Gallbladder Surgery

bump

Long ago I was a student nurse and actually witnessed this surgery.

You will be given a complete set of post op instructions, regarding when you can eat, etc....

Most of the dietary restrictions are due to coming off general anesthetic as that halts your bowels which slowly restart. If you eat to soon, you can basically plug up... When I was a nurse you were not allowed real food until you had one bowel movement after surgery for this reason.

You should see much releif soon after your surgery.

This is a pretty common procedure. Impact on your life should be minimal, but definately mind your stitches and care for them!

As for booze, not a good idea as it can iratate the tissue that has been severed inside. So yes, even the odd glass of wine may be a bad thing at first.

I had mine removed in November. Mile was filled with "sludge" and didn't have stones either. They say you can gain weight without it but I have not. I just started my new lifestyle change in January and have lost 17lbs without it. There are some days that I can't eat certain things but other days I can. Stay away from high fatty foods but that is about the only thing. Sometimes milk makes me run to the bathroom if I have enough of it. I have had a drink and it was ok. But you will feel really lboated and gassy for awhile after surgery. They fill your abdomen up with air so that they can work and sometimes it takes awhile to get out of your system. Other then that you should be good. My stomach muscles did hurt for awhile afterwards. It was a good 5 days I was laid up where others they are good to go the next day just listen to your body. If you have questions. Message me. Oh and I ate soup that whole week.

i had my gallbladder removed when i was 16.. let me tell you.. everything that you eat will come right out of you for a while.. thats how it did with me anyway (and other people i have spoken with.) the drinking thing- like i said, i was 16- i drank when i was 21 and it caused an ulcer, not sure if it was because i drank too much, lol, or if it was side affect of the gallbladder surgery..

anyway, i didnt have a special diet or anything that i can remember but this was almost 9 years ago! (yikes, that made me feel old!) hope my tid bit of info helped a little bit? good luck with your surgery and have a speedy recovery!! :flowerforyou:

I personally know nothing about this. But SEVERAL members of my family had this done. They all said that afterwards it felt much better (gas and bloating) but they have to watch thier dairy intake now to make sure that they dont get gassy from all the extra bacterias in dairy products. Also, they have to stay away from greasy foods or it will give them the scoots..eeew. It almost forces them to eat healthier so idk if its really a bad thing. I'm not sure if thats for everyone, but I know they all have to watch it big time. When my brother had it done he was eating regular foods in just a day or two. I'm not sure about my other two cousins though.
The hard part that they faced with thier weight loss goals was that they had the whole kit n kaboodle cut outta em (splein and gallbladder) so their stomachs were all scarred and it made it harder for their abdominal muscles to grow back together. So they still do face weight issues. However, none of them had the laproscopy done so I'm sure it will be much easier to bounce back after that.
Also, my brother's gallblader was HUGE I think they said it was like the size of a football (and he was only like 4 or 5 when he had the surgery) and because all the bile was stuck in his body some moved on to his liver and damaged some of it so he REALLY has to be careful drinking. However, the dr. said that casual drinking every once and a while wasnt going to kill him. So im sure youll be fine.

So basically eat healthy foods and limit your grease and dairy intake. Drinking a few is fine every once and a while just not all the time. And keep doing ab's stuff so they can regain what they lost from the surgery (but im not sure you will need to with it being laproscopic.)

Good luck!

I had mine out last April. I was eating normal a couple of days later. I was nauseous from the anesthesia so the day of surgery I nibbled on sprite & crackers when I wasn't passed out. I haven't had much problems eating things afterwards. The only thing I can't eat anymore is taquitos (like the ones you buy from the store & cook at home) because it runs right through me. Nothing was ever said to me about drinking afterwards except no alcohol for 48 hours or while I was still taking the percocet.

I had a laparoscopy 6 weeks ago to remove an ovarian cyst. Although I am no help at all on the gall bladder side of things - with my laparoscopy and I'm sure that with all laparoscopy's (although I could be wrong!) they use gas which they fill you up with to be able to get a better look, well I found that the pain in my shoulders afterwards from the gas was a little uncomfortable and that bothered me more than the pain in my abdomon, anyway, my little tip is to drink peppermint tea - I absolutely hated the stuff before my op but the nurse gave me some afterwards and oh -my the relief was amazing! I would definately recommend! Im surprised I didn't turn green in the 2 weeks after my op as I couldn't get enough of it! I probably drank about 2 cups a day - not sure how healthy or unhealthy it is but it sure did the trick!

