Adventures of a Dysfunctional Gallbladder

Update: This post is somewhat old, but continues to bring a large amount of traffic to my blog. That's great!! After reading my experience, please take a look at my update to my gallbladder situation:
Complications

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I had my gallbladder removed 2 weeks and 4 days ago. Up until this much anticipated event, I spent a good amount of time googling other people's experiences and found that most people are idiots. The reason I'm writing this blog is so that maybe someone else out there who is scared to death of gallbladder removal (like I was) might come across my blog and get a straight forward account of my experience instead of the same old "OMG GALLBLADDER SURGERY IS AWFUL!!!111!!!11 I CAN'T EAT ANYTHING!!! I SHIT MY PANTS EVERYDAY!!!!11!".

Before I move forward, let me start off with my pre-surgery statistics.
Gender: Female
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 115 lbs.
Age: 26

Pre-surgery, I was an avid weight lifter in my work gym and watched what I ate everyday. I had gained a few pounds since August 2011 due to the fact that I was developing muscle. My point of mentioning this is that *most* gallbladder problems occur when people are either 1) overweight or obese, 2) have horrible diets and 3) have no daily exercise regimen. I did not fit any of the classic criteria. It just goes to show that the gallbladder can screw up for ANYONE.

In January 2010 (I was 24), I was hospitalized for chest pain. My grandmother had just passed away on Christmas day in 2009, and immediately after attending her funeral I was driven to the airport and flown back to California to go back to work. I never allowed myself to grieve and it played a massive toll on my body and my mind. I started developing chest pain and shortness of breath and my boyfriend (at the time.. he now my husband) took me to the ER. An EKG showed abnormalities with my heart so I was admitted. I went through a series of tests and it was determined that my heart was fine. What is considered "abnormal" for normal people is actually normal for me. They did determine that my potassium levels were low and that the chest pain was most likely related to that or it was from anxiety. My K levels were low most likely because I was just not eating enough due to my extreme dieting at the time. I was given K supplements and a pamphlet about foods with K in them.

I'm talking about this experience because I'm not sure if this chest pain was the beginning of my gallbladder problems or not. Some people I have talked to have described their gallbladder pain as being located in their chests and easily mistaking them for heart problems.

About ~1.5 weeks after this, I was sitting on the couch watching an episode of Ghost Hunters. I was waiting for Chad to get home because we were supposed to go eat Outback Steakhouse that evening. (Yes, I remember these details vividly!) Very suddenly, I feel very pain in my right side, just under my rib cage. I tried to move around a little bit but nothing would make it go away. I sat on the toilet and nothing happened. It sort of subsided after about 20 minutes but it never really went away. The first thing I kept thinking was "Is my appendix going to explode?" However, I didn't have any other symptoms that come with appendicitis. I went to Outback Steakhouse and the pain came and went that night... and every day for the next 2 years.
The only way I know how to describe this pain is that it was gnawing. It was everywhere on the right side. It would radiate to my back, down to my groin, and up to my shoulder blade.

3 days after this, Chad and I were supposed to drive down to L.A. to attend a taping of They Jay Leno Show (RIP). I was scared that my appendix would burst or something, so I went to our local Urgent Care. The doctor there told me that it was definitely NOT my appendix, but suspected it could be a problem with my right ovary. I called my gyno that afternoon and scheduled an appointment. I went to L.A. and enjoyed our weekend (experiencing intermittent pain in my right side constantly... but whatever).

When I went to see my gyno, she scheduled me to get an ultrasound of my entire abdominal region. The results said I had no kidney stones, gall stones, or ovarian cysts and that everything looks perfectly fine. Frustrated, I thought maybe it wasn't gyno-related so I made an appointment with my general practitioner (GP) to see if he could give me some insight into what could be causing my almost constant right side pain. I went over all of my symptoms with him and he scheduled me for yet another ultrasound and blood work. Again, everything came back completely normal. No gallstones, no kidney stones, and nothing abnormal to be seen. He tried to say that it was all in my head and that I should consider taking Zofolt or Xanax. UGH. No, thanks. I was on Zoloft when I was 21 years old, and served its purpose. I knew I wasn't crazy, but what was I supposed to think? Every single test was showing that everything was fine. What the hell was my pain being caused by?

