The gallbladder: A.K.A. THE DEVIL ORGAN OF SATAN

[vontar]

"The gallbladder: a small organ in your body that stores bile. A.K.A. THE DEVIL ORGAN OF SATAN"

 

Direct quote from my wife.

 

Last week, Monday the 8th all was fine.

 

My wife said, I am going to go fill the car up, need anything.  I think I said something.  She left,

not 15 minutes later she was back in pain.  She just keep telling me it hurt, I thought something had happened and was having trouble getting it out of her.

 

She filling tells me she thinks it as gas bubble or something that she has had from time to time.  little be later not getting butter but seems to be hurting more.

 

I take her to the ER, we get in at 7 almost on the dot.  no line at check in, but they want to do paper work and more paper work.  I am getting PISSED.  I finally raised my voice and said, Look she has Chest pain get someone for her.   I didn't use any Monday morning words but it was clear I was not happy.  I love the signs posted around that medical care can't be denied if you can't pay, but makes certain payment is covered before getting in.

moving on.

 

Because I raised my voice she got someone out there, and he took my wife to the back.  I finished the papers and joined her.   EKG, he said doesn't appear to be a heart attack,  ok that is good but she is still hurting.

 

Blood work, taken  talked to a doctor,, no fever either, quickly rule out appendix.  Finally comes down 2 about 3 things,  Gallblader, Gas, or that something with the pericardium.  All 3 can mimic a heart attack.

 

First blood work comes back, nothing really found wrong.  The doctor offers to do an unofficial ultrasound.  Said the one she had couldn't do the measurements and since my wife wasn't fasting it may not show anything.

 

We take a Look and even to my untrained Eye I could see the stones.  Allot of them.

 

So they bring a tech with a better ultrasound machine.  She takes allot of pictures and after the second around of blood work we are sent home at midnight with a referral and prescriptions.  Get them filled and get home after 1 and she takes them.  Also they had give her some stuff about 10 p.m. that helped a little after they knew it wasn't a heart attack.

 

Checked with our Doctor and he said he would refer to the same Doctor as the ER doctor which was good news.

 

She got an appointment to see him on Thursday.  He wants the Gallbladder out, but per the ultra sound some stones had got into a duct that needed to be fixed first.  That was the source of the pain.

So Monday 15 she sees the next doctor.  Yup, they have to run a scope down her throat, though the stomach some place.  They schedule that for the 16th.  They also do blood work.

 

Then on the 16, they should start about 11, but they are held up by guess what, more blood work.  Seems they need to check to see if she is pregnant (which had already been checked 3 times).  This is some of the way health care is so high.

 

At least that operation went smooth,  Dr told me he get 2 stones out of the duct and expanded it so if any more get loose they should not cause a problem.

 

Today she followed up with the Gallbladder dr and she gets her Gallbladder out Next Thursday.

 

At least work hasn't give me a hard time about missing.  I keep them up to date as I knew.  I was on a Monday last week and told them I would be out Tuesday and Wednesday.

Today was my first day back, another guy turned in notice and they offered me his job which has a few perks but no pay increase.  But it is a step in the right direction.

 

 

So as of now, all is going well.

 

 

[Monkeyman2500]

Vontar, I have some advice I want you to research before your wife goes through this surgery. The surgery is not as easy as the doctors make it out to be. My wife went through this a few years ago and it was a nightmare. There are alternative ways that can fix this other than surgery. Research gall bladder flushes and surgical alternatives. Some simple ones are just using olive oil and lemon juice. I tried very hard to get my wife to try this before going through surgery. Trust me it is worth trying first. No doctors will even discuss alternatives with patients. To this day I want to drop kick her harvard grad, best in Tennessee gall bladder surgeon from a high cliff. I don't want to worry you but I urge you both to at least try another alternative first.

[MrsMonkeyMan2500]

The gall bladder is the devil's organ. So she's right about that. The duct that had stones, was it the bile duct? Here's something they don't tell you before surgery. Once the gall bladder is out, you can still develop and suffer from gall stones. Surgery is not a cure. I had my gall bladder out in June '11. Puttering along and everything is fine. Flash Forward to November and I feel like I am dying. Again. The pain is awful, I can't breathe and something is wrong. 3 ER visits later and "Oh hey look! A gall stone." Because evidently it is so rare. A gall stone in my bile duct. So a simple scope procedure called an ERCP to get it out and everything is gonna be ok.

