“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.
“I had my gallbladder removed laprascopically on 11/10 and if I would’ve known I’d have this kind of pain I would’ve kept it in. At least when I had an attack it was only once every couple of the months. Now I feel like I’m having “”attacks”” almost every other day. I mean the pain is almost the same, not as severe. I’m nauseous… and I have constipation.
I guess at the point when I went in to the ER there was really no choice of what could be done (my liver, pancreas, and gallbladder had become inflamed) but geez. Also the belly button incision is taking a long time to heal (not healed as of today 12/1). As you probably can tell I’ll be going back to the doctor to raise some ruckus.
As far as food goes not much that I can eat. Definitely no fat. I tried a little one day and felt the symptoms of the full blown attack. I actually had to take pain medications to get over this. My diet now consists mainly of broth, oatmeals, couscous, vegetables, and fruit. I find that proteins usually dont sit too well with my stomach either so it’s mainly a vegetarian diet. For those who get this operation you should try to stick to a very low fat diet. I find that this works the best. I have read alot of other posts of people saying that they’ve gained weight but I’m not seeing it. I’ve lost about 20lbs so far. I wasnt big on carbs and ate no red meat, or fried foods before the surgery.
For anyone considering this surgery try to find some alternatives before you do it.
Good luck.”