Gallbladder Surgery from a Patient's Perspective

As a 38 year old male that is not overweight, I don't fit the common profile of a Gallbladder patient. Nonetheless I had mine removed several days ago as my doctor found that mine had become defective. Finding out that the my Gallbladder was the problem was a relief, as I had been marking up my frequent pain as stress and now know that I am on the road to better health after years of problems.

I am not a doctor, so I will not go into specific details as a medical professional who is much more qualified on the subject. My article is meant to show the procedure from a patient's perspective and hopefully answer the questions I had when I entered the procedure for others. Before having a professional diagnosis I knew very little about the Gallbladder alone, much less the procedure.

For years I had frequent pressure under my lower rib cage accompanied by acid and occasional vomiting. After a violent attack a few weekends back I made the decision to take an afternoon off work to get checked out. My primary physician recognized the symptoms and had me take blood tests, ultrasound and imaging tests.

The tests took a day to get back after which I was referred to a surgeon by the name of Dr. Jerry Haydel who was very helpful and took the time to explain my situation and give me literature that explained the process. Dr. Haydel examined me then gave me X-rays of my chest and additional blood work. Once sure of the diagnosis I was scheduled for surgery a few days later.

I did not have Gallstones, but my Gallbladder was just not working so mine was to be removed. Fortunately I was able to have a Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy which is now a common practice in modern medicine. If anyone would have asked me a few weeks back I wouldn't have had a clue what that meant. The bottom line is that the procedure is an outpatient procedure that only requires a few small incisions.

I was preadmitted, so on my day of surgery I had little to do but show up. I was put under for surgery which took less than an hour. The actual procedure required three small incisions at the bottom of my rib cage and a small incision at my navel. A camera was inserted into one and my Gallbladder itself was drained much like deflating a ball filled with air.

The deflated Gallbladder was then removed through the incision in the navel and all the incisions were closed. After surgery I spent about an hour in recovery being checked out and awakened. Afterwords I was taken to a room for other checks and to make sure I urinated. It took several hours to be able to urinate, but as soon as I did I was OK to be released from the hospital.

That day I felt a little rough which was mostly attributed to the sedation. By the second day i had some mild soreness which was controlled by medication but actually felt almost back to normal by day's end. All and all as far as surgeries go I found the procedure to be a pretty easy one. For a week I will be off work and will have to take it easy for a few weeks and watch my diet.

I had many questions and some anxiety about the procedure beforehand, If you are going into it yourself I hope I helped answer some of the questions I had. There is really not a lot to worry about and it is not that hard to go through, you just have to slow down for a few weeks.