Post-surgery tip.
If you get your gallbladder removed and your surgeon says it could cause diarrhea for a while but your discharge papers say take stool softener because of the pain medication? Listen to the surgeon.
It hasn't been a fun couple of days.
Thank you for reading my very short rant. Back to the bathroom!
When I got my tonsils out, I missed the first dose of my stool softener, and the pain meds had me backed up so hard that it felt I was trying to shit a cinder block. Considered going to the ER for a bowel obstruction (which can be super dangerous). Finally passed that first brick, along with a concerning amount of blood, and then what felt like about a half-mile long by three-inch thick poo-choo train that my body had assembled with the help of the stool softener after that first missed dose.
So, between that and diarrhea, I think I'd personally err on the side of diarrhea.
Either way, I'd pay very close attention to how your body responds to any deviations from your medication plan, and make any adjustments in small increments leading up to your post-op appointment where you should discuss them with your doc.
So, between that and diarrhea, I think I’d personally err on the side of diarrhea.
I've had to experience both in the last few months, unfortunately. I haven't had solid food since August, I've been surviving on Ensure and Gatorade. So basically it's a lot of constipation and it's not pleasant. But this is worse because I've had accidents three times now. I sleep and sit on towels all the time until this is over. The constipation is painful, but at least it doesn't last long and doesn't end up with showering and changing a couple of times a day. I guess it's six of one, half a dozen of the other, but I'd rather have the short-term pain.
My wife last year took 3 courses of different antibiotics for an antibiotic resistant infection. It fucked up her gut so badly that she could basically only have ensure and sports drinks, or else she would throw up. On top of that, her mental health went out the window. It wasn't a fun time. I hope you recover soon.
Idk if you’ve considered it but you could get some adult diapers, I know it’s not a thing of pride or whatever but they exist for a reason.
There’s also moisture proof pads (or you can get puppy pads super easily) to save your furniture, even if you towel on top. When my mom died she had some.. bleeding and accidents (cancer is horrible) and that shit soaks into furniture fiercely. Had to replace all the soft parts and reupholster the whole thing (was antique, very expensive, ugly as sin, but we couldn’t match the fabric). Moisture proof pads will potentially save you a lot of money if this is ongoing. Plus having them around for whenever is always good. You never know when you’ll get food poisoning or something.
Thanks for the PSA. Those discharge papers have generic advice (it is true you usually want stool softeners when you take pain medication) but the surgeon will be more familiar with your specific condition.
Thanks for the advice! I'm getting mine out next year hopefully soon, to deal with my cripplingly intense 10 hour long gallstone pain episodes O_O
Nothing like writhing in the most intense excruciating pain for 10 hours and then finally falling asleep of exhaustion from the experience at 9am and having to sleep and recover all day, completely randomly with no warning, eh?
Ugh, sounds pretty awful. My issue isn't gallstones. I talked about it elsewhere in the thread so I don't want to annoy people by repeating it, but I do understand that sort of pain issue both because I have a nerve disorder and because I had kidney stones last year. I really won the genetic lottery.
Anyway, good luck with your surgery!
Or you could diet the stones away and keep the gallbladder:
So that's how squids fly.
Thanks for the tip. I will likely need my gallbladder removed in the coming year.
Overall, it's been a pretty easy recovery. The pain is minimal enough that I'm doing okay with one tramadol a couple of times a day and by tomorrow, I'll probably be off the tramadol. The diarrhea has been the worst part so far. And it's been pretty bad, admittedly, but the lack of serious pain is not something I expected. In my case, the gallbladder removal was a last effort at solving my weird issues before I go to the Mayo Clinic. I'll know if it was a success in 1-2 weeks.
Good luck with your surgery! I hope it goes as smoothly as mine.
My only complaint is that my surgeon used a robot on other people but not a robot on me. Why didn't I get a robot?
Or you could diet the stones away and keep the gallbladder:
My partner is finishing recovery for a bilateral reduction, and her surgeon explicitly said to ignore the discharge papers and to only listen to his instructions/medrec papers for the same reason.
That would have been nice to hear from my surgeon. Oh well.
I honestly thought the pain was gallstones passing or just having a sensitive anus because I ate a lot of siracha that day. Felt more like a burn.
Easy on the opiates. My keyhole surgery was in Mexico and felt minimal visceral pain by only taking Diclofenac-Lysine. If you don’t feel pain pls no take opiates.
I mention both things because your butt is getting used to bile being constantly spat out, and the opiates might slow things down there.
