Gall Bladder Surgery . What was your recovery time?

[Sundaymorningfiveninteen]

Morning, I have a date for surgery . It’s in less than 3 weeks. My industry gets quite busy around Christmas. I have a lot of clients to be cancelled and unlikely I will get them all rebooked before Christmas. My job is not beauty / hair related , something people like to get “ticked off” before Christmas, it won’t ruin the festivities if they don’t get it done .
Op is a Thursday. I sit down all day, I have an assistant on hand all of the time. I’m fit and well generally. Could I potentially be back at work on the Monday after 3 good days of rest.
I have to self isolate 3 days before the operation which is why I’m trying to minimise the time off afterwards. I see 15 to 17 clients a day so that’s a lot of people to cancel , I’m trying to minimise the disruption . Also, no work, no pay as I’m self employed but I do have savings, just rather not use them if possible.
So Tell me your post op recovery experience good or bad.

I had mine out 4 weeks ago.
In theatre for 10:30am.. I wasn’t discharged until 8pm. Took me a while to come round and the pain was hideous. I’d rather go through labour than have the shoulder pain. One of my incisions was infected and only just had my final dressing removed. I’m now back at work this week on phased return as I’m in a manual job and can’t be lifting still.
I wasn’t allowed to drive for 2 weeks after the anaesthetic and had to stick to a low fat diet for 2 weeks after also (no more than 22g fat per day).
I also had to have twice daily blood thinning injections for a week after the op. They stung quite a bit too! However overall I’m glad it’s out and not had the old pain since.

The lady in the bed next to me was also having hers out. She went in before me and as still there when I went. She had a hideous reaction to the anaesthetic and couldn’t stop vomiting.

Everyone is different OP and like Labour stories everyone likes to compare and give you a horror story.

Sore for about 5-7 days, then started improving, and back to work after a fortnight.

It was nothing in comparison to a hysterectomy.

I'm recovering from a broken shoulder atm, I'm over the worst, but this was also much worse than my gallbladder surgery.

I was fine the next day. However I was advised not to do any heavy lifting for three weeks. That went out of the window when my grandson made a bid for freedom and the busy road. No damage done.

Just thought I'd come and update now I've had the operation done. I had it last Thursday, so now I'm 5 days afterwards. I found these threads useful beforehand so hopefully this will help someone.

General anaesthetic was fine, no where near as scary as I imagined and the staff were lovely!

Recovery is interesting! I was on a lot of painkillers in the hospital afterwards but they didn't stop the pain really, just made me quite high. I was lucky that they managed to carry it out via keyhole surgery as there were some minor complications with the gallbladder being inflamed. I went home the same day but was in a lot of pain, couldn't walk without support and close to throwing up many times. I had an awful dry mouth for about 24 hours afterwards and also found it really hard to pee for at least 12 hours after the anaesthetic. (Took me 4 days to poop - definitely recommend taking something to help this - ouch!)

If I am laying flat I still can't get upright without my husband pulling me up. For the first two days he was having to help me walk around etc and I was having codine, paracetamol and ibruprofen to keep me going. He still has to help me sit up so I can get up for a wee in the middle of the night but I can move myself around fine now apart from the getting up from laying flat. I'm now on much less painkillers and could struggle on without any really if I absolutely needed to. I do have an almost constant low grade fever running which I have had checked by HCP and they aren't concerned it's anything to worry about. I keep having sudden periods of extreme tiredness where I don't really have any choice but to go to sleep. Not having any issues sleeping overnight.

3 of the 4 sites are completely fine with minimal pain and just a small amount of itching. One is right on my bra line so haven't been able to wear a bra now the dressing is off as I have staples in and they are raised up from the skin so they catch and pull - ouch!

The 4th site on my belly button is giving me the most problems. It is very bruised and the most painful area now is all around this site. It's almost a stinging sensation rather than pain and the area is quite swollen.

The discharge advice they gave me from the hospital says:
Take painkillers regularly
Have a bath shower after 24 hours
Dressing removed after 48 hours, keep wounds dry and open.
Only light exercise/movement for first week, nothing like vacuuming/hanging out washing etc until after 2 weeks.
No driving for 2 weeks
No work for two weeks and then only return if it is administrative/desk work with no lifting, stretching or continual bending,
No heavy lifting for at least 4-6 weeks.

I have 10 staples in which are being removed 10 days after the operation.

Hope that helps someone else going into this. I'm definitely quite bored at this point, feel I have so much I want to get on with but my body is taking a while to catch up to my brain in that respect,

Oh also forgot to add, wind pain wasn't too bad and passed in a couple of days. Shoulder pain was really helped by deep heat roll on.

@anausbsk,
Thank you so much for your update. Very helpful. Wishing you all the best for a good recovery. I have to admit , it sounds a lot worse for you than I hoped it would be in general.

I had severe diarrhoea and vomiting for weeks afterwards. No way could I have gone out.

[quote Sundaymorningfiveninteen]@anausbsk,
Thank you so much for your update. Very helpful. Wishing you all the best for a good recovery. I have to admit , it sounds a lot worse for you than I hoped it would be in general. [/quote]
I honestly thought I'd be up and about after a day as most people seemed to dismiss it as something very minor. But it's definitely taken me quite a while to start feeling better. I suspect it's probably one of those things where looking back it doesn't feel so bad so you think you were up and about very quickly, where actually it took a bit longer than most people remember. Wishing you all the best for yours.

