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Nice Tuckpointing! posted:Oh cool. I learned. Deeply jealous. I wasn't allowed to keep mine. The post surgery report said mine were all green, so they were probably a biohazard and I got lucky my gallbladder didn't mess me up worse. But I made those rocks, damnit! I should be able to string my human pearls if I want!
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Feb 10, 2022 21:54
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Bad Purchase posted:the existence of the gallbladder implies we should be calling our plain "bladder" a urinebladder or pissbladder to avoid confusion It is in fact technically known as the urinary bladder. Anyway, I had my gallbladder out 12 years ago and it was another case of the diagnosis taking a frustratingly long time. I'd been to the ER with attacks three or four times before my GP said "yeah that's probably your gallbladder. " He put me on a zero fat diet for the month or two until surgery and that was almost as miserable as the attacks, just in a different way. I'm sorry about your long wait, OP 
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Feb 10, 2022 22:20
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Ok now that I got some time, its story time! I had been having stomach pains and shortness of breath for a while but it always passed so I just kept kicking the can down the road. Then one day I couldn't get comfortable at all so I sent my doctor a message and she scheduled me some tests. I went down and had some blood drawn and an x-ray done. Then I drove home and took a nap. My Doctor calls me like an hour later and says my numbers are super super screwed up and I need to come into the ER for another test now. I show up and they are like 'did you know you are yellow? your eyes too, you are like fluorescent yellow.' Jaundice. Something is blocking the old liver up and its angry. They ultrasound me and they see a rock in my tract blocking things up. They aren't equipped for this on the weekend so they try and track what they need down and the staff but its not coming together. They tell me they could just hold onto me but I wouldn't be seen til like Monday and that would suck for me. So they decide to transfer me across the street to the big UC hospital because they do have the equipment on hand AND the staff. So Saturday morning they send me over in an ambulance and they check me in. Do all the in-processing stuff and this is going to come up again, they ask me what meds I normally take, my symptoms, etc. get me settled and I sit there. That night I'm in pain but it passes and I'm feeling much better. They tell me they want to send a scope down the throat to the gallbladder and see exactly whats going on AND if theres a rock they can slide in an instrument next to the camera and snag it. Cool do that. But they dont do that. Instead they do nothing all Sunday too. So I ended up sitting in a hospital all weekend anyways without getting anything useful done. Then Monday they roll up and say 'we've been monitoring your numbers and we think the stone has passed but we'd like to send the camera in anyway and see if thats true. I'm thinking, you waited on using a diagnostic test that could be also used to relieve my pain until AFTER you could tell my numbers were going back to normal and can now only be used diagnostically. Cool. Thanks. Anyways they do the test and surprise the rock that was there on the previous ultrasound has gone. I still need to have the gallbladder removed though so they schedule that for a bit later. This whole time they are coming by to draw blood and give me fluids and antibiotics. Nurse would plug me into an IV and immediately trip on the tubes as shes leaving. Twice. Am I the one just letting the lines lay on the floor? Am I the one forgetting what I was just doing and walking through the lines? What can I be doing to help you better nurse cause this seems preventable. Now I had told them for admission I was an daily medication and even though every new shift of people coming by would ask that of me and I'd always say the same thing they never actually did anything with that info. I'm going through withdrawl symptoms at the same time as I'm doing this gut stuff and it aint helping. Finally on Monday afternoon a pharmacist came up and asked what I took, called my regular doctor to confirm dosages and then added them to my daily med regimen. The doctor visits me and again asks me all the same dumb questions and I'm like 'how do I know the difference of being nauseous and feeling hot and cold flashes is because theres something wrong with my stomach and if i'm nauseous and feeling hot and cold flashes because I'm going through withdrawl?' Real headscratcher moment. Anyways she checks my file and says 'dont worry we ordered your meds you'll get them tomorrow'. Tuesday they roll me in, let the doctor use a robot to fingerbang my insides from 4 sides. Tuesday afternoon they FINALLY give me my meds, and despite feeling like poo poo I tell them I want to be discharged and they wheel me out the door. So yeah, America has the best healthcare in the world and thats why everyone wants to get it. No wonder it costs so much, you think you'll get this quality of care anywhere else?
