Gallbladder infection recovery time?

[GeniuneWorkOfFart]

Meant to be going on a (UK) holiday next Thursday with an old friend. She's been in hospital since yesterday morning with what turns out to be a severely infected gallbladder and is on IV antibiotics for at least the next 48 hours, there's talk of emergency removal unless the antibiotics work quickly.

Obviously if she has surgery there will be no holiday! Which is fine because her health is more important, and I didn't bring the subject up but she messaged me earlier to say if the antibiotics work she will be fine by Thursday morning and we will be going as planned - I did say are you sure that's wise as we will be a long way from a hospital, and she was adamant it would be fine if she is out by then.

How realistic is this? I don't want to hassle her about it or tell her I think she's being a bit over optimistic, so I'm just saying things like, don't worry about it, you just get better, let's see how you are etc etc.

She may really want to go, to the point where she's not seeing the full implications, but I wouldn't in her position.

I had painful twinges from gallstones but never had to take antibiotics for infection: I was told that would be an emergency admission because infections are more serious than the 'attacks' caused by spasms or passing a stone.

Gallstone 'attacks' and infections recur - she can't know the infection won't recur. She needs her gallbladder removed to remove the source of infection. If the infection flares, she'll potentially be in great discomfort and even danger - you'll need to be prepared to go to hospital. Recovery from removal surgery is a 3-week minimum recovery even if they can still do it by keyhole incisions.

Eating without careful monitoring will also possibly trigger attacks - it could be a difficult holiday. Hopefully existing travel insurance would cover some refunds if you decide not to go.

We can get a refund on the place we are staying up til midday on the day of arrival, plus we were planning to share the driving so no upfront travel costs. So it's no big deal from the costs point of view.

I'm just wondering whether to start rethinking the whole week - if I know I won't be going away I don't have to spend all of Tuesday sorting the back to school stuff for example, I'll have more time to get it done!

Thanks so much for the reply, it does sound increasingly unlikely from what you say.