I first felt gallbladder pain (not knowing what it was) on Halloween 2013. I finished teaching early for the day, because my teaching room is at the front of the house and I would just be constantly interrupted by Trick or Treaters who would be able to see that I was in! I think I finished lessons at 5pm, and so I went and got a McDonalds Cheese Quarter Pounder Meal for my dinner. After eating, I was answering the door to kids (and also promoting my teaching business aha) but after about 30 minutes I started to get abdominal pains. These were building up in intensity, right up to the point where I was in the foetal position on the sofa holding my stomach, and my Mum had to take over Halloween duties and I went to bed at about 7pm.
After a few more weeks I was still getting these pains, especially after I had eaten. So, I took it to the doctors who were useless. I eventually had to 'diagnose myself' online and take my findings to my GP, who agreed to send me for an ultrasound scan. I had an ultrasound somewhere around the end of November 2013, and gallstones were confirmed. I cut out all fatty foods - I found that McDonalds burgers and Hot Dogs were the worst offenders.
Fast forward now to just before New Year. I had been living with gallstones for 2-3 months and was just taking as it goes. I was learning how to change my diet to minimise the attacks and the attacks had decreased. It was the evening of the 28th December and I was eating some chips from a chinese takeaway (I don't eat chinese meals you see). Now, I believed I would be ok with these - they're just chips right? I ate the chips fine and I didn't have an attack immediately after eating them, which is what would happen if my gallbladder was having a problem with it.
I woke up about 5am with a strong feeling of nausea. I ended up vomiting all of what I had eaten - nothing had digested at all. This was also alongside the worst pain I could imagine coming from my gallbladder, and spreading all across my abdominal area. My parents rang NHS Direct who booked me an appointment at an Out Of Hours GP, at something like 8am. I was still being sick whilst waiting to go to the appointment, but the most irritating thing that happened in the appointment was the doctor believed it was my appendix. I told her that it possibly couldn't be as I had been diagnosed with gallstones and I had a grumbling appendix a few years ago - I knew that it wasn't my appendix. I was referred onto the hospital, and me and my Mum had to make our way there with me struggling to walk and still being sick (I distinctly remember in a bus stop, how classy). As it was a Sunday morning, there was virtually no one around to help, and the one person who was around told us we couldn't use a lift because it was 'goods only' - my Mum nearly let rip at him because of the condition I was in. Alas, we had to go find another lift to get to the ward I was booked onto.
So we got to the ward and I wasn't allowed to drink in case I was sent for surgery, but I extremely dehydrated from vomiting so much. The said they would put me on a drip, which they ended up never doing. I also had to go back the following day for another ultrasound scan as they couldn't find the results of my November one. I had the scan the next day and lo and behold, gallstones were confirmed. We had to wait the whole day for the results in the ward waiting room where people were coming in after me and being seen before me, until my Mum went to the nurses desk and started kicking off as I was deteriorating and they couldn't care less. A nurse who was a gallstone specialist took us into a separate room and told us that I had a few stones but I would need my gallbladder removing, so I was to be put on a waiting list and would be contacted within 6 weeks.
So it got to middle of March 2014, and I still hadn't heard anything about my operation date. By this point I had cut out all junk food and all red meat. The only meat I as eating was chicken and fish. I was barely eating things like chocolate, and if I did it was a small amount. I eventually had to get one of the receptionists at my GP's surgery to chase it up, and I was given a pre-op assessment for the 10th March, or somewhere around that date. The hospital rang me a few days later and booked me in for my operation on the 15th April, however I changed the date to the 30th April as I was seeing McBusted on the 29th and there was no way I was missing that!!!
So, I went to my pre-op assessment in March, where basically they just confirmed that was fit for surgery, talked me through what would happen and answered any questions I had - it was pretty quick and stress-free considering how hospitals can be! After this it was just a case of keep doing what I was doing with my diet and wait until April 30th.
6 weeks later and operation day had arrived! I had to be at the hospital for 7.30am, and my Dad and boyfriend came with me to drop me off. Now, I had a laparoscopy (keyhole surgery for people who have medical terminology just go over their head) a few years ago in the same place and I was in a little bay for about 2 hours whilst I waited for my operation. This is what I expected again, especially as at the pre-op my blood was taken in one of these little bays (they only just fit a bed in, that's how small they are). But in fact - I had a room all to myself! This is what the bed area looked like:
The room was completely private, and I could lock my valuables away in the cupboard by the bed if I wanted to (even though the room would be locked whilst I was in theatre). On the other side of the bed (left side of the picture) was my own bathroom, with shower, which was as big as my bedroom! There was also a television that could be moved around to suit me. I had to change into the hospital gown and put on flight socks and then wait for the surgeon and anaesthetist to come and see me.
I hadn't even got my Sherlock Holmes book out of my bag to read when they both came to see me at the same time at about 7.45am. The anaesthetist basically just confirmed that I wasn't allergic to anything but the surgeon had to go through a bit more, like the operation itself and that I was first into theatre! I also asked about the severity of my gallstones, as I had never actually been told, apart from that I had a few and the biggest was marble-sized. He told me that I in fact had roughly 10 stones, all marble-sized and the wall of my gallbladder was only 2mm thick. Now, I was told that your gallbladder when normal is about the size of your thumb, but now imagine this with 10 marbles in, it's no wonder the wall was only 2mm thick! He also said that it was pretty much ready to burst, and it could do just that whilst I was in theatre, but he would make sure he would clear everything up should that happen.
So, I walked up to theatre with my nurse at about 8am, who was telling me about a guy she looked after not long ago, who when he was coming out of theatre and was still under the influence of the anaesthetic was talking about getting someone to feed his fish. Turns out he never owned a fish in the first place! I don't think I was like that, I just wanted to sleep!
I can remember going to sleep before the operation, but I can't remember waking up, like I did last time. I can sort of remember being wheeled back on the bed, but it was about 1pm I woke up properly and ate some toast and went to the bathroom. I surprisingly felt alright, compared to last time where I really struggled to move. My Mum and boyfriend came to pick me up about 2.30pm and I was wheeled out of hospital and taken home, where I slept some more. Anaesthetic makes you incredibly sleepy!
So here I am now, just over 3 weeks since having my gallbladder removed. It's only just now I've been able to start eating what I want again (burgers taste AMAZING right now) and my wounds aren't scabby anymore, but I am still getting aches where my gallbladder used to be. I'm now using Bio-Oil on the wounds that are completely healed over to help minimise the scarring. My belly button is completely mangled now after 2 surgeries, but what can you do, they are my battle-scars :) Another downside is I haven't been able to sing properly since the operation, as I have a wound right above my diaphragm!
It's also probably worth noting how much weight I lost with gallstones. In October I was slowly trying to lose weight as I was nearly in the overweight category for my BMI, I think I was about 9st 4lbs. After gallstones were diagnosed I immediately went onto the gallstones diet, and went down to 8st 11lbs, which is what I was pre-surgery. In the few days after my operation I was down to 8st 6lbs, but obviously I wasn't able to eat like I usually would and 10 marble sized gallstones would probably weigh quite a bit themselves! I've now put on a few pounds, I think I'm currently 8st 8lbs. It's not the way I wanted to lose weight and I do want to lose a bit more, but I am going to get back into doing Gym, Aqua Fit and start Pilates when I feel I am ready to go back!
If you've read through all of this post, thank you so much for taking the time to do so. It's taken me about 2 days to write all of this, so I apologise if that is why I've disappeared for most of the week! If you've had any experience with gallstones or gallbladder problems, please feel free to comment below and share your story, I would be really interested in reading about it. Also if you have any questions for me, feel free to ask below :)