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Feb 10, 2022 23:51
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Nice Tuckpointing! posted:Oh cool. I learned. It literally looks like rocks you see in the street. You could use those in a garden in Arizona if you wanted to. I mean they even have the exact same imperfections and colors of real rocks, what the gently caress
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Feb 11, 2022 00:08
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Blackchamber posted:Ok now that I got some time, its story time! And I'm sure you got a 30k bill in the mail
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Feb 11, 2022 00:14
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I was having just the worst stomach pains for over a year, the cramps were so bad I was often left involuntarily doubled over in just digestive agony even without factoring in diet, every morning was just two or three hours of misery. So I'd go to the doctor, my doctor wouldn't test anything, wouldn't check anything. She'd just tell me it was indigestion. Or gas. Then tell me to take antacids. It'd keep happening, I'd go back, she'd get increasingly frustrated with me like it was somehow my fault. I even specifically brought up gallstones because my sister had hers out around this same age and I was reaching for anything that might've explained it and vague "abdominal pain" symptoms fit that poo poo (funny enough a cousin of mine would too, a few years later.) Anyway one day I woke up to this like, white hot feeling of pressure in my guts, the only thing on my mind was that something inside had gone wrong and was about to explode; and it turns out that's exactly what it was, my gallbladder was in the process of rupturing, as the doctor at the ER pointed out after gently prodding my abdomen with one finger, once. He was kind of horrified that it had gotten this bad. If I'd been a few hours later I might've died from all that poo poo in the gallbladder exploding everywhere, but I didn't, so I'm still trapped here on earth. It's been like, well over a decade since then and eating salads and greasy, fatty, trash is unpleasant but I guess my body's otherwise adapted fine. Sure sucks my doctor didn't do anything despite me literally begging her in tears to find out what was wrong with me all those years ago though, might've saved my gallbladder or something. Or at least carved it out and saved me months of pain. EDIT: also after my surgery my medical insurance just kind of cut me off, because gently caress me I guess. So I used the last like month of that, and the bottle of oxy they gave me for the painless gallbladder surgery to get all four of my wisdom teeth removed like the week after. American health care is great.
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Feb 11, 2022 01:35
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unnecessary
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Feb 11, 2022 02:13
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Nuebot posted:I was having just the worst stomach pains for over a year, the cramps were so bad I was often left involuntarily doubled over in just digestive agony even without factoring in diet, every morning was just two or three hours of misery. So I'd go to the doctor, my doctor wouldn't test anything, wouldn't check anything. She'd just tell me it was indigestion. Or gas. Then tell me to take antacids. It'd keep happening, I'd go back, she'd get increasingly frustrated with me like it was somehow my fault. I even specifically brought up gallstones because my sister had hers out around this same age and I was reaching for anything that might've explained it and vague "abdominal pain" symptoms fit that poo poo (funny enough a cousin of mine would too, a few years later.) You have a honey tongue and a heart of gall
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Feb 11, 2022 02:14
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Fashionably Great posted:My spouse is getting theirs pulled next Friday. It's a common complication from gastric bypass surgery, and given that their mother, grandmother, and aunt needed to get theirs out within a year of their gastric bypass surgeries, Fat Doctor, a British show about gastric bypass surgeries, had a lot of "and we'll just pop in and remove that gallbladder first" in their surgery scenes. Here's one with a stone the size of a golf ball  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vO0a6zqQ2E&t=2100s
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Feb 11, 2022 05:13
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Feb 11, 2022 12:13
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Nice Tuckpointing! posted:They let me keep about "a third to a quarter" of them, which was presented to me in a tupperware container as I was still coming out of anesthesia and I thought it was trail mix - hazelnuts and raisins. So did you eat the gallstones?
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Feb 11, 2022 17:40
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I’m really shocked seeing how big the stones are, makes me wonder how they even get it out with so little scarring in a laparoscopic surgery. I wound up with four scars - navel, two on either side of my torso, and the biggest one in the centre under my ribs (my doctor called this the “port” which is gross but also made me feel like a cyborg). They’re all under an inch long, the main one is maybe 2cm.