 

No, it's not. They made a snip during the procedure and because I was on medication, I continued to bleed internally. I was discharged because no one knew. 2 days later and I am rushed back to the ER throwing up blood and clots. I almost passed away. I received a major blood transfusion and a not so comfortable 5 day stay in the hospital. Here's the part the hurts the worst. My husband is right. LOL It wasn't worth it. I should have tried his way. I never in my life thought that a "simple" procedure could go so wrong. I was never told stones could still happen. It's my fault for not trying to find alternatives. 

 

Now, I am a supplement whore. Everything I do, I do it with supplements. Western medicine is NOT the best medicine always. We've become a lazy culture. I was over weight when I needed my gall bladder out. Most people who have it removed are. We have become a very lazy society where we take the easiest path. My harvard grad should have said, loose some weight, diet and exercise and avoid risk factors that cause attacks. But then she wouldn't be paid as much. Only you and your wife know what is best for the both of you. But my husband is right. Research never hurts. If I could go back and do it all over again differently, I would have. I think I am having a ghost pain attack for writing this.  :surrender: But in all seriousness, if you or your wife have questions feel free to reach out. 

 

Congrats on the promotion! :up:

[hipower]

Wow. Learning a lot here tonight. Had my gall bladder removed in 1998(?) I think, after several bouts of agonizing mid and low back pain.

I guess I was lucky, I didn't have a great deal of post surgical pain. But when I had to bend over to get in and out of a car...that was another story.

I think I said a few things I really shouldn't have that day going home.

But bay all means research and get second opinions till you are comfortable and sure about whatever you decide to do.

[MrsMonkeyMan2500]

Wow. Learning a lot here tonight. Had my gall bladder removed in 1998(?) I think, after several bouts of agonizing mid and low back pain.

I guess I was lucky, I didn't have a great deal of post surgical pain. But when I had to bend over to get in and out of a car...that was another story.

I think I said a few things I really shouldn't have that day going home.

But bay all means research and get second opinions till you are comfortable and sure about whatever you decide to do.

 

You men always have it easy! You can go to the bathroom anywhere, surgery is a breeze...  :bowrofl:

I am jealous of your pain descriptions! Mine felt like a heart attack. I couldn't breathe, lips turned blue and it felt like I was dying. It felt like a huge knife being drove into my chest in back repeatedly. The first time it happened, it was right after lunch at City Cafe in Brentwood. No more meat and threes!  :puke:

[Rightwinger]

Had mine out in 03, no more acid reflux, no issues.  Off work two days.  Never want to experience that again

[Omega]

Vontar, I have some advice I want you to research before your wife goes through this surgery. The surgery is not as easy as the doctors make it out to be. My wife went through this a few years ago and it was a nightmare. There are alternative ways that can fix this other than surgery. Research gall bladder flushes and surgical alternatives. Some simple ones are just using olive oil and lemon juice. I tried very hard to get my wife to try this before going through surgery. Trust me it is worth trying first. No doctors will even discuss alternatives with patients. To this day I want to drop kick her harvard grad, best in Tennessee gall bladder surgeon from a high cliff. I don't want to worry you but I urge you both to at least try another alternative first.

I'd be careful,  I tried the flush and it did not work out for me.  A couple of days after I tried the flush, I had to go into the ER in extreme pain and a fever.  I had a sonogram which showed stones so they immediately checked me in for surgery the next morning.  Apparently the flush just washed a large stone into the duct which lodged.  They made a couple of small incisions and used some scope to get the gall bladder out.  Apparently the flush sort of soaks into the stone which makes them a bit softer and bigger, it also coats it in a slimy skin and flushes it out of your system.  If the stones are smaller, sand or pea size then it may work fine but mine were almost marble sized so the duct was not large enough to pass them.  The surgery itself was fine, but the nurse or whoever intubated me sliced my throat so had a sore throat for a few weeks afterward.  The docs warned me to cut back on spicy food and a few other things but I mainly eat the same as always.

[vontar]

The stones had went to the bile duct and she did have the ERCP I believe that is what they did Tuesday this week.

 

When it hit her, she felt like she was having a heart attack.  After she  finding out it was stones and given some pain meds sent home and 2 other appointments to find out it was in the duct and needed out. 

The bile was backing up and starting to affect her blood work per the doctor that did the ERCP.  He was concerned that they didn't get her in their sooner.

