Gallbladder surgery overseas?

[pomegranatepie]

Has anyone done this? I have been told that it's a two year wait for my initial consultation, and a further two years for surgery, so 4 years of zero fat and agony. I was screaming in pain last night, despite being really careful with my diet, it's misery.
We are skint at the moment, I'm a self employed chef, and it's affecting my work. My parents have offered to pay to have it done privately, which I feel massively uncomfortable accepting, but I'm realising that I have little choice, I can't do this for another 4 years. £7k here, or £1.5k in Lithuania, anyone done this?

are you sure it's 2 years for the inital appointment? I've got mine coming up and it's been about 5 months, delayed because of backlogs. No idea how long it will be after that though.

I do know people who have had other surgerys abroad and it was fine.

Yes, definitely two years, I have phoned and checked. The backlog in our area is horrendous. DH has been waiting 3 years for the snip, and two years for rheumatology specialist appointment.
I'm hesitant to go abroad at the moment, global pandemic and all, but it would save thousands.

thats awful. My hospital were appolgetic enough about my wait when I spoke to them.

I would definetly consider going abroad in your shoes then.

I had my gallbladder removed two years ago but developed complications three days later. The operation site started to leak and I was in hospital for three weeks with complication after complication.

I know that I was just really unlucky and 95% of surgeries are problem free, but if you are abroad and it happens could you afford the costs of follow treatment or would the NHS be able to treat you if they did not do the original surgery.

I think it is definitely worth thinking about the 'what ifs' first.

Ask your GP to refer you to a different area. It will be a lot cheaper even if you have to travel hundreds of miles.

I believe theres a high risk of pancreatitis and I know of 4 people who have had gallbladder removal and 2 of those four have been fine and 2 very ill. I see you've said zero fat, having zero fat can cause the same issues aa having too much fat so perhaps you need to reintroduce some.in the first instance?

I had to have a zero fat diet while waiting for surgery as any fat triggered attacks - once the stones are there, the damage is done and all you can do is try and avoid attacks.

I did lose loads of weight though which was something. Fucking tedious diet it was however.

I'd try seeing if the wait is shorter in different areas. I can see why you are tempted, my concern is you would need to plan for staying out there for long enough to know you had avoided complications.

Most people I know had easy surgery, including me, but a colleague ended up with a drain in for weeks and repeated repairs.

@AnnaMagnani ah I see. Both DP and I had the stones blocking our bile duct pushed through via endoscopy and although gallbladder still have stones we have (so far) avoided surgery by keeping to low fat.

Don’t do it. Complications are uncommon but they do happen. Would be a disaster to have problems and be stuck overseas or be struggling to get things sorted out from the U.K.

Yep, any fat can trigger an attack for me now, which is incredibly limiting, and really tricky with my job... Plus attacks seem to happen randomly now anyway. I have numerous tiny stones, which apparently can be more problematic than big ones as the buggers move around so much. I am worried about complications, which is why I'm hesitant despite the low cost, so was wondering if anyone has experience of doing this. Will ask my GP about refering to a different hospital, but it's pretty impossible getting an appointment at the moment.

Wouldn't want to go abroad as pp said I felt quite poorly for about 2 weeks afterwards. UK private is around £6k so I can understand that is a lot of money but perhaps not significantly more than overseas and associated travel?

I did have to request 2nd opinion on urgency of mine, pain was intense and I was building a tolerance to the medication after 18 months of waiting so was on oramorph at the end with all the associated issues that leads to on driving and bowels. I did make a formal complaint in the end and suddenly then there was a surgery date for me, which is unfortunate things have to be that way but squeaky wheel gets the grease etc. Also worth asking if you can be on the list of people willing to come in at short notice if there is a cancellation.

In the mean time my advise is buscopan, hot water bottles, downwards dog/gentle movement to budge stones out of painful spots and keep going back to gp for pain relief which works for you.

Do you take the buscopan just as and when you have an attack, or a daily dose? Problem I have is often I vomit with the pain, so can't keep painkillers down...

When I was in the worst times I would have an attack every 3-4 days even on fat free diet so would just take max buscopan all the time. Sometimes things were quieter and attacks coming every 2 weeks or so, then I would only take once there was any sign of trouble and keep taking for a few days until all settled again.

If you get feverish with the pain do go straight to gp urgently as antibiotics will also be important then.

FYI being hungry could also trigger an attack for me, so I had to graze a bit, and even smell of delicious food could set me off in early days though that did settle eventually once my brain got the message that just because I could smell it didn't mean I was going to eat it!

There were also some foods that just triggered me even though relatively low fat eg whole milk in a cup of tea would cause major problems, while eating roast chicken was no problem. So you may need to experiment a bit with what works for you.

Op I was really very ill after gall bladder surgery, bled out and had to have a second operation as an emergency. Having said that I think that you you are at the stage that I was at beforehand and it's absolutely miserable.

Oh that sounds dreadful @Motnight! Well I think I am decided to go private here, it's hell, affecting my work, my parenting and has taken any joy in food (my passion) travelling for surgery would be crazy at the moment anyway.

My sister had ro have her gallbladder out. From the first attack to surgery, it took two weeks. We're in France. Similar population, similar economy. What the hell is going on with the NHS? I can't believe you're being left to suffer like this!

@pomegranatepie

Has anyone done this? I have been told that it's a two year wait for my initial consultation, and a further two years for surgery, so 4 years of zero fat and agony. I was screaming in pain last night, despite being really careful with my diet, it's misery. We are skint at the moment, I'm a self employed chef, and it's affecting my work. My parents have offered to pay to have it done privately, which I feel massively uncomfortable accepting, but I'm realising that I have little choice, I can't do this for another 4 years. £7k here, or £1.5k in Lithuania, anyone done this?

As a parent I would say let your parents help you and have it done in the UK to be on the safe side.

Or in France lol.

Mine were discovered when I was pregnant and I had a huge one as well as smaller ones. I had my DD and had my op 7 months later. When they opened me in theatre I had septicaemia and was blasted with antibiotics and was down there much longer. I ended up in hospital for 5 days which was tricky as I was feeding DD. I felt pretty awful for a few weeks.
Someone I know went for several operations in Poland, can’t praise them enough.