Day 1 after procedure

Good evening. I wanted to give everyone an update on how I’ve been feeling and how my procedure went. First though, I need to thank God for bringing me through this. I’ve never had surgery and was pretty nervous. Secondly, a big thanks to u/onnob for spreading the news about this procedure on the gallbladder forum. Finally, thank you to everyone in this group for the info, advice and words of encouragement.

Yesterday I had my percutaneous cholangioscopy (gallstone removal only gallbladder preserving surgery) with Dr. Smirniotopolous at MedStar in Washington DC. I arrived at 9 AM, I was supposed to arrive at 9:30. I only waited a little while and they went ahead and took me back and started my IV. Prior to surgery they gave me gabapentin and a couple of Tylenol. The doctor and anesthesiologist both came in and talked to me before hand, and answered all of my questions.

It was just a short ride (in hospital bed) from the preop area to the operating room. once in the preop room, I met the anesthesia team and the doctor that was assisting. They gave me some Versed to help me not be nervous and I don’t remember anything after that.

Overall, I think the procedure took around two hours. When I woke up in recovery I vaguely remember having an oxygen mask on, but they took it off and then my husband came in. A short while later, a nurse came over and gave me some pain medicine. Dr. S stopped by and told my husband they removed over 20 gallstones from my gallbladder. He said the stones were pushing on a nerve in my back so he believes that is where a lot of my back pain was coming from. I guess time will tell on that, but I have been able to eat today without the agonizing back pain I had before. So that is encouraging.

When I woke up, the pain was mostly at my incision area and my back directly behind it. It was very uncomfortable to move. After the nurse gave me the pain medicine I rolled over on my left side and that seemed to help. I live less than an hour from the hospital, so he gave me the option to come home instead of being admitted. When I got home, I stood up for a little while, so the bag could fill up. It did, and it helped to alleviate much of the pain and pressure I had been feeling.

Today, I took my first shower and my husband flushed my drain tube for me. We drained about 80mL out of my bag. I have slept a lot off and on today. I took yesterday and today off work but plan to go back tomorrow. I work from home so I think I should be able to handle it. I still have a little pain today, but it’s mostly when I try to engage my core muscles to get up from a lying down position. It is much easier if my husband helps me get up. The pain is around the incision area and immediately behind it on my back.

I am going to attempt to add a few photos to this post, but if I can’t figure out how I will add them in the comments.