Saw the surgeon yesterday.

He said that while he could quite easily dismiss me by saying that there is absolutely zero evidence that my gallbladder is at fault, my symptoms fit to a Tee. He told me my choices were pretty much what I expected: live with it, or remove it.

I didn't have any specifics available at the time to schedule it right then, so I opted to call in once I knew what's going on, so I've been waiting all day for them to call me back.

I look forward to putting this whole shitshow behind me.

Hope you get some relief soon. Chronic conditions can really be debilitating. Good Luck,

RMD

Well, it's scheduled. Now all I have to do between now and then is go through the gauntlet of testing they want done.

I just got home from the hospital a few hours ago . Surgery went swimmingly, though I'm 10 kinds of sore.

As it turns out, there were blood vessels wrapped around my bile duct, which gummed up the works and prevented it from draining completely. I'm pretty sure that's why every diagnostic test, from simple blood work to the MRI I had showed nothing.

I look forward to being able to eat my favorite foods again. (I wonder if this was the root cause of my lactose intolerance...)

quote:

As it turns out, there were blood vessels wrapped around my bile duct, which gummed up the works and prevented it from draining completely. I'm pretty sure that's why every diagnostic test, from simple blood work to the MRI I had showed nothing.

Good to hear thanks for the update. Sometimes the only way to tell for sure is to open you up so the surgeon can see what is going on. Shortly this will be a distant memory.

I've been through enough weird shit medically (extra muscles where there should be none that put pressure on nerves, impacted wisdom teeth popping up seemingly out of thin air, etc.) to believe that.

I have nothing but good things to say about the surgery team (well, those that I remember, anyway - I remember the nurse anesthetist putting a sedative of some sort in my IV before they wheeled me back, thinking "my teeth feel funky", then I woke up feeling like I did 600 sit-ups). Everyone I remember really seemed to care, both about what they were doing and about my wellbeing.