leeny
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Jun 27, 2014 1:55:53 GMT
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Post by leeny on Sept 15, 2017 22:52:28 GMT
I've had my first gall stone attack. Though not major enough to land me in the ER, it was uncomfortable. I saw my primary doctor, did tests, had an ultrasound and I do have "sludge" and small stones. It has since subsided, though I have some bloating and minor pain periodically. My mom had a very major attack a few months ago and ended up in ER and emergency surgery at 10:00 pm that night so I am paranoid to get that far along. I have a consult with a surgeon next week. I am torn between getting it taken care of now or wait until I have a major attack. WWYD?
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Post by christine58 on Sept 15, 2017 22:59:28 GMT
Before another attack
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stittsygirl
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Jun 25, 2014 19:57:33 GMT
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Post by stittsygirl on Sept 15, 2017 23:01:54 GMT
Get it as soon as you can. It's much better to have it done as a scheduled procedure than as an urgent/emergent one. You may have to wait for an opening if you come in unscheduled and in massive pain, and also wait for several hours depending on when you last ate something. Sick gallbladders can be dangerous too, if you wait too long to take care of it.
*speaking as someone who has had her own gallbladder removed, has assisted in literally hundreds of gallbladder surgeries, and currently works in a job where I see so many emergency gallbladder patients come through the doors after-hours and on weekends. I know how long they often have to wait to get surgery.
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Sue
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Jun 26, 2014 18:42:33 GMT
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Post by Sue on Sept 15, 2017 23:03:42 GMT
As long as your insurance gives you the go-ahead and your surgeon agrees, I say the sooner the better.
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Post by padresfan619 on Sept 15, 2017 23:06:55 GMT
ASAP.
My mother just had hers out and was having discomfort, she never had an attack. It took 2 months to get her into surgery, she avoided any attacks with a careful diet. After it was removed her surgeon told her it was a matter of when and not if her gall bladder would burst.
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Post by mcscrapper on Sept 15, 2017 23:15:11 GMT
I wrok in the ER and can only throw this out there for you.... when you have an emergent situation you get whatever surgeon is on call that night. You don't really get much choice if it has to come out now. Let's just say you have this attack on Thanksgiving night after eating a big ol turkey dinner and a few drinks then a few hours later you feel awful and are throwing your toenails up. Are you willing to risk having whatever surgeon and OR team that's on call that who are all probably going to be pretty cranky to have to come in to take your g'bladder out that night. Most larger hospitals have an OR staff in the facility 24 hours a day but some do not. I am not at all saying the on call surgeon is going to be the most inexperienced or going to be cranky when he/she comes in but I've seen it. I've also seen situations where a patient really needed to have her appendix out but the OR was completely booked that day so she had to wait until 3pm the next day to go to the OR. That meant NPO from midnight the night before and enduring a lot of pain for hours. While it was an urgent procedure, she still had to wait.
If you have a scheduled procedure, you can decide your surgeon and when it works best for you.
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pgmamaof3
Junior Member
Posts: 64
Jun 26, 2014 19:24:03 GMT
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Post by pgmamaof3 on Sept 15, 2017 23:50:35 GMT
ASAP, Now, like yesterday in fact.... My gallbladder almost killed me, spent 5 days in critical care, over a year recovering from severe pancreatitis and complications.
Do not wait!
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Post by burningfeather on Sept 15, 2017 23:51:31 GMT
It's not going to get better on its own, so now.
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Post by pondrunner on Sept 16, 2017 0:03:37 GMT
It is so much easier to do it when you're not in the middle of an attack. It's an easy operation barring any complications. If it were me, I would take the next slot that works for my schedule.
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jayfab
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Jun 26, 2014 21:55:15 GMT
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Post by jayfab on Sept 16, 2017 0:05:02 GMT
Now, as long as ins covers it.
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stittsygirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,580
Location: In the leaves and rain.
