I got 99 problems but my Gall Bladder ain't one (long post)

So this week has been a humdinger.  I started the week with a  bunch of really cool NSVs. Last weekend was a holiday,  so I started out on Friday with the annual 4th of July BBQ bash at my in laws.  I successfully negotiated the menu to not include all of God's creatures, as my in laws love to cook way too much food and I end up doing most of the eating.  So I have a nice meal of 4 oz pulled pork (no bread or sauce) and 1 small corn on the cob. I managed to drink a whole gallon of water that day as well. The next day,  me and my wife went to the beach for the first time in 2 years,  man I love the beach. I had my 6 month check up last week and the Dr says I'm low on vitamin D, so the sunshine was just what she prescribed. 

Now we get to Sunday. To cap off my great weekend,  we cleaned our house top to bottom and I also managed to get all my meal prep done for the week. My wife says to me "I barely recognize you with all you have accomplished this weekend". See, before my surgery,  I was a complete slug. On weekends,  I would mostly sit on the couch and watch sports.  Now, I get **** done! 

Now comes the action part of my story.  About 6pm on Sunday my belly starts to ache. I eat some dinner,  that makes it worse. . I go for a walk, that doesn't help.  I lay down for an hour,  no help.  I take a shower,  no help. About 10pm we get in the car and head to the ER. They admit me immediately.  They give me some morphine and then give me an ultrasound.  They find that I have several gall stones and my liver is taking a beating.  The next morning,  they give me an MRI, which is a scary experience if you're closter-o-phobic (I know I spelled that wrong). Anywhoo, I was scheduled for 2 procedures the next day. I was going to have a sphincterectomy (sounds like the punchline to a joke from Wayne's World) and then they removed my gall bladder. 

A couple of funny things happened in the meantime.  Because food irritated my angry gall bladder,  I wasn't allowed to eat or drink for the 48 hours prior to surgery. So every 2-3 hours I has a nurse come and eexplain to me why I wasn't allowed to eat or drink.  I literally had a nurse wake me up at 2am to tell me that I was not allowed to eat or drin****il my surgery was completed.  Keep in mind, I was not asking for this information, they just felt like I needed to know.

So,  Tuesday rolls around and I have my 2 surgeries and all is well.  That night I get the go ahead to eat and drink.  They bring me every flavor of jello known to, man. I felt like I was at a Las Vegas buffet that only served jello, pretty funny to me. 

Another funny thing was said to me. The next morning I was in a lot of pain so I asked for some medicine.  The nurse says to me " what kind and how much do you want". I say " give me 40 ounces of Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull stat". She laughs and then brings me 1 mg of something I can't spell or pronounce that's made me feel like I was floating.  Awesome stuff.

More funny stuff. The GI doctor comes to give me the run down of my sphincterectomy. It turns out I had a gall stone the size of a shark's tooth and they had to put a stint in to get that sucker out. She then shows me action photos of the procedure. Keep in mind that I didn't ask to see these horrific images.  Now I have them burned into my memory forever,  thanks doc! 

So now I'm home with 4 new holes in my stomach and no gall bladder, life is good.

That does sound like a humdinger.  Glad you are home and feeling better. 

Love you post and your avatar! Lol. I'm glad your doing much better.

Geeze..... You have been through it! Glad all is well for you.

Phil - your story had me chuckling all the way through it :-)  Glad that you got yourself to the hospital and that they got you taken care of.  I just wish medical personnel realized that they don't need to wake you the hell up in the middle of the night to tell you stupid ****!  

Great job on getting through the 4th of July holiday without having a food meltdown.  You're doing great 

Great story, glad you are feeling better.

Looking back did you have any warning signs or symptoms?

I've been having some random stomach pain, like a cramp or steady stab, under my right ribs about 5 days over the last 2 or so weeks and am getting nervous.

I had had some random pains a couple of weeks earlier,  but they didn't last very long. On Father's Day,  I had a tummy ache that felt very similar to the pain I felt on Sunday.  I blamed that on the fact that I had just eaten some kale chips.  It could've been a warning sign, I don't know.  I also had some pain after I went to the beach.  Again,  I blamed the fact that I ate 1/4 of a hamburger, and i didn't freak out when the pain went away a few hours later.  Sunday,  I didn't eat anything off of plan and the pain was stronger and was not going away.  I went to the hospital just hoping to find out what was wrong.  My surgeon told me before my sleeve surgery back in December what the gall bladder pain would be like and he said, "if you feel x, y, and z, call me and I will take it out that day". To me, the pain wasn't as bad as what I had heard the vets in my support group describe.  It just felt like a strong tummy ache. Kinda like "Phil,  you have been a naughty boy. You know you shouldn't be eating whatever you just ate." 

My advice, call a doctor. 

Thanks. I did call last week but the dr didn't ask me to come in based on what I described. It's not urgent care bad, but uncomfortable. If it keeps up I will make an appointment. My only episodes this week were 2 hrs Sunday night and 3-4 hrs Friday afternoon. Only had a shake friday before the incident, so it was not food related. But, it goes away on its own and I feel great. I'm only 2 months out and 80 lbs down (including preop diet. I've been looking how much weight, or how long gallbladder issues take to develop. I was cleared with an ultra sound preop and my dr said everything looked healthy when poking around during the surgery. Still well worth the VSG and living life!