Recovery Time Post Gallbladder Removal? (Page 7)

I agree with sandiagoGB. the idea of less than a week recovery is rubbish. I had mine removed last week i feel well enough to walk around in house and situp.. but if i go out for a walk, i get lot of pain internally and feel nausea, back pain..
do not listen to people saying... "oh one my friend had it removed and he/she was able to back to work in few days " let your boss know that you re having your organ get cut and you will be out of work for a while to heal it internally which is more important then outside incisions.
I started to eat semisolid food afer six days..

THANK GOODNESS! I also had the surgery just one week and a day ago, and I am shaky, weak, tired, and my incisions still hurt, the bellybutton one, and my lowest one on my side...my range of motion is limited, and I've been forcing myself to be up and busy because I have felt like a wimp because my original doctor told me I could run a marathon 4 days later. The 2nd dr. I saw said that the insurance companies have it classified as an 'outpatient' surgery, and claim quicker recovery times, because then they don't have to cover your few day hospital stay... tricky, eh? So of course that's what Dr's are going to preach and claim... a few day recovery period. Bah! I would say it'll be a full two weeks before we feel back to 'normal'. Any surgery where you can remove an organ out of your bellybutton it has to hurt for a while....

I totally agree with you. I had my surgery April 20th and I still feel pretty bad. I get very tired very easy and the belly button incision is the worst .. if it touches your clothes or rubs anything you know it quick. Even at night when I try to lay on my side I still feel tugging inside my stomach. All these people that say they are back to normal in a couple of day, I honestly think they are not being true. I also had a Hysterectomy on Feb 24th so I'm not sure if I am having a hard time due to my body still hasn't really had time to recover from that and I had to have another surgery. Best wishes to you feeling better soon!

I Guess I'm one of the lucky ones.
Night 1 oozy wounds, nausea
day 2 just tired no pain, but very tender
day 3 tried to clean up for about 1/2 hour, was exhausted for the rest of the day
day 4 feeling pretty good can do things for about a 1/2 hour at a time with 5 minute rests inbetween
day 5 feel normal, lots of work around the house, pick up my 2 year old with no pain
day 6 normal energy levels pick up 4 year old without thinking, no pain
day 8 cleaning out the basement- lift a box on National Geographic, a bag of water softening salt, carry my 4 year old on my shoulders
Night 8 dying to play in my baseball game, but my wife won't let me, so I'm looking for other fast recovery stories, but not finding any!

I just got my gall bladder out on the 18th of september, 18 days after I had my son. The doctors were saying oh this kind of thing is normal, I don't think so. If someone would've done their job when I went in the several times before about upper abdominal pains and actually checked into it they would've seen I was loaded up with stones in there. Anyhow I had the quicker one done since that is what the hospital does where I was at, the people were pretty nice but of course gave the quick version for recovery. I'm finding out on my own what to do and not to do. Bending over hurts, eating I have had half a bowl of ramen noodles since I got home and like 4 glasses of water, at the hospital they gave me bacon for breakfast... BACON?! after saying on my paper low fat diet for a few weeks. Turkey tetrazini was another... come on! Whole milk too. What are they tryin to do? Anyhow home at last with lots of pain and gas. I'm using gas ex. It's helping to get rid of the pain and the gas seems to be coming out easier. Now to have a BM and maybe all will be good.

I had GB out on 20th September (4 days ago) by keyhole, after having 7 attacks in 7 weeks. The attacks were the most painful thing I have even experienced.
Planning on having 2weeks off work, consultant told me before the operation that he recommends a two week recovery and that the anesthetic can effect you for quite a while. I had op at 9.50am and left hospital at 4.30pm that day. Every bump hurt during the car journey home and had quite a lot of pain. Have only had a few shoulder twinges but no real gas pains. Tues nite had really bad spasms where GB was and had to have really hot hotwater bottle to ease the pain. Today can walk around alot better, still cant take deep breath or laugh/cough etc and main pain is from bellybutton cut and inside where GB used to be. Still need to take medication as pain a lot worse without them. Tire very easily and only manageing about 5hrs a nite sleep.
Have not eaten anything too fatty ie chinese, pizza etc but other than that been quite lucky so far and no bad reactions to any other foods.
Was worried/feeling guilty about two weeks off work but after experiencing the amount of after op pain that I have def would not be able to go back to work any time soon. Have an office job but manage team of people and on the go all the time, also commute 40min each way. I know people recover at different rates and i have a low pain threshold but cannot see how anyone can fully be ready to return to work after 3 days!
I have a 1 1/2 year old, luckily husband works parttime anyway (looks after son parttime). Would def recommend you get help for the first week with little one.
Hopeing to have better week next week. Best wishes to all those in recovery and those getting op soon.x

I'm also glad to hear that I'm not a freak for still being sore a week after the surgery. I can walk and drive but only to a certain extent.. it's still really tender around the belly button and I can't lay on my side.
I'm supposed to go back to work tomorrow but my job is quick strenuous... I work in retail in the furniture department lifting a lot of heavy things and constantly moving.
I'm not sure I'll be able to make it back tomorrow... or if I do I highly doubt I'll be able to do much while I'm there. :/
Worst part is my boss had the surgery and said she was back to work in four days... so I doubt there will be much sympathy.

