Gallstones, infection & gallbladder removal

[Kalina]

Thanks hun. It's just nice to know I'm not alone, not nice that you have them too
I've been put on "light" meals by the doctor but I'm not quite sure what that entails. Lol

[Amaunet]

I had my gall bladder out 2 years ago. It was an "easy" surgery and recovery. I had a 1 year old at the time and joked to the nurse post op that it was like a holiday I was only in overnight and was back to normal house hold duties fairly quickly! From others who've had the op, I've heard that the worst part is the shoulder tip pain from the leftover gas they use to expand the belly to get to the gall bladder - but I didn't get this.

[AnyDream]

Hi Kalina - it's a bit of a shock to suddenly find out you need surgery! I'm sorry you've had a painful attack - I had lots of those so I know how awful they can be.

The lamb chop will be what set it off, too oily. You really need to avoid fat and oil. This means you need to read labels and calculate portions, calorie king can also help working out how much fat/oil is in things. I had a long wait before I had surgery (we moved interstate so I went back to the bottom of the waiting list), so I had plenty of time to find out what I could eat. I found if I kept the fat in any meal well under 10g I was pretty much ok. This mean lots of plain carbs, fruit and veggies, with small portions of very lean meat (mostly chicken breast only, no skin, cooked with no oil) or fish, or an egg, etc. And I weighed all my portions to make sure I wouldn't get an accidental oil overdose. I kept a few weight watcher dinners in the freezer for those times when I'd run out of inspiration but was starving (WW pizzas were a godsend LOL). I used a lot of no-fat marinades to add variety. I switched to lowest no-fat milk with a bit of skim milk powder mixed in (for extra calories) and I also found out I could use a tiny bit of low fat margarine. I found I needed an extra snack after dinner at night, usually fruit and some kind of diet dessert (custard, rice pudding, etc) because I was still BFing and always hungry. Anyway, you will work out pretty quickly what you can and can't eat.

One option for gallbladder pain relief is Buscopan. I didn't find this out until just before I had my surg, and wished I'd known earlier. Buscopan is an anti-spasmodic, so it calms the squeezing/cramping that causes the attack pain, so definitely talk to your doctor and find out if this is something you can use (you can buy it over the counter). I also vomited a lot with the attacks, so the first step was always to take some maxolon, and if that worked that brought some relief. I found staying upright and sips of hot water or herbal or plain black tea, hot wheat packs, etc also helped a bit.

I know you said you don't want your DF to come home from work, but if you're having bad attacks, you do need to have some phone-a-friend plans in place. Being careful with my diet helped a lot but I still had random attacks for no reason at weird times of night/day. They would usually last a few hours, and then afterwards I was always insanely sleepy (with or without medication), so I really was not capable of caring for my DD (who was 9 months old when they started).

After all that, the surgery is a walk in the park. I was quite sore the first day after surg, but after the drain came out, it got better pretty quickly. I don't remember having the shoulder pain at all. Plan on having some help at home for a week or so, good opportunity to put your feet up, watch some movies, etc. Good luck, let us know how you get on.