 

Also off and on over the past 2 years she has had similar attacks not to the same level but in the same place.  Stones had been ruled out a while back as they had not shown up on previous ultrasound.  She had been told it was probably just gas so she treated it like you would for gas.

 

Also the attacks like this last major one happened after eating.

 

Also in the last year or so she had lost about 20 pound trying to get healthier.  She read that losing weight can sometimes cause stones to come lose and move like that.

 

Since the ERCP she has already felt much better.

 

The ultrasound I watched, we know she has allot of stones in there that could later get stuck in the ducts if they move.  It appears we are beyond a flush as a flush could possibly make things worse and need another ercp.

 

One thing I read was "Gallstones can form even in people who eat properly. And as researchers have found, a diet extremely low in fat can also contribute to gallstone formation: With little fatty food to digest, the gallbladder is called into play less frequently than usual, so the cholesterol has more time to solidify."

http://www.webmd.com/understanding-gallstones-basics?page=2

 

Also she has a family history (both sides of her family tree) of them and some other risk factors.

 

She has also read up on the flushes as well.

[Dolomite_supafly]

My wife has had her gallbladder removed in 1992 or 1993 in Germany by military doctors. They did not use a scope so she has a couple of scars, the biggest being about 10" long straight across her abdomen. They must have laid her open like a fish to do the surgery and had drain tubes afterwards. My wife said the worst pain out of all of it was a few days after surgery they pulled the drain tube out. And by pulled I mean PULLED and I thought she was going to jump out of her skin, I am sure if she could she would.

 

It took the doctors about a week, or maybe a little longer, to figure out what was going on. Her attacks of pain always came at night which made it really hard because we did not have a car at the time. She would lay down to go to sleep and it would hit her then she would crawl around on all fours while I looked for a car. We would head to the ER and within a couple of hours it would subside but we were there almost every night for at least a week before they decided to do surgery. She stayed in the hospital for 4-5 days after the surgery.

 

And what was the probably the worst about the whole thing is when we went in she would have to answer questions about being raped. The enlisted nursing staff would spend more time trying to get her to say she had been raped by me than actually trying to figure out what was wrong. On several occasions they made me leave the room so they could talk to her privately about the "rough sex". After about the fourth of fifth trip to the hospital, and her getting questioned about rape, I finally lost it and they threatened to have me arrested. And after she kept saying repeatedly she wasn't raped they turned their attention to me. They started insinuating that I was raping my wife every night. After about a week of this I finally did loose it and was yelling and screaming in the ER. Then they finally, after about a week, decided to do an ultrasound which showed she had stones in her gall bladder. The biggest was about the size of a cherry. They removed her entire gall bladder and since then she has to watch what she eats.

 

The doctor that did the surgery was a great doctor. Spoke to him several times before and several times after and he was the nicest one of the bunch. Matter of fact all of the doctors I spoke to were professional but the enlisted staff were obviously a different matter.

 

My wife is a very tough person, a lot tougher than I probably am, so I know they had to be painful based on how my wife acted.

[Spots]

Wife had hers out at the end of 2011. She stayed over night then the next night went back in because she couldn't keep food down. Turns out they gave her way to much anstesia and it made her sick. We were at the naval hospital on Camp Pendleton. They kept checking her incision sites for infection, and finally she asked for food. They refused to feed her for almost 3 days, told her she couldn't a shower, and then when she started crying they tried to force some nerve pills down her throat. I damn near went to the brig that day. The doctor told me he could have me removed and make her take the xanax, I told him, an O4 officer in the Navy, that I'd beat him to death if he tried to force her to take anything. We had already had a confrontation the first night as they tried to make me leave and I told them to shove it. Needless to say I ended up standing tall in front of my CO over my wife's gallbladder lol. He asked if I was serious when I threatened a senior officer, and I looked him in the eye and told him I'd kill any man who hurt my wife or forced her to do something against her will. He said I was a good husband and that was the end of it.

Sent from the backwoods

[DWARREN123]

Had mine out just before Christmas 2003. I had been going to doctors for 18 months with a very bad stomach pain. On my third trip to the emergency room a doctor found my problem. 

I had to have surgery since mine was swollen so large, out of work for 6 weeks and a large scar. 

At least I did not have the  pain any more. My gall bladder had started in to gangrene.

[hipower]

 Dang. All these horror stories sure make me realize how easy I had it.

My surgery was done thru the navel and had tow other incisions along the belly and side. Neither incision was more than 2 inches in length.

