“dear friends–after 4 days of horrific pain in the upper left (yup) quadrant of my abdomen, my gallbladder was removed–they couldn’t do it via laparoscope because it was so inflamed so i have 5 incisions, 2 bandaid-size, 2 1 inch, & 1 that’s 4+ inches. the surgeon said both that it was 1 of the worst he’d seen, packed w/stones AND was extremely proud of how small the major incision was–said that his assisting surgeon was “”very strong”” which conjured up an unpleasant visual…i developed pneumonia & tachycardia, was in the hosp. 5 nights, am now almost a month past the surgery.
so in addition to having pain on the ‘wrong”” side, i’ve been a vegetarian for decades & am relatively slender. no explanation has been forthcoming about what caused the disease, altho’ my LDL & total cholesterol are rather higher than expected.
the pace of recovery has been maddeningly slow. i have zero energy/stamina & not much ability to concentrate. a one item shopping trip to target exhausts me–leaves me drenched in cold sweat & queasy. my appetite is terrible, with a constant bitter taste in my mouth–guess that’s where the “”bitter as gall”” image came from. mornings are esp. rough–some a.m.s i wake up w/diarrhea, which perversely doesn’t seem to be linked to fatty foods–i can tolerate ice cream fine, for example (& i go for the high fat good stuff…) i have a friend who thinks that adding supplements, in particular, digestive enzymes, would be a good plan. has anyone had experience w/doing so?
the other “”symptom””–or not–is an awful pain inside my right shoulder blade–which i had also experienced before the surgery, but it seems to have intensified significantly–which doesn’t make sense! i’ve seen references to gallbladder disease manifesting thru pain in that area–but mine’s gone.
i’m thinking of becoming a poster child for the platform that the gallbladder is NOT a vestigial organ–my body certainly seems to be functioning differently w/o it. any coping tips?
thanks–holly lu”