Well, I went in on Tuesday to get my gallbladder removed. They were running late, so I didn’t get into surgery until mid-afternoon. The surgery went well, and they did it all with the keyhole procedure, which was a relief (I was a bit concerned they’d end up having to do a full incision). As I came out of the anesthetic I was moaning, over and over again, “Oww… oww… oww… oww…” and one of the nurses said “Now, the ow ow ow won’t help anything,” which was the first I was actually aware that I was even speaking at all (coming out of general anesthetic is always so weird!).

Then I was trying to take the oxygen mask off, I just felt like I couldn’t breathe, and I kept saying so. The nurse kept trying to get me to keep it on, but I wasn’t really capable of rational thought and I felt like I was suffocating, so she put on one of those nasal oxygen things, instead (which was fine). And then someone shoved a specimen jar into my hand, which contained my gallstone.

The gallstone is pretty big as gallstones go. It’s the size of a big olive, or a large grape. Yikes. No wonder my gallbladder was inflamed!

I wasn’t anticipating the level of pain. I thought, “Oh, keyhole surgery, out the next day, no problem,” but it was a lot more painful that I expected it to be. And I wasn’t out the next day, due to having rather more drainage from the wound site than the surgeon liked to see.

Today, though, I feel pretty well. I’m still in a fair bit of pain (got lots of drugs to keep that under control) and my belly and lower back are really stiff (the back from lying on it so much, the belly from all the incisions and from being pumped full of air so they could do the surgery), but overall, I feel surprisingly well. That’s not something I’ve felt for a long time, actually. I don’t know how much effect the gallbladder had on my overall health, but I’m hoping that now that it’s gone, I’ll enjoy generally better health.

So I’m not sure what to do with the gallstone. I do collect mineral samples and rocks and stones…. Hmmm….

Share/Bookmark