“Biliary stent with ERCP
After reading these, I realize I am just one of the unlucky victims in these ‘safe’ lap choles. I thought I came out of it great, but one day after the surgery I was in the ER ($6000). They pumped me full of drugs and sent me home. The pain was horrific. It was off & on for a few days, until I had to call http://lifewithnogallbladder.com/forums/topic/operation-complications/11 for the paramedics to take me to the ER at 12:30 am. They admitted me, put me on ‘pain control’ for the weekend. All the doctors were off playing golf or something, because I only saw one on-call doctor. He said I “”May have had”” a bile leak. I was still in pain, but not constant. They let me go on Monday. Gave me some Norco. I won’t go into how bad the hospital experience was. Suffice it to say I had to ask for my medication every 4 hours, or they wouldn’t bring it to me. One little 5mg Norco every 4 hours doesn’t do a thing for this pain. When they brought me in the 2nd time, the ER doc said the EMT’s had given me enough morphine to stop my breathing. Didn’t make a dent in the pain.
During the 3rd WEEK (!!) I had to have my daughter take me once again to the ER. They finally did an ERCP, and there in fact had been a bile leak, so they put a stent in. Immediately the pain resolved. Why would they not recognize this pain at the very beginning?? Especially with a bloated stomach full of bile? So this means that for 3 weeks I had bile eating away at my insides. I have no idea what will happen when the stent is removed, nor what my life will be like from now on. I’m convinced the doctor was so arrogant, he could not admit he made a mistake, and all the doctors work together to make sure they don’t get sued. I’m disgusted, and can’t figure out when medical care in this country got so bad. They did every test on the world on me ($$$), but the only one they should have done was the ERCP. Would have stopped it right away. I’m angry because of all the pain and down time it’s caused. What should have been a 1-week recovery ended up being 3 months of agony. I wish I would never have had the surgery done in the first place. I’ve been told by 2 separate doctors that the symptoms I was having (no stones) did not warrant surgery. Who do you listen to???”