Talk to your doctor about this btw, you should be seeing him again soon for a follow up.
I appreciate the advice. I spent a couple of years on various opioids at various dosages due to a shitty neurologist trying and failing to treat a nerve disorder, so I'm pretty aware of what withdrawal is like. It helps that I don't really like any of the effects of opioids apart from pain relief. I'll be okay taking it for only 3-4 days and only for pain.
And yeah, I'm doing a follow-up soon after Christmas. They said 1-2 weeks.
My issues were not gallstone issues. I had low function in my gallbladder based on certain metrics which led to mild dyskinesia. But even the surgeon said he only gives it a 50/50 chance of working.
Basically, I have had no solid food since August. I live on Ensure and Gatorade. This is the second time around for that because I couldn't eat solid food for about six weeks starting in February of this year either. It's not nausea, it's a total aversion to food. My doctor described it as like anorexia except with a physical rather than a psychological cause. I also dry heave most mornings when I get up, but nothing has ever come out.
The good news is I haven't heaved in two days. The bad news is that the aversion to food has not abated even slightly and I've gone two days without heaving before. So we'll see what happens. If this doesn't work in 1-2 weeks, it's off to the Mayo Clinic.
Awe, best wishes to you mate. It seems to me that you’re on your way to recovery ❤️
I never asked why I do constant forearm movements to pull on my shoulder, I was visiting a back specialist to see what the heck was up with my shoulder and neck, steroids would help but then it would come back even harder. I can also relate to the dry heaving. I used to think it was an anxiety dry cough that would turn into a dry heave after a while. Later learned it was just gallbladder stuff. I think it’s crazy just how interconnected these things are
I had to take a really difficult test a week after surgery. Usually studying would kick my anxiety into full throttle and that’s when the coughing and heaving would start for me. Add a couple of hours past my lunch and it would turn into full nausea battles.
Thankfully the need to cough and heave never came back a few weeks after surgery.
I’m still struggling to get my neck and shoulder to stop twitching and tying itself up but that I’m sure takes more time. Everyday gets a little better.
Edit: Ask your doctor about Marinol, it’ll possibly make you munch your heart out. :) (it’s legal THC, and your condition seems chronic enough to warrant the use)
So…listen to them when they say likely diarrhea or take the stool softener? I just got out of surgery….please answer quickly!!!
Listen to what your surgeon says, doubly so if they contradicted your discharge papers
Stool softener is so you can poop after being on opiate pain meds for a while. If you can go without opiates then you don’t need a stool softener.
If you begin to feel constipated, a stool softener will help.
For me it was similar to OP. About a week or two of diarrhea and massive shoulder pain because over the years my posture turned to shit to accommodate the whinebladder.
I believe the shoulder pain is from the gas they pump into you, because they talked to me about it (I don't remember why it specifically becomes shoulder pain) and I got the shoulder pain for a while, but the gas pains overall left me quickly thankfully. The nurse said that for some people, especially women, it can take a week or two like it did with you. The pain was right up there with some of my most severe trigeminal neuralgia flare-ups and the kidney stone I had last year, so I'm really, really glad it didn't last.
I was told walking helped, and I spent about an hour walking around the house (with a cane because I was still a little groggy from the anesthesia) and it did help.
Sorry for your troubles. Had my GB out about five years ago; my gut has never completely recovered. Got to the point where I couldn't leave the house ’cause of loose stools. (Pro Tip: learn about the Bristol Scale. It makes talking about your situation much easier with your family and doctors.) Today I have my life back: I take 2mg of Loperamide in the a.m. and 4mg before bed. Now smacking the Bristol Scale solidly (pun there) at the middle of the bell curve. Hope you can get yourself back on track!
Wow! That sounds really bad and I'm sorry to hear it! I will look up the Bristol Scale and talk to my GP about it. I'm glad you're doing better now!
One of my symptoms seems to be gone, so having the gallbladder out might have done the trick in terms of my mystery illness, but I'll have to wait 1-2 weeks when it comes to possibly getting my appetite back. I haven't had solid food since August. I was also dry heaving every morning, but I haven't done it once since I had the surgery last Thursday, so that's three days without doing it, which I believe is a record. That makes me really hopeful.
Anyway, I appreciate the advice. Thanks!
Wait, so if the discharge says this, one would assume you get prescribed opiates for routine surgery? I legitimately do not think I have seen this in my country, like ever (we are talking uncomplicated routine gallbladder removal).
Yeah, they give you a week's script for percoset in the US when you get it removed. What do they do in your country?