Cholecystectomy

[Dizmo]

Hi, has anyone ever had a Cholecystectomy before? If so how painful was it and were you given a local or general anaesthetic?

[Sqad]

Never had one.....always done under general anaesthetic.

If done laparoscopically then, pain is minimal to moderate and easilly controlled with simple analgesics.

If done by opening the abdomen.......more painful and may need opiates to control the pain.

[jackthehat]

I had a laparoscopic Cholecystectomy. I felt better immediately. It just took a couple of weeks for the puncture wounds to heal and they were 'prickly' rather than painful.

Mrs JtH had to have an 'open' Cholecystectomy. Much more painful and the wound (stapled) took far longer to heal, so it was quite some while before she felt the benefit of having had the surgery.

[DTCwordfan]

morphine on resurfacing, more please..... then you can be out in three to four hours if your vitals are okay.

Had an infection in 3 days, well we are talking Treliske in Cornwall, immediately whacked on antibs......little pain, more itching, the camera punctures healed within 10 days, the scar under the diaphragm quite marked.

Better than having a gallstone attack though, believe me.

[DTCwordfan]

2/3rds of these ops are with women - often too much aggressive dieting (that and stress causing mine). There's an adage of Female, Forty plus, Fat, Freckled and Fair being more susceptible. Many women say that the pain of serious gallstone attacks are worse than childbirth, I suppose that this being that at least childbirth is productive, well most of the time given some of the little snots that progeny can be.

[Dizmo]

Thanks for all your answers. They are considering putting me through the procedure. I've had stables before 13 of them and they just iched. I couldn't stop leaving them alone and ended up pulling one out (with, as you can imagine, difficulty). They ended up removing them at the doctors 4 days early.

[Dizmo]

Staples not stables!

[jackthehat]

Open Cholecystectomies are only carried out, as a last resort, if there is some sort of problem. They will start off attempting the 'keyhole' procedure and swap should it become apparent that 'more room' is required to operate.

You'll just have to train yourself to leave the staples alone, if they go down that route! :o)

[Dizmo]

All the staff know me here and know they can get away with slapping my face if they see me messing with the staples :)

[anneasquith]

staples. ? won't be required if the surgery is laparoscopic,

[Eve]

I had a laproscopic one, in and out in a day. Woke up in a lot of pain but was back out with morphine pretty quick :) I was glad I had mum to stay with me for a bit afterwards as it wasn't really painful, more sore and getting rid of the air can be very uncomfortable but not as bad as the attacks and getting acute cholescystitis which was horrible. I was a bit too optimistic about recovery though, was longer than I thought it would be.

I had four small wounds, no staples at all. The biggest one broke open and got infected (but I seem to be prone to skin infections) so just needed some antibiotics and they had me in to a wound clinic to have it checked and dressed for a bit.

I couldn't wait to have the operation done, had an awful time with it before, especially after the acute bit, mine was going septic and had split open when they took it out, I went yellow too and even ended up in hospital again a few days before the op. So if it's a problem, I'd advise getting it sorted before any worse problems set in. I had to restrict how much I ate and fat content drastically beforehand.

One of the ladies on my ward said she would rather go through childbirth again than the pain of her attacks.

[BlackadderV]

I had one 4 years ago (keyhole). No pain afterwards and no need for analgesics. Wound was weeping a bit but after a week of dressings by the district nurse that soon cleared up.

[Prudie]

For the benefit of ABers who don't know what this is, like me - I've looked it up and it's gallbladder removal.

[Dizmo]

I'm concerned the morphine isn't going to enough to subdue the pain. Will the hospital provide an alternative such as Pethidine?

[Dizmo]

Sorry Prudie, I should explained what it meant. :)

[BlackadderV]

If it's keyhole the pain will be minimal. I was given one dose of codeine phosphate and when that wore off I was in no further pain. Don't worry.

[Sqad]

Blackadder....you fibber:

\\\ No pain afterwards and no need for analgesics.\\\ 18:59 post

\\\ I was given one dose of codeine phosphate and when that wore off I was in no further pain.\\\ 19:16 post

Fibber! fibber!

[Eve]

Most operations are done laproscopically in and out in a day, it's pretty minor and very routine surgery (pocket money for the surgeons a nurse said!) and they wouldn't be doing the kind of op that needs major opiate pain relief on that type of basis I'd have thought.

If you needed an open one, things may be different, but have you had any indication of that?

I just had usual pain relief from what I can remember, I didn't need anything really strong, the discomfort from the gas was one of the worst things I remember.

The only severe pain I was in was fleeting after waking up in recovery (I assume) and I was back out within minutes when they gave me some morphine and woke up back on the ward a bit later.

[Dizmo]

I forgot to ask. Do they put a catheter in before the operation? I hate catheters :/

[BlackadderV]

NO!!!!

[Sqad]

\\\\ it's pretty minor \\\

No it is NOT.....it is a major procedure.