@fuckweasel

My planned keyhole surgery was switched to open surgery after attempting keyhole (monster stone + infected gallbladder). I spend five days in hospital, off work for six weeks followed by several weeks of phased return. There was no indication that open surgery would be necessary (about 5% of surgeries are open). Just something to be aware of.

Exactly the same for me. There were unexpected complications during surgery so it was open surgery with a much longer recovery.

I had mine done on a Tuesday lunchtime & I was back driving Wednesday afternoon & out at a social occasion by Sunday. I was fine as soon as I came round.

Just updating again for anyone who reads this in the future. I'm two weeks after the op. I feel a million times better, almost back to normal, on my second day with no painkillers at all.

Have had to go on antibiotics for the belly button site and that one is taking a bit longer to heal. Having the staples out made the biggest difference for me. Have felt so much better since they went.

Hi @anausbsk. Glad you are feeling better . My op is tomorrow . Very mixed feeling about it . Im normally pretty level headed but it’s crossed my mind to cancel and live with the inconvenience of the pain. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had a very severe attack for about 6 weeks now . My biggest anxiety is the recovery time. Im self employed. I have clients who need to be cancelled if I don’t work and I’m the higher earner . If I’m not back on Monday we will plough through the savings pot right on top of a very expensive time for us ( and Christmas to boot ) .

@Sundaymorningfiveninteen

Hi *@anausbsk*. Glad you are feeling better . My op is tomorrow . Very mixed feeling about it . Im normally pretty level headed but it’s crossed my mind to cancel and live with the inconvenience of the pain. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had a very severe attack for about 6 weeks now . My biggest anxiety is the recovery time. Im self employed. I have clients who need to be cancelled if I don’t work and I’m the higher earner . If I’m not back on Monday we will plough through the savings pot right on top of a very expensive time for us ( and Christmas to boot ) .

My advice would be not to cancel. I have actually been off work for almost 3 months because I didn't have this operation done sooner. I had an attack of gallbladder pain over summer, I didn't realise until a few weeks later when I got really sick that during this attack one of the stones had come out of the gallbladder and blocked my bile duct. I was really really unwell, spent almost a week in hospital and had to have multiple scans, MRIs, an ERCP and pancreatic stent put in and then removed later on. It has taken me so long to recover from all this and then they've done the operation now I'm well enough to go through that part. Hopefully it won't ever happen again now.

So whilst this operation is difficult now it will mean you shouldn't get these really serious complications in the future which could stop you working for a lot longer.

Lots of people on here seem to have had relatively quick recoveries, hopefully you will be one of the lucky ones. I'll keep everything crossed for you that it goes well.

Good luck Sunday

Just to balance the replies saying it took weeks to recover...I was home and breastfeeding my (very big!) baby within 8 hours, and went for a run after 7 days. The consultant did say I'd had a remarkable recovery (very lucky), but you won't necessarily be in loads of pain for weeks and weeks after. The relief of knowing I'll never have another attack was amazing as well!

Thank you for those replies and updates.

I had mine out nearly 8 years ago. I kept on top of pain by alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen every two hours for the first couple of days and I can clearly remember hoovering about 5 days after the op. I would have been fine working if I had been sat at a desk and not doing anything too strenuous. The hardest bit was the recovery after the anaesthetic, that was the first 24hrs then I was just a bit tender. I had a toddler at the time so not much choice!
Good luck op

Thank you @dontputitinyourmouth. I’m stocked up on those painkillers. I was reading the literature tonight. If the pain is to much the hospital will give me Oxycodone . We’ve been watching Dopesick on Disney so hopefully your suggestion will be enough.

I hope it goes well this morning

How did it go @Sundaymorningfiveninteen ?

Hope it all went well.

I had mine out 13 years and can't remember much pain or difficulty moving afterwards but I got tired very easily for about 3 weeks, although whether that was the op itself or the fact I'd never had GA before I'm not sure.

Hi . Thank you again for all your good wishes.
@Heronatemygoldfish , it went well . I feel ok. A bit sick but given anti sickness tablets for that . Pain not awful so I can manage with brufen and paracetamol . Nurse laughed ( nicely ) when I said I wanted to go back to work Monday and she might have a point. I’ve gently pottered about, had a shallow bath on my knees in my swim suit to keep the staples dry. Really wish I had not done a huge internet Christmas shop tho’ . The door bell hasn’t stopped all morning.

Glad you're healing! Take it easy but also do move if you can because that helps avoid blood clots.

Interesting how many people here had their wounds stapled. I got superglued up... and the internal clips which seal the bile duct shut are non-metallic so future MRIs are safe.

Glue sounds a bit kinder . I’ve been given what looks like a Lego undoer to give to the GP to remove the staples, I thought for a moment the nurse was going to say I was to do it in ten days .

@Sundaymorningfiveninteen

Thank you *@dontputitinyourmouth*. I’m stocked up on those painkillers. I was reading the literature tonight. If the pain is to much the hospital will give me Oxycodone . We’ve been watching Dopesick on Disney so hopefully your suggestion will be enough.

I was given that after the operation as I was in a lot of pain. I was on the ceiling coming home 😂