So after five hours of intense abdominal pain I finally begged wife to take me to the ER at 1:00 AM Saturday 01/30 which ended up being a 6 day stay at the hospital and me coming home without my gall bladder after 69 years of age.

Somehow I hoped nothing like this would happen but my last few MRIs, for different reason, of my abdomen showed gall stones and feeling good I thought I would stay lucky but I was wrong. I took radiologist report of my 12/01/20 MRI along to hand to ER staff to give them a heads up on my status.

We got to the ER at our hospital where dear wife works as a pharmacist and luckily it was pretty quiet and they immediately got me on something to lay down and took my vitals. The sweetest words to my ears all week were "we are giving you some morphine now", but 15 minutes later no change in pain so they gave me more morphine and again no change in pain so they gave me more again and finally pain went down a bit but still a lot of pain. I went down for an ultra sound that was pretty painful but it had to be done which showed yeah I had gall stones but did not conclude much else. When I got back the pain shot up again and I told them it was now between 9-10. This time they gave me Fentanyl which finally gave me significant pain relief and let me fall asleep. I woke up around 6:00 AM and was informed I was being admitted to the hospital

Early next day I had MRI/MRCP which gives very detailed view of pancreas, gall bladder, and ducts. Pancreatitis was confirmed as there were stones in the common bile duct that causes the pancreas excretions to backup into the pancreas causing it a whole lot of grief/inflammation and me pain. By 9:00 AM I had no more pain. I did not take any more pain med so we could see how I progressed and pain never came back which lead them to believe I probably passed a stone or stones but I was informed how serious acute pancreatitis is and I was not going home LOL. I was in for more tests and on IV including antibiotics for the rest of the stay.

I was assigned a group of doctors including my surgeon and a gastroenterologist. They both recommended that I have my gall bladder removed so as to not risk acute pancreatitis again and I agreed. Next I was having a endoscope procedure called XR ERCP where the doctor can inspect and take close up images of my pancreas and "clean out" the ducts and also put a stent in place. That went well and was totally painless before and after. After a day of rests and fluids I had the gall bladder removed using the minimally invasive procedure where four small incisions were made and my surgeon said my gall bladder "was full of stones". That mostly went well too but longer than usual due to scar tissue from previous abdominal surgery and I also had significant pain during recovery requiring Fentanyl to manage pain again for a short period of time.

After another day of rest and fluid and monitoring. I was finally released 7:00 PM Friday 02/05 and sent home with some pain killers and Colace. I only needed to take one of the pain killers just some of the time. Today I am feeling so much better finally. It will be interesting to see how life goes without a gall bladder for bme. So for so good with what I have been eating but being sure not to stuff my self full of food. Have been told more frequent smaller meals are better during recovery and to avoid greasy, fried, and spicy foods for at least a few weeks.

Being in the hospital during COVID 19 times really sucks but all the doctors, nurses, and other staff were really nice, professional, and helpful. Even the food was pretty good. The stupid "bed alarm" sucked especially bad though most the nurses disabled it for me.

Anyone having gall bladder issues or suspected gall bladder issues, please don't brush it off like I did. I had no idea how painful or serious the problems could be, especially to the pancreas.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: grumpy1,

I had my gall bladder removed laparoscopically between semesters when I was in law school. Recovery was really fast. I drove myself to get the staples out. I didn’t have any infection or pancreatitis. I would have gall bladder attacks that were painful for several hours. The doctor said as long as I didn’t run a fever that I could put off the surgery.

At the risk of over sharing, be aware that a possible side effect of losing your gall bladder is dumping syndrome. Food will tear right through you at the speed of light without heed to where you are or what you’re doing. It’s temporary, thank goodness. I just would have appreciated a heads up on the possibility—-it definitely wasn’t on the surgery waiver.

I hope you keep recovering well.

Get well, or we'll have to send this nurse to you:

Grumpy, you now have a right to your moniker!
I have treated a few pancreatitis cases way back in residency. It's a condition that can be fatal, although less likely if caused by gallstones IIRC.
Anyway your gallbladder is now history, it went well, you got good care, so unlike so many things in medicine it's something that is actually cured ("the only way to heal is with cold steel" was the surgeons' old maxim).

quote:

Originally posted by cheesegrits:
I had my gall bladder removed laparoscopically between semesters when I was in law school. Recovery was really fast. I drove myself to get the staples out. I didn’t have any infection or pancreatitis. I would have gall bladder attacks that were painful for several hours. The doctor said as long as I didn’t run a fever that I could put off the surgery.

At the risk of over sharing, be aware that a possible side effect of losing your gall bladder is dumping syndrome. Food will tear right through you at the speed of light without heed to where you are or what you’re doing. It’s temporary, thank goodness. I just would have appreciated a heads up on the possibility—-it definitely wasn’t on the surgery waiver.

I hope you keep recovering well.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Just woke up from a nice nap and no pain killer taken today yet I can sleep on either side now instead of just my back.

In my case I did not have any fever before or when I got to the hospital. I had nausea but no vomiting but I felt bad enough to grab a towel and garbage bag for the 20 minute ride to the ER just in case.

I have not heard about the dumping syndrome either so thanks for that info, I think. Being retired during these times and in this bad weather I am not going anywhere until probably next Friday to have surgeon do post op check.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Get well, or we'll have to send this nurse to you:

LOL. I will say there were a few nurses there that I would let do about whatever they wanted to me.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Grumpy, you now have a right to your moniker!
I have treated a few pancreatitis cases way back in residency. It's a condition that can be fatal, although less likely if caused by gallstones IIRC.
Anyway your gallbladder is now history, it went well, you got good care, so unlike so many things in medicine it's something that is actually cured ("the only way to heal is with cold steel" was the surgeons' old maxim).

Thanks Doc.

Yeah my extremely seasoned and experienced surgeon was very concerned about the acute pancreatitis and also explained to me it can be fatal. I wasn't expecting that. He also said that my lipase level via blood test was extremely elevated.

Acute pancreatitis from a gallstone killed my mother in law.

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
Acute pancreatitis from a gallstone killed my mother in law.

I am so sorry to hear that and my condolences.

Go easy the first few times you eat fatty foods.

Man, that’s some seriously painful shite! I’d had gall stone attacks for years when I was younger and I’d tough it out. After all, I’ve dealt with a zillion kidney stones since 1985. Well, after a surgical screw up cleaning my left kidney out of stones, they knocked the renal artery and sent me home. Kept having serious trouble and came stupidly close to bleeding out after there was no more room for the hemorrhaging clotted blood. Two weeks in intensive care and a bunch of surgeries later they had to block the artery leaving me with 23% of that kidney. A month or two later I get the worst gall stone attack I’d ever had. I was in South Georgia for work with a 5-6 hour drive to home. Only relief I got was while I was actually in the process of dry heaving. Finally got home and went straight to the ER. Dr said you’re totally jammed up with gall stones, we will have to schedule surgery. Thinking they meant in a couple weeks, I asked when I needed to schedule it with work. He said, you don’t understand, I’m taking you to emergency surgery right now. That surgery was an act of kindness. Other than years of having to run to the shitehouse 5 minutes into practically every meal for a few years, I never had another gall stone attack. 2001 was a rough year. Ended up losing the rest of that kidney too in 2009. I feel your pain, or at least I did... God bless you.