Gallbladder Surgery Experience

sharing my gallbladder removal surgery experience as I found it really useful to scroll the sub to see how it was gonna go.

I’m UK based, and went private for surgery.

7am banana, no more food.

10am no more water.

12:30 - Arrived at Hospital, got shown to the lift & picked up outside the lift and shown to room.

13:20: - Had already been seen by the nurse assistant, junior sister, catering, anaesthetist & surgeon & had a cannula put in my arm. Anaesthetist great at working through distraction techniques due to previous surgery trauma. Anaesthetist and senior sister booked me in as an inpatient as expecting overnight stay.

1:45 - Wheeled to pre theatre room, played fun music & chatted and drifted off.

3pm - woke up in recovery, in quite a lot of pain but the tightness I’ve had around belly band for years is gone. lots of fentanyl. the gas/bloated pain was pretty extreme. Had a specific nurse and she was great getting water etc.

4pm - wheeled round back to my room where my husband was waiting.

5pm - gas stomach pain was pretty severe, nurse helped me to stand up which helped to burp which eased the pain. Burped a LOT.

6pm - playing backgammon and intermittedly standing, had a wee, had some soup & bread. They decided I could go home!

6:30 - discharged and home for my daughters bedtime! Pain manageable. Surgeon rang and explained gallbladder wall was inflamed & he could see stones but surgery had gone to plan and very routine.

8pm - managed a bagel to eat.

10pm - abdominal pain had been slowly getting better, pain suddenly gets a lot worse and surgeon had explained local anaesthetic would wear off. managing with codeine and ibruprofen and paracetamol. Tried to sleep with pillows propped up around me. Couldn’t lie down but drifted in and out.

1am woke up in absolute agony and feeling very out of it, felt sick and made it to the sink and vomited absolutely loads. Felt a bit better afterwards.

Through the night drifted in and out of sleep but didn’t sleep much. Now 2pm the next day and today I’ve been a lot more mobile, feel mentally strong, keeping up pain meds but feeling OK physically. Had some soup, some blueberries and half a bagel and cream cheese.

hopefully the play by play helps people with expectations! Glad to have got it out, onwards and upwards.