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Feb 11, 2022 18:39
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BigBadSteve posted:So did you eat the gallstones? The head surgeon was a bit of a goof, but in a good way. And a day after surgery when she came to see how I was feeling, she offhandedly mentioned that the stones are technically edible. They're made of cholesterol and biliruben. kaom posted:I’m really shocked seeing how big the stones are, makes me wonder how they even get it out with so little scarring in a laparoscopic surgery. I have the four scars as well. Two on the right side of the gut, one just below the sternum, and the lower rim of my navel. The navel one is about an inch long. The other three are just purple points now. No bigger than small zits. Also, the doc said she had to cut my stomach muscles a bit because of the size of my stones. "You feel like you did too many situps?" she asked. Yup. Sneezing was really painful for a few weeks.
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Feb 11, 2022 19:07
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I feel like it's bullshit there are PSAs on how to recognize heart attacks and all sorts of other health poo poo, but nothing about gallbladders. I had symptoms for months, but I had no idea what they meant and just kept going on my merry way. Disturbingly blonde shits, truly impressive farts, and gastric noises that varied between sounding like I had swallowed either a coyote or a humpback whale. When the pain finally got bad enough for me to go to the ER I vaguely suspected appendicitis or something, and they made me sit in the waiting room for like 6 hours since "abdominal pain" is super common and often resolves on its own. When they finally got me into a room they poked and prodded me a bit, gave me Toradol (which is generally useless and was specifically useless in this case), and got me in line for an ultrasound. Once the ultrasound was done their entire approach changed, and I was loaded up on Demerol and fast-tracked for surgery. I guess it was pretty close to rupturing, and the fact I could still walk around and function surprised them. The surgery itself was fine, and I have the same 3 or 4 scars other people describe, but the hospital stay had a bunch of failures. I rely on a sleep med every night, and they managed to leave it off my med list so my first 24 hours after surgery were on no sleep. When they went to discharge me the attending surgeon forgot to sign my pain med prescription, which led to at least a 6 hour delay, maybe longer, to the point it was so late I had to rush to the pharmacy to fill it before they closed. Also, when I asked for a couple more days worth of pain meds, the nurse I spoke to shamed the hell out of me like it was my fault I still had some residual pain. Like others have said, American healthcare is amazing. 
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Feb 14, 2022 01:54
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My US surgery was shockingly good. Operation started at 4pm, I was waking up at around 6pm and I was out of there by noon the next day. Surgeon said I was fine. I joked about running the next day and he deadpanned that if I was up to it he didn't see any reason why I couldn't. I smiled and thought "I was only kidding". But I legit had no pain. Some soreness around the incisions but that was it. He sent me home with extra strong aspirin. That was it and I really didn't even need that. And it turned out I did have to....run some unplanned errands after I got home. Only after returning home from them did I start feeling incredibly run down. It was beyond any kind of "so tired I can't even be bothered to lazily swipe a toothbrush over my teeth" kind wiped out. I had like a minute of lucidity to go upstairs and get into bed or i was going to sleep in the kitchen chair for the next 12 hours.
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Feb 14, 2022 02:14
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CaptainSarcastic posted:When the pain finally got bad enough for me to go to the ER I vaguely suspected appendicitis or something, and they made me sit in the waiting room for like 6 hours since "abdominal pain" is super common and often resolves on its own. This was my problem. Whenever I went to the ER the attack would resolve itself by the time even a nurse would see me, so they gleefully did nothing. Cheesus posted:Surgeon said I was fine. I joked about running the next day and he deadpanned that if I was up to it he didn't see any reason why I couldn't. I smiled and thought "I was only kidding". drat, that's lucky. I was barely able to move and in intense pain for about a month. I was also so bloated from the laproscopic procedure that I could only fit into my pyjamas.
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Feb 14, 2022 02:25
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I was walking like an old man for the first day or two. My surgery was on a Wednesday. I was discharged from the hospital Friday morning and worked from home that day, which was a struggle and I really should not have listened that dumb be-tough, work-hard voice in my head. After I clocked off I slept 13 hours and felt much better. By Monday I was back to my normal walking pace and ran a 5k a week or two later. Also, in my post-surgery check-up the doc showed me a photo of my cut-open gallbladder, after the stones were removed. Looked like squid ink spaghetti. I had to trust her expertise that the blood vessels were really, really inflamed and that I was apparently drat lucky this never affected my pancreas.
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Feb 14, 2022 03:32
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I only had pain for like one day after my surgery and no one believed me. The hospital 100% was trying to kick me out and send me on a bus back home and the nurses all but said I was faking it for attention because of how simple the procedure was and seemed pretty like, pissy with me that I didn't want to bumble my way out onto the streets alone and confused immediately after getting an internal organ cut out.