I went almost a year with this pain after that. I really believed that it was in my head. Everyone was making me feel like I was crazy.

Almost anytime I went out to eat during the two years of my pain, or after I ate a meal at home that contained more "substance" than normal (like homemade burritos, fajitas, spicy food...) I would wake up in the middle of the night with nausea and (sometimes) dry-heaving. I took a lot of Pepto Bismol and Gas-Ex. Like I mentioned in the beginning of my post, I rarely ate fried foods or foods with a lot of grease so I never saw the correlation between my pain and symptoms until much later on.

In early 2011 (I was engaged to be married in March 2011), I had a particularly bad episode of pain while I was sitting at my desk at work. It was that moment where I decided that I was going to find another GP who would listen to me and get another opinion without trying to force me on anti-depressants. I looked up another doctor that my insurance covered and made an appointment for after my wedding.

I was married on March 19, 2011 *YAY*! I went to see this doctor as soon as we got back from our honeymoon and he scheduled me to get a CAT Scan of my entire stomach. I went in on April 5 (my birthday) and had a CAT Scan. Once again, everything came back normal. The doctor said to give it a few more weeks and call him if the problem doesn't go away.

I waited... all summer... I traveled a lot. It got to the point where my pain became second nature. I basically got used to it.

Finally, in September 2011, I called him again and pleaded with him to help me. His reaction was to test my gallbladder function. He did this as a method of elimination, as he didn't believe it was my gallbladder. He didn't believe it was because of my lack of gallstones, and also because I didn't see an obvious correlation between my symptoms and fatty foods (which is what is typically seen).

I was scheduled for a HIDA scan. I starved myself all day and then sat on this table where they injected with my nuclear dye and watched it was it moved through my liver into my gallbladder and then into my intestines. There is a part of this exam where they inject you with a chemical that "tricks" your gallbladder into thinking you just ate a massively fatty meal. Man, that hurt! It recreated my symptoms 100x worth.

After the test, I decided to give myself a test. I was STARVING (the exam requires you to fast beforehand), so I stopped at Wendy's on my way home. I got a fried spicy chicken sandwich with mayo, and an order of spicy chicken nuggets. Man, those were SO GOOD! But afterwards, I experienced the worst pain in my right side yet. On a scale of 1-10, it was a 9.5. That's when I realized that maybe I DO have a correlation with my symptoms and with fatty food!

The next day, my doctor called me and said that the exam showed my gallbladder was "sluggish". A normal bile ejection fraction is 35%. Mine was 28%, meaning that my gallbladder was not functioning at it's full potential. He was surprised, but was pretty positive that maybe my pain was from my gallbladder. He referred me to a gallbladder surgeon to see what could be done (if anything).

I met with the surgeon whose attitude was "Your are young, healthy, skinny, fit, and you have no gallstones. I don't know if I want to remove your gallbladder." Instead, he sent me to a GI doctor to get an upper endoscopy done and to also get a third opinion from him.

I met this THIRD doctor, and I sat down with him and described everything that I was experiencing. His exact words were "That sounds like biliary disease to me..." but said he would perform the endoscopy on me anyway. I was so effing scared before the endoscopy because I had never been put to sleep before. I was given an IV and wheeled into this room where a nurse said "OK Megan! I'm going to sedate you now!" Almost immediately I felt like she had given me 300 Benedryls at once. The next thing I know I opened my eyes and there was Chad ready to take me home. The sedation made me sleep until 5pm that evening. That was pretty sweet, I'm not going to lie. Hehe!
That doctor said my endoscopy was completely clean and that he was going to send me back to the gallbladder surgeon with the recommendation of getting my gallbladder removed.

I went to visit the surgeon one last time where he finally said he was basically convinced that my problems were from a dysfunctional gallbladder and that he would remove it laproscopically.

