Hand hold. Please.

[MrsCK]

Husband in ambulance.

He's been in hospital for 2 weeks with gallstones. We were on holiday staying near our parents. I came back home and dh was discharged this morning. Plan was he would stay a night with his parents and back home to me tomorrow. Except now something's happened and he's been blue lighted back to hospital.

I'm panicking and need to not google

Please can someone just hug me :,(

Hope he's ok. I had my gallbladder removed last October. Best thing I ever done.
Even with some complications with the surgery,
I felt so much better straight away.

Eating bland food (chicken, salad/ veggies) helped with the symptoms

They can remove with inflammation if it's bad bad. I had mine done with severe inflammation because it was affecting my heart rate. Hence the complications

How's he doing? I hope you're ok too x

Hope he's doing ok
Also hope you're doing ok too xx

Not great news today. He has a blocked duct, liver function tests indicate his liver isn't doing what it should and as such he is jaundiced too.

They are likely to remove the stone blocking the duct but not the gall bladder yet.

I hope you are doing ok and husband too

Hope there is some good news for you today

Holding hands. I know it's very painful from personal experience.

Update.
He's on oxygen as his levels have gone down.
He'll be having a camera down to have a look and to move the blocking stone and to fit a stent. Hopefully this should see him through until the operation to remove the gall bladder.

They will put him on the urgent list to remove gallbladder after putting it in. Hope he's feeling better soon

Love and thoughts coming your way, for you and your DH.

So sorry you are going through this, it sounds immensely stressful. Good that the investigations are now over and there is an action plan to get him better again. Hugs to you and your family.

I do a lot of gallbladder surgery so happy to answer any questions that you have. It sounds like he's getting excellent care at the moment, particularly if they're managing to get the endoscopy done straight away.

Thank you all

welsh will they do the camera and the stent and the stone removal all in the same procedure do you know?

Try not to worry about the liver. Often when there is othe big stuff going on in the body the liver can throw a bit of a wobbly about the extra pressure it is being put under. It will most likely resolve quickly whn everything else is sorted.

DM had gallstones, they ended up in all the ducts around the gallbladder and she had full open surgery. She said the pain was worse than labour, but has had no issues since the op.

Generally yes. The camera goes through the mouth, down into the stomach and then the duodenum, from which you can access the main bile duct. The stone(s) are usually stuck at the bottom of this, so the entrance to the duct is cut to make it wider (called a sphincterotomy) and the stones are pulled out. Sometimes it's not possible to get all the stones out for various reasons (not sinister ones) so a stent is left in place to allow the bile to drain around the stones and relieve jaundice.

This procedure usually makes patients better fairly quickly, although that does depend how inflamed the pancreas is.

It doesn't deal with the stones in the gallbladder though, so he will still need an operation to remove the gallbladder in due course. Usually that would happen within the next few weeks but it does vary between individual cases.

Thanks for that information welsh they had originally said up to a year for the removal of the gall bladder but now they have mentioned 6 weeks which would be amazing.

I'd heard how painful it could be but had no idea it'd be this constant for so long!

In the event that they are unable to remove a gallstone or the pain doesn't subside at all would they look to do open surgery?

Usually keyhole op

But his pancreas and gallbladder ideally need to calm down before removal
Have a ☕️ or

Don't worry - it will be fine. I had awful gallstones, one dropped into my bile duct, blocking it and caused jaundice and peritonitis. They removed my gallbladder as an emergency (full open surgery) and it was all fine.

Thinking of you op.

It's very unusual not to be able to remove the stones via endoscopy. If they can't (they'd usually have a couple of attempts) then the next option would be trying to remove them keyhole at the same time as removing the gallbladder. Very very occasionally that's not possible and an open operation would be needed but that's very uncommon.

Thanks again welsh for your help.

He seems to be deteriorating in other areas...o2 levels are now constantly below where they should be and he's developed a wheeze as well as being dizzy and feverish.

He's booked in for the endoscopy tomorrow.

Pancreatitis can be a nasty illness, but he's in the right place, has a sensible treatment plan and is obviously being monitored closely as they are picking up on things like the oxygen levels. It's not uncommon for pancreatitis patients to be moved to high dependency/ITU for monitoring either, so don't panic if you hear talk of it...it's a good thing. It can make you very sick very quickly but equally many patients recover quickly too.

Thanks for the heads up :)

Hope the procedure goes well tomorrow, and that he has a stable night MrsCK.

Also hoping you have a good supply of Gin to see you through!