Hope all goes well :-)

I had gall stones and was told that I needed surgery to have my gallbladder out. Fortunately it wasn't an emergency situation, but it was keeping me up at night with severe dull pain in my side. I figured out that the trigger was fatty and/or greasy foods. I cut out as much fat from my diet as possible in that month and didn't even eat a hamburger. I lost about 20 lbs but afterward I was able to eat whatever and eventually gained about 15 lbs back. I don't drink a lot, but I never saw anything about not drinking. The thing I always tell people to be prepared for is the gas pain in your shoulders when you finally sit up after surgery, usually the next day or two. It is so friggin' painful and there is nothing you can do about it, just be ready for it and know that it will go away. I'm not trying to scare you, but I wish someone would have told me about it so it wouldn't have scared me when it was happening. Anyway, good luck with the surgery. Oh and speaking of tea, I started drinking green tea with pomegranate, yummmm!!!!

The thing I always tell people to be prepared for is the gas pain in your shoulders when you finally sit up after surgery, usually the next day or two. It is so friggin' painful and there is nothing you can do about it, just be ready for it and know that it will go away. !

I was trying to say it nicely :laugh: but yes the pain from the gas is not nice but honestly peppermint tea will make it vanish! As soon as you feel the pain coming back drink more!! It worked wonders on me! I too am very cautious of taking pain killers and was given soo many but after the first day or two I hardly took any pain meds at all - thanks to the peppermint tea!

As for how long the pain will last it depends how much gas they leave behind as they will try and remove most of it but for me I had pain in my shoulders I think for about a week but it was bearable after about the 2nd or 3rd day.

.....mmm green tea and pomegranate - will have to try some of that!

the shoulder pain hurts a little bit for a few days after the surgery, but i didnt experience it at all when i woke up, i just kept mumbling that someone had punched me in the stomach. I got it more when i had actual gastric attacks, the only shoulder pain I got the few days after the surgery was more like a slight discomfort.
The day after my surgery i had pizza (just a tiny bit) cos i hadnt had any cheese/fat/egg/sugar in months, now its a sort of conditioned effect, every time i see too much oil in a pan i physically wince.
My advice is eat very high fibre when you get out, I was told this by various doctors as if you get constipation, it puts pressure on your insides and makes you hurt a lot, (sadly same with your first couple of periods) so all bran for breakfast is my advice, i would also advise peppermint or fennel (or both, twinings does a combo and its lovely) for any whances of trapped wind in general, again for the pressure on the area that was operated on.
I got mine out at 18 (2 years ago) its nice to see i wasnt the only teenager in the world to get it done (though in the ward it felt like it!).
Avoid eggs like the plague, they are the main perpetrators in gastric attacks and should be avoided after surgery for a while (before mine i didnt even eat egg pasta and got obsessed with buckwheat soba noodles). if you feel a little lost with the food side of things, Rosemary Connely does a diet book off the back of her own gallstones experience and it tells you what to eat before and after the operation, that really helped me.

good luck!

I had mine removed last year for my birthday as an emergency surgery I had no idea what was going on that was in so much pain and found out that I needed my gallbladder removed. I don't remember pain in my shoulders I remember pain in general and I didn't think it was gonna be so painful to recover for me it was I had to lay on my back for like 3 weeks. as far is diet its a hit or miss with me. sometimes I can eat bad fatty greasy foods but most of the time I cannot and have to run to the bathroom right away. it can be very embarrassing if there's not a bathroom nearby....you have to run fast! I think it's permanently gonna be that way for me...Eggs are fine, beans are fine, dairy is okay... I think I'm just getting use to having diarrhea a lot of the time.

UPDATE: Surgery went well. So far no shoulder pain, just ears and headache. I've been light on my meds since I havent been in much pain. Eaten mainly crackers, ramne, and mac n cheese. My belly is a little sore but that is to be expected since they did cut me in four different spots. Other than that everything is good. I finally went to the bathroom this moring and it felt great. Ive been up and moving around, although my husband wants me to stay in bed all day long. The peppermint tea has helped a lot as well. Thank you all for your advise and help.
[/quote

Well done you! Be sure to rest - make the most of it (when I had my op in January - as soon as I could walk to the bathroom unaided my boyfriend thought that meant I was fully recovered lol!)

Feel better soon and I wish you a very speedy recovery :happy: Sounds like your doing fab already :flowerforyou:

I lost 90lbs the last time I seriously dieted (about a year and a half ago) and it gave me gallstones lol the doc said it was from the rapid weight loss ....... so after my surgery i couldn't do my exercise like i wanted i fell of the diet wagon and put 70 of the 90 back on. So ive started the journey again back in January hopefully barring any other crazy surgeries ill get this weight off and keep it off.

Just about the same thing happened to me - and I hear about it from many other people. It's a shame it has to happen to those of us who are trying to make good changes.

To the OP, my biggest adjustment was to eggs of all things. I found that if I eat better farmed eggs (like Eggland's Best) I am much better off and they are really better for us, too!

Hope you heal quickly!