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Feb 14, 2022 03:48
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Well they don’t call them ballgladders op. If you wanted that you should have asked 
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Feb 14, 2022 03:57
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I scrubbed a gallbladder surgery a week or two ago and this guy's stones were numerous but also perfectly smooth and wedge shaped. They looked like game pieces or something. I've also seen one giant stone the size and shape of a chicken egg. All the nurses oohed and ahhed at that one Edit: given how many cholecystectomies we do literally every single day I'm amazed anyone still has a gallbladder or an appendix. Heath fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Feb 14, 2022 |
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Feb 14, 2022 04:34
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why would anyone want to keep their gallstones
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Feb 14, 2022 04:56
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Zippy the Bummer posted:why would anyone want to keep their gallstones People used to buy rocks and keep them as pets
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Feb 14, 2022 04:58
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i prefer ballgladders tbh
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Feb 14, 2022 04:59
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Zippy the Bummer posted:why would anyone want to keep their gallstones Necklace.
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Feb 14, 2022 05:06
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The variation in hospital stays is really interesting. My doctor made me fill out insurance paperwork assuming I would be off work for up to 4 months, which terrified me but he didn’t want me worrying about paperwork in the worst case scenario (if they can’t get it out laparoscopically I guess there’s a remote chance they fall back on the old method of major abdominal surgery). I’m in  but had work insurance for short and long term disability I could use.But all went well and I was home in my own bed maybe four hours after they started the operation. They prescribed some serious painkillers (I forget what, it was an opioid of some kind) but I only took them for a day. It completely got rid of any pain from the surgery but that was minor anyway. It didn’t touch the real problem which was the pain I felt from the gasses used during laparoscopy - my shoulders just ached and there was nothing I could do about it. I also spent the second day puking and I’ve never figured out if it was the opioids or the drugs used for anaesthesia or what. I was told to walk as much as possible after surgery instead of bed rest. Went back to work after a week and was on a business trip another week after that. The flight was uncomfortable but I was otherwise totally fine. I wasn’t offered my gallstones.
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Feb 14, 2022 05:31
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Zippy the Bummer posted:why would anyone want to keep their gallstones Because ambergris is expensive.
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Feb 14, 2022 05:43
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Heath posted:Edit: given how many cholecystectomies we do literally every single day I'm amazed anyone still has a gallbladder or an appendix. That they are so common is part of why I'm frustrated that they don't provide better public education on the signs and symptoms. I had no clue that my gastrointestinal cacophony and pale poops were clear symptoms of a gallbladder issue, and it took it getting bad enough that it was apparently dangerous for me to find out. I suppose I could have had a doctor visit and asked about it, but it was just weird and not causing me a lot of discomfort so I just kind of adapted to it until the stones were building a cairn around my liver.
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Feb 14, 2022 07:00
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kaom posted:(if they can’t get it out laparoscopically I guess there’s a remote chance they fall back on the old method of major abdominal surgery). It's very uncommon for them to go open for a gallbladder nowadays, unless there's an especially large stone, but it has to be pretty goddamn big. Usually they use a little laparoscopic retrieval bag that they can put in there and pull out through the largest port site. They pull pretty loving hard to get some of them out, but they do come.
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Feb 14, 2022 13:57
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Propaganda Machine posted:drat, that's lucky. I was barely able to move and in intense pain for about a month. I was also so bloated from the laproscopic procedure that I could only fit into my pyjamas. Heath posted:It's very uncommon for them to go open for a gallbladder nowadays, unless there's an especially large stone, but it has to be pretty goddamn big. Usually they use a little laparoscopic retrieval bag that they can put in there and pull out through the largest port site. They pull pretty loving hard to get some of them out, but they do come.
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Feb 14, 2022 14:07
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Without knowing specifics it's hard to say. Some gallbladders take 30 minutes, others can take a couple hours, so that probably makes the biggest difference. And some illnesses are a lot more acute than others. That's true of pretty much any surgery.
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Feb 14, 2022 14:55
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Cheesus posted:With laparoscopic surgeries being so common, what could be reasons between the above result of a month of painful recovery vs. others which was nearly no big deal? My stones were pretty small so your guess is as good as mine. I think my pain was mostly from the gas though, like somebody else mentioned above.
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Feb 14, 2022 15:09
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