Gallbladder

The originals are in color and are part of my medical record there at Scripps. One of my nurses there was kind enough to make this photocopy of the image.

That fourth image is the money shot. Highlighted above is one of the gallstones that emerged once they opened the bile duct sphincter. Apparently, as soon as they did that a number of gallstones simply fell out. Lucky me! Once the backed up bile had been expelled, Doctor Paredez inserted a stent to help keep the bile duct open wide enough for proper flow and to allow any other gallstones currently in the duct to pass. This done, they pulled the endoscope out and called it a day.

The only after effects for me was a slightly sore throat and stomach. That's it. The pain, cramps, pressure and tenderness in that area went away. I stayed in the hospital through that night and come the next afternoon I was wheeled into surgery to remove my gallbladder. This to was done endoscopicly.

I was put under and then several holes were punched into my abdomen. The largest was through my belly button and there are three other smaller ones scattered about my right side. As Dr. Galloway described it to me, they pumped up my abdominal cavity with carbon dioxide. This gave him a clearer view of what he was working on. Using the various endoscopes he'd inserted into my torso, he then lifted the gallbladder up, clamped it off, and then snipped it off. He then pulled it up through my bellybutton where he emptied it before pulling it all the way through. With the gallbladder out it was a simple matter of pressing the CO2 out of my torso and then sealing up the various incisions. That operation took just over an hour. My time in the post-surgery recovery room took longer than the actual time on the slab.

I awoke there pretty disoriented and in no small amount of pain. For some reason I thought all the clocks in the room read 08:30 and that I had two stomachs. At least I wasn't puking from the anesthesia. An administration of some nice painkiller meds soon eased the results of having four holes punched into my gut. After about two hours I was considered in good enough shape to be wheeled back up to my room. My night passed uneventfully.

The next morning, the 12th, was slow in passing but by early afternoon I was well enough to have my IV out, shower, and head home. Yeah, that fast. By late afternoon I was once again back at home. I'm still in some mild pain with the incisions and will most likely remain so for some several days. I've Vicodin for that however and those seem to work fine. By now the jaundice has gone away and I look fully human again.

In working up this page I did some Websearching and found a couple of good write ups on what gallbladder troubles are all about. This page on the General Surgery Practice of New Jersey site does an excellent job of detailing the whole gallbladder thing from soup to nuts. The ERCP page on the Johns Hopkins University site details what an Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is all about.

The end result of all this is that I am now out a full week's time off from work, have gone through an awful lot of pain, have four extra holes in my body, and am out my gallbladder. This has not been a great way to start this month of July.