Jun 25, 2014 19:57:33 GMT
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Post by stittsygirl on Sept 16, 2017 0:19:20 GMT
I wrok in the ER and can only throw this out there for you.... when you have an emergent situation you get whatever surgeon is on call that night. You don't really get much choice if it has to come out now. Let's just say you have this attack on Thanksgiving night after eating a big ol turkey dinner and a few drinks then a few hours later you feel awful and are throwing your toenails up. Are you willing to risk having whatever surgeon and OR team that's on call that who are all probably going to be pretty cranky to have to come in to take your g'bladder out that night. Most larger hospitals have an OR staff in the facility 24 hours a day but some do not. I am not at all saying the on call surgeon is going to be the most inexperienced or going to be cranky when he/she comes in but I've seen it. I've also seen situations where a patient really needed to have her appendix out but the OR was completely booked that day so she had to wait until 3pm the next day to go to the OR. That meant NPO from midnight the night before and enduring a lot of pain for hours. While it was an urgent procedure, she still had to wait. If you have a scheduled procedure, you can decide your surgeon and when it works best for you. All of this. A few Saturdays ago we had several emergency gallbladder surgeries, one right after another, and one tired general surgeon and surgical team by the end of the day/night. My department handles all the instrumentation and supplies and we were exhausted just trying to keep up with all sterile instruments they needed, as well as all the other emergency cases that came in that day. Fortunately we're a big enough hospital that we had enough OR teams to cover the other emergency surgeries, otherwise some of those gallbladder patients might have been bumped to the next day or day after depending on their priority level.
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carhoch
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Be yourself everybody else is already taken
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Jun 28, 2014 21:46:39 GMT
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Post by carhoch on Sept 16, 2017 0:22:15 GMT
ASAP
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Post by jackietex on Sept 16, 2017 0:27:18 GMT
I had one attack, thought it was a heart attack even though I was in my 20's, and had surgery a week later. I didn't want to go through it again, plus I had very young children and didn't want to be taken by surprise. It was a simple surgery and very easy recovery.
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Post by scrapmaven on Sept 16, 2017 0:34:07 GMT
I would do it right away. It will only get worse until you get that thing removed. My dad had peritonitis, because he waited so long. You'll feel much better w/o your gall bladder. It's routine surgery nowadays and mostly done laparascopically. My surgeon told me that it is a 45 minute procedure and very simple.
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Post by LilyRose on Sept 16, 2017 0:40:04 GMT
Do it now. My mother's first-ever attack resulted in a gangrenous gallbladder. A cousin's wife was on a ski trip when she had to have hers removed on an emergent basis. The doctor wouldn't allow her to then fly home, so she and her husband had to drive home from CO to IL. Don't let it take you by surprise.
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Post by supersoda on Sept 16, 2017 0:52:33 GMT
Well, i waited 7 years. I was fine but I got a big lecture from my surgeon about how I could have died.
They initially found the stones when I was pregnant with my twins and wanted to do surgery 3 weeks after they were born. I said "are u freaking kidding me? I can't have surgery with two newborns!" So I waited a bit.
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peabay
Prolific Pea
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Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Sept 16, 2017 0:55:22 GMT
Eh, just do it. No one wants to have surgery but, in this case, just get it done. Luckily it's a laparoscopic procedure and recovery will be simple.
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scrapngranny
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Jun 25, 2014 23:21:30 GMT
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Post by scrapngranny on Sept 16, 2017 0:55:45 GMT
ASAP!! Why would you wait until it is an emergency? If one of the small stones manages to get into the bile duct, that opens a whole new set of problems.
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Post by Eddie-n-Harley on Sept 16, 2017 2:02:26 GMT
Also on the "get it out now" team. You don't want a stone to lodge anywhere. I went I think a year and a half between full-fledged attacks (at least, events that I am pretty sure were attacks in retrospect). They happened at home, so I was very lucky, but I felt like death for three days at a time, and I generally have a pretty high pain tolerance. Evidently the surgeon could tell from looking at it that I'd had previous attacks; I am not sure that anything good would have happened if I waited.
On the plus side, since with my surgery I met my annual out of pocket maximum, the ambulance ride to the hospital three days after surgery when I thought I had a blood clot in my lungs was totally covered! Only had an ER copay.
(All was fine, I was having difficulty taking a full breath but think I strained my diaphragm muscles from being on my back for basically two days straight-- I am normally a stomach sleeper. And of course if you say "hurts to breathe" to the on-call surgeon, he says to come in. I was going to call a cab, but SO wouldn't let me. The moral of this story, though, is to just take your pain pills whether you think you need them or not.)
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Post by librarylady on Sept 16, 2017 2:14:42 GMT
Why would you wait?..........wait for more, severe pain and possible infection and complications? yea, that sounds like something you want to do. (eye roll)
BTDT---have the surgery ASAP.