The doc told me afterwards that I'd have more pains in my abdominals because he'd had to take a large forceps(?) type instrument to actually crush the stones in my gallbladder before removing it.

Like most everyone else, I had quite a few smaller pebble to marble sized stones, and one that was almost quarter sized. I kept that one in a jar for some time, but it seems to have gotten lost over the years.

As I said earlier, not a lot of pain that I remember, just from bending to get in and out of cars for a time.

I did have one interesting little thing during all mine though. Just before surgery, the doctor told me that my tastes/cravings for some foods might be different afterwards. Nothing specific, just it happened to some.

For me, it was milk. I loved milk. I'm talking couldn't keep it in the house, drink a gallon with a meal, type love of milk.

After the surgery, I just didn't like the taste any more. I really still don't. :shrug:

 

And one other thing he told me.

 

Said I might notice a difference in my body warnings about bowel movements. I might not be able to wait as long. As in stalling to get to a bathroom for a while.

 

Boy was he right!

 

For the first year or so, if I felt the need coming on...it was locate a john quickly. And I don't mean like as in "hey I might need to go, but as in holy crap, right now, try to save the underwear and pants gotta go."

 

I found that out the hard way.

Edited June 19, 2015 by hipower

[Monkeyman2500]

The stories on here are what I usually hear all the time. It seems to be a 50/50 sort of thing. I just wanted to make sure you knew of the other options. I never want to have to go what we went through again. I also know the health issues my wife still deals with daily are a result of the trama she was put through due to the surgeons negligence.

[Jonnin]

ER doctors struggle with this one for sure.   They know how to fix a bullet hole, though.   When I had mine out the doctor on duty wanted to give me a "cocktail" they make for upset stomach & send me home but I was having none of it.   Took them about 4 hours (actually looking at me, though) to finally say "well, maybe it could be ... naaah, ya think... hes too young ..."  so they pack me off to ultrasound it and sure enough it was the GB.   Pulled it out my belly button and ive felt 300% better ever since.  I never knew how sick I really was until that thing came out.

[runco]

I had my removed about 5 years ago, I had it easy.  Looks like I have been shot ~3 times with a large caliber gun in the belly.  No pain, no issue.  Just be warned after eating a greasy meal, you have about 30 min to get to the toilet. 

 

Complications can happen.  We lost someone in my church this past year who died from complications during gallbladder surgery. 

[DWARREN123]

Yep, be near a restroom after a spicy or greasy meal or face the horror.  

[Jonnin]

I had my removed about 5 years ago, I had it easy.  Looks like I have been shot ~3 times with a large caliber gun in the belly.  No pain, no issue.  Just be warned after eating a greasy meal, you have about 30 min to get to the toilet. 

 

Complications can happen.  We lost someone in my church this past year who died from complications during gallbladder surgery. 

 

sorry to hear it, that is rare these days.

It can go all appendix on you.. it can swell, get infected, and rupture spreading a fatal infection.  It hurts like all get out before it does that, so people usually make it to the ER before it blows out, but not always.  Some ppl just bear it thinking its bad indigestion until its too late.

[MrsMonkeyMan2500]

I did have one interesting little thing during all mine though. Just before surgery, the doctor told me that my tastes/cravings for some foods might be different afterwards. Nothing specific, just it happened to some.

For me, it was milk. I loved milk. I'm talking couldn't keep it in the house, drink a gallon with a meal, type love of milk.

After the surgery, I just didn't like the taste any more. I really still don't.

For me, it was pork. Hated it. When I got out of the hospital, I craved pork. Every single kind. Carnitas especially.

And the bathroom thing is super true. Going gluten free has helped a lot. I find it buys me more time. Or a lot of times I avoid "that feeling" altogether if I'm smart enough to stick to my diet. Also, no fast food. I avoid as much processed food as possible. Mostly meat and veg. Fruit too. Oh the sacrifices.

[hipower]

For me, it was pork. Hated it. When I got out of the hospital, I craved pork. Every single kind. Carnitas especially.

And the bathroom thing is super true. Going gluten free has helped a lot. I find it buys me more time. Or a lot of times I avoid "that feeling" altogether if I'm smart enough to stick to my diet. Also, no fast food. I avoid as much processed food as possible. Mostly meat and veg. Fruit too. Oh the sacrifices.

Although some foods do still give me problems, and I think a lot of that now is my age/aging; the non-controllable situations do seem to fade away.

But processed cereals of any kind will send me running in about 10 minutes.