r/gallbladders•
Snoo-13375

Anxiety About Surgery

Awaiting Surgery

Hello all, in the last two years, I've lost over 100 lbs using a GLP-1. Several months into taking the GLP-1, I started randomly feeling excruciating stomach pain (5-ish out of 10). Probably every other month for an hour or less. I assumed it was a side effect and pretty much ignored it.

Last September, I had immense pain (8 out of 10) and drove myself to the ER, where they told me I had gallstones and it had done something to my liver and they were going to make me wait for an MRI to confirm damage. 48 hours later, my MRI showed little concern, I guess? So they discharged me. I had the pain again once or twice, but tried to ignore it. Well, Thanksgiving week, that pain came back with a vengeance, and I ended up having my spouse call 911 because the pain was so bad that I couldn't really catch my breath.

I am scheduled to have my gallbladder removed on Monday, and I felt some relief from mental anguish. But last night, when putting my oldest to bed, I started becoming increasingly concerned about dying during surgery. Then I made the mistake of Googling complication rates and was amazed to learn that 1 in 8 appear to have complications from this surgery?

Am I just being super paranoid? It seems like there are a lot of success stories relayed in this subreddit, along with many stories of complications.

Posted Dec 13, 2025, 10:32 AM UTC

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