WhiteH2O Horn
250+ Posts
The Friday before last, I went in to have what was supposed to be a laproscopic gallbladder removal, but upon inserting the camera, the surgeon saw that the organ was so shot that it was actually starting to come apart and had fused to part of my colon.
The laproscopic approach was abandoned, and they went ahead and opened me up. In addition to removing the gallbladder, they had to remove the portion of my colon to which my gallbladder had become fused. It was a small enough portion of my colon that nothing had to be reshaped, so it wasn't a major complication.
I'm a 39 year old male in good shape, but I was planning to only miss one week of work. The open surgery seems to have changed that pretty significantly. Because I couldn't digest fat before the surgery, I had stopped eating just about everything with moderate to high fat. No BBQ, Tex Mex, pizza, dairy fat, fried foods, etc. I dropped from a fit & healthy 165 down to 135 lbs. Since the surgery, I can eat normally again, but getting my endurance and strength back is slow going. I went to the grocery store with my wife on Sunday and was thoroughly exhausted by the time we got the groceries to the truck.
Anyone been through open surgery and have any ideas on how to heal/recover more quickly? (my pain level has dropped enough that I have stopped taking the pain meds and my staples are coming out tomorrow)
The laproscopic approach was abandoned, and they went ahead and opened me up. In addition to removing the gallbladder, they had to remove the portion of my colon to which my gallbladder had become fused. It was a small enough portion of my colon that nothing had to be reshaped, so it wasn't a major complication.
I'm a 39 year old male in good shape, but I was planning to only miss one week of work. The open surgery seems to have changed that pretty significantly. Because I couldn't digest fat before the surgery, I had stopped eating just about everything with moderate to high fat. No BBQ, Tex Mex, pizza, dairy fat, fried foods, etc. I dropped from a fit & healthy 165 down to 135 lbs. Since the surgery, I can eat normally again, but getting my endurance and strength back is slow going. I went to the grocery store with my wife on Sunday and was thoroughly exhausted by the time we got the groceries to the truck.
Anyone been through open surgery and have any ideas on how to heal/recover more quickly? (my pain level has dropped enough that I have stopped taking the pain meds and my staples are coming out tomorrow)