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leeny
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Posts: 4,637
Location: Northern California
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Jun 27, 2014 1:55:53 GMT
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Post by leeny on Sept 16, 2017 3:40:49 GMT
Thanks! It's one of those things that I kept thinking, maybe it isn't so bad. But I will definitely take care of it asap.
For those that work in the ER and others, in your professional opinion is gall bladder attacks becoming more common? Seems like most everyone I talk to has either had theirs taken out or know someone who has.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Sept 16, 2017 3:52:43 GMT
I've mentioned before that DH had his out after being misdiagnosed for a year and a half, and it was severely inflamed. His was the size of a large pear! It was so big that they ended up having to do the regular big surgery to get it out instead of the small one through the belly button. Don't wait that long! He was miserable and the recovery took a whole lot longer because of the huge incision they had to make. Now decades later, he has a hernia near his belly button that he's eventually going to need to get fixed where they tried to do the small surgery first. Ugh. The gift that keeps on giving.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Sept 16, 2017 4:19:27 GMT
I would schedule it for as soon as it's convenient for your schedule. Or as early as you can MAKE it convenient. The sooner, the better, so nothing bad will have the chance to happen. There's nothing to be gained by waiting to have a really 'bad' attack; it's not noble, or anything like that. If the surgeon recommends surgery, then just get it over with.
eta: and if it's laproscopic with no complications, you'll most likely go home later that same afternoon and have a pretty easy, quick recovery.
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Post by PolarGreen12 on Sept 16, 2017 4:31:02 GMT
Schedule it as soon as they can. If it's scheduled and you are not having a flare up it's a simple outpatient procedure. My dad kept waiting and didn't tell us he was having attacks. He collapsed at home and an ambulance ride to the ER ended in emergency surgery at 2am. His gallbladder has gone gangrene, the surgeon said the smell was horrific. He said 2 more hours and he would have gone septic. Because the some did get into his blood stream he spent 5 days in the hospital on IV antibiotics. Not trying to scare you. Just an example of what waiting can lead to.
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azredhead
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Jun 25, 2014 22:49:18 GMT
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Post by azredhead on Sept 16, 2017 5:12:19 GMT
ASAP don't wait!! Belly stuff is nothing to wait for...
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Post by #notLauren on Sept 16, 2017 5:29:59 GMT
I agree with Christina. ASAP.
The pains from the attacks become worse and worse. My last one was horrific.
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AllieC
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Jul 4, 2014 6:57:02 GMT
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Post by AllieC on Sept 16, 2017 9:40:18 GMT
From my experience, get it out ASAP. I had a couple of attacks like yours and decided to put it off and then had a major, major attack just after boarding a flight from Bangkok to Adelaide (Australia). I ended up laying in the galley, the captain having to speak to British Airways head office in London to get authority to give me narcotics, a doctor sitting with me most of the way and just missed being diverted to Singapore. It was a hideous experience.
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Post by mcscrapper on Sept 17, 2017 3:44:48 GMT
Thanks! It's one of those things that I kept thinking, maybe it isn't so bad. But I will definitely take care of it asap. For those that work in the ER and others, in your professional opinion is gall bladder attacks becoming more common? Seems like most everyone I talk to has either had theirs taken out or know someone who has. Pretty sure it is our number one scheduled surgery in our facility. Our trauma docs are also on general surgery call a few times per month and they say they can do them in their sleep.. Pretty straight forward procedure now that they are mostly done laparoscopically. Very little down time and very low infection rates. SaveSave
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eleezybeth
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Jun 28, 2014 20:42:01 GMT
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Post by eleezybeth on Sept 17, 2017 12:58:10 GMT
I was having attacks for awhile. I didn't know what they were as I have chronic back pain and just assumed my back was going out... again. Then I threw a big stone at my liver and ended up in the ER sicker than sick. The stone blocked a bile duct and it was icky, icky, icky. I passed the stone and because I had two small children (one breastfeeding) at home they let me schedule the surgery for later. It happened to be one month away.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Sept 17, 2017 13:17:33 GMT
The other thing to consider is your insurance coverage. I'm having non-emergency (but necessary) surgery on my foot this week because I already had some of my deductible paid for this year. I didn't want any of the follow up appointments to run over into next year because anything that would be billed in 2018 would have to be paid 100% out of pocket to meet next year's deductible.
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