Surgery? No surgery? Gallbladder.

[EscapeRoomToTheSun]

Sorry probably not my most interesting thread.

Taken into hospital yesterday with severe pain which the doctors think are from gallstones. They want to take my gallbladder out. Has anyone had this done? It seems very sudden to me because this is the first time it's happened. Maybe I'm just scared of surgery!

If anyone has any experience of living with gallstones or having that the surgery I would be very grateful. Thank you.

Get the little bastard whipped out as soon as you can!

Gall bladder pain the worst ever thing - sheer agony.I had mine out 36 years ago when it was full incision. It's easy now as keyhole but I have just been diagnosed with Bile Malabsorption which can be a side effect.

I was diagnosed with gallstones 15 years ago. The pain was awful. I was offered surgery, but the pain attacks lessened and completely disappeared. I’ve never been plagued with it since. I still have the gallstones - I had a scan recently for something else and it was commented on, but as they don’t bother me, I don’t plan to do anything about it.

My husband had gall stones which resulted in repeated attacks of pancreatitis. It was horrible to see him in so much agony and only morphine would give him relief.
Had the keyhole surgery without problems. No need to adapt his diet or anything.
You don't want to be abroad when an attack starts, waiting in hospital for the pain to stop. Or spend time worrying that you might have an attack.
The gap between my husband's attacks began to shorten.
Have the surgery and remove that worry!

Get it out asap.
I first had a GS attack when 3 months pregnant so had to wait until 6 months after giving birth to have the op.
I was unlucky (typically me) where my bile duct got damaged during the surgery which in turn caused pancreatitis. The initial op was fine though and I was home the same day. Some days later I became ill again with the worst pain I'd ever ever felt so had to be whipped back in to repair the damaged duct. Recovered really well after that.
It's been 22 years now and although I'm glad I had it done and would definitely make that decision again - I do still get 'attacks' every so often which result in a visit to A&E for morphine. This mostly happens after eating very fatty foods, like something deep fried in oil and retaining the oil particularly. But not always. It's weird. My phantom GB also doesn't like chinese neither.
Dr's don't know why exactly - some think it's my pancreas and some say it's biliary colic caused by not having a GB.
So just something to be aware of really but as you can see just on this thread, most people breeze through the op and recover well without any further issues and manage perfectly well without a GB.

Get it out as soon as you can, I delayed and it turned in to pancreatitis.
I was in hospital for 5 months and still take medication 12 years later.

Get it removed. Had my first attack December 2011, had so many so close together that I literally couldn't wait to have it removed, even got my GP on the case to chase the hospital. Luckily had it taken out May 2012, it didn't even enter my head to keep it.