My surgery was scheduled for December 2, 2011 (I was able to set the appointment after Thanksgiving). My parents flew into Monterey for 4 days to take care of me so Chad would be able to go to school and focus and not have to worry about me.

I was a fucking basketcase before the surgery. I was SO SCARED!! I had no idea what to expect. They gave me some Valium beforehand but it didn't work. I started crying. They wheeled me into the surgery room and BOOM! The next thing I know I was back in my recovery room. The first thing I noticed was "My throat hurts!" I guess it was from the breathing tube they insert in your throat while you are under general anesthesia. Then I started feeling pain in my stomach. I lifted up my hospital gown and that's when I saw my incisions. I had 4 tiny incisions. 1 on through my belly button, 1 above my belly button, and 2 on the side where my gallbladder was.
They gave me 2 Vicodin and some shots of morphine through my IV but I still had this AWFUL pain in this spot in my stomach. They explained that they have to blow CO2 gas into my stomach during the procedure in order to make room for the surgical instruments and that it can cause gas pains. They had me stand up and walk around and that helped alleviate the pain. So if any of you out there are getting your gallbladder removed, my advice to you is to WALK after the surgery. That will have your gas bubbles move around and help the gas pains.
My surgery was at 9am and I was discharged at 1pm. Not too bad!

I started to get some horrible nausea, most likely from the anesthesia. I dry heaved when I got home and then went to sleep. I had no appetite at all. I didn't even feel hungry. I was uncomfortable at my incision sites.

The next morning (Day 2), I woke up and tried to eat some tomato soup. I slept on and off that day. That evening, I started getting REALLY nauseous and ended up throwing up all evening and through the night. The act of throwing up made my incisions hurt even more. It was horrible. HORRIBLE I TELL YOU.

The next day (Day 3) was no different. All day vomiting and I couldn't eat or drink anything without throwing up or shitting almost immediately (sorry for the TMI, but it's true.) I had a break down that night because I was scared that I made a horrible mistake by having the surgery. I also discontinued to use of Vicodin and switched to 2 Tylenol every 4 hours. It helped just the same. If you have bad reactions to Vicodin, try using normal over the counter Tylenol.

Day 4, I called the surgeon's office and asked if constantly throwing up was normal. His medical assistant said YES. She told me to eat jello, saltine crackers, and tea. She also sent me a prescription for Zofran, an anti-nausea medication. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. That medicine saved my sanity. It cured my nausea completely and I was finally, after 5 days, able to eat food!!!!! I took 3 Zofran that day (every 6 hours).

Day 5, I managed to eat through an entire sleeve of Saltine crackers throughout the day. That day I took 4mg of Zofran 2 times.

Day 6, I ate 2 bowls of jello, a pop cycle, more crackers, and Gatorade. I only needed 1 Zofran that day (in the morning).

Day 7, a week after my surgery, I was eating soup with noodles, bread with jelly, and turkey sandwiches from Subway. I also returned to work that day. My pain level was low and I didn't need to take the Zofran anymore to function.

After surgery, I weighed 105lbs. I lost about 10 pounds. But now that I'm eating enough calories, it's gone back to about 107lbs and has stayed there for about a week.

Everyday since then has gotten easier and easier. My constant right side pain I struggled with everyday for 2 years is gone (expect for occasional pings of pain related to my recovery and healing).
Everyday I find I can eat more and more things and I feel better and better.

As of today, I find I can't tolerate the following: oily foods, food with a lot of grease, candy, cookies, and cheese. If I eat any of these things, I almost immediately get queasy and it lasts for a few hours.

No, I don't have constant diarrhea like people claim they do. Honestly, if you try to eat a bunch of shitty food then YES you probably will shit your pants!

So here I am, 2 weeks and 4 days later, and I am great. AND I'm pain free. The gallbladder is a piece of shit organ. If ANYONE out there finds this blog, and is going to get their gallbladder out, then you should not worry. Don't be scared. You will be okay. If I can do it, you can do it!!!