Hi there!
It's a relief to find this website, due to the fact that we as a population are truly not fully informed about gallbladders and gallstones. That is, until you feel the effects of gallstones.
I had mine taken out just this past Friday (Oct. 8, 2010) and am recuperating rather well. I think I'm on the right track in that I am walking almost to my normal stride and I don't feel so much pain as before. I can't sleep on my side for too long though. I miss sleeping on my stomach! :/
I took off the steri-strips 5 days post-op and that's after calling my surgeon's office (his medical assistant told me to).
I have requested a Leave of Absence at work due to the extent that my recuperation may last. I was already taking days off work because of the symptoms that I had prior to having my gallbladder removed.
I hope in the long run this will better life.

I had my GB out by keyhole surgery 4 days ago (in the UK). I notice some differences here. First of all, they keep lapcoly patients overnight. This was very useful as I needed a drip the full night through to keep blood pressure up. Another woman on my ward was very ill afterwards and she stayed in even longer. Glue was used instead of stitches which I think is immensely better as there is no tugging/pulling from stitches. We were also given written follow up instructions and told not even to lift so much as a tea kettle for 48 hours. When I told the nurses I planned to go back to work in a week they actually laughed and said more likely 2 but they've had people out as long as 4 weeks. Really depends on the person and your health pre-surgery and what you do for work. I have a desk job so biggest problem will be what to wear that does not rub at incisions. I've not experienced any significant pain but plenty of gas and I can eat about anything. Getting out for short walks twice a day seems to help a bit with the gas and general recovery. There is no official follow up here but I plan on making an appointment with my GP on Monday just to review how I feel and to discuss a return to work. My only comparison is c-section surgery and that was a definite 6 weeks before feeling normal. This is much more rapid recovery.

Are the pains really bad I get pain under my rib and in my back mainly the right side I'm goin for a scan next week I don't get pain when I eat the pain jus comes and goes you think its gallstones because I'm panikin that iv got somethin wrong with my liver even tho. Am only 19 wb

Emily - that describes my symptoms exactly. However, that was just a single attack and lasted about 5 hours. I could link it directly to the fatty meals I had eaten that day. It took me from Feb until last week to get booked in for surgery and my main complaints were a lot of gas and pressure under the rib cage - especially after eating. Good luck!

can anybody tell me after how many days from gall bladder removal surgery sex is allowed!!? i also want to know mild pain in the stitches after sex is normal, for 2 months bac surgery......?? as i want to plan baby now!!

This has been a tough one for me. I had the impression that this would be such a simple process and I would live in digestive bliss forever...well I don't know about that forever yet, because I am 5 days out after surgery and I am still in a ton of pain! I had my surgery Sat 10/23/2010 and was released that Sunday to come home. I, barely, TODAY was able to get off my bed alone, as I did the turn and roll thing until I came close enough to the edge that my feet fell down. I did pay the ER a visit on Tuesday because I could hardly stand the pain. I have this nagging, stabbing and stinging pain right under my right ribcage where my gallbladder sat. To breathe in correctly...not to mention, laugh, cough, sneeze, blow my nose...to walk upright...to walk at a normal stride...to move at night while I sleep are all but impossible right now. My work keeps asking when I'll be back, because they have other employees who went through the same surgery and were back to work after a few days. Yeah...that is SO NOT THE CASE WITH ME...so I was SSSOOO EXCITED to read some of the TRUE and ACTUAL stories on this website. I don't know when I'll be back at work or when I'll be back to normal, but I hope it comes soon. I can't even tell yet if the surgery has been a success. I've been on Vicodin and anti-nausea medication to combat the narcotic that I can't tell if the removal has worked it's magic yet.

I hope to try and work half time at least on Monday to see what I can and can't do. I wish this pressure would end. The pressure of someone's foot up my ribcage. It hurts.

A big thank you to all that posted their story on this site...it gave me hope and let me know that I wasn't just being a big baby. That the pain is real. That the time I need to recover is valid and validated by those who have gone through the same thing. Good luck to all of you and to those that are about to have their own surgery...just prepare for the worse...because then at least you aren't let down if it does happen and totally overjoyed if your recovery is simple.

So to get to my question: is all this normal? will the pain end? In the ER they did do a CATSAN to try and see if any bloodclots existed or if something was wrong, but they couldn't see anything. I wish I could get a clear cut answer and some clear cut advice and reasons from the doctors on all this. It would be really nice to just have all this information in PRINT so we can all refer to it instead of wandering around in this land of "I DON'T KNOW or EVERYONE is DIFFERENT". Just some answers please...so we, as the patient are aware of what's going on with our bodies.

This sucks so bad. I had my GB out yesterday and have a cold to boot. So, when I cough, it hurts like heck. I'm also confused because the nurses told me I could take my dressings off today and not to put anything on the wounds. Won't they get infected? And I'm having a weird pain in my tail bone/rectum area. I'm having a little gas, but haven't had a bowel movement yet. I can't bend over and it is so hard to get up off the couch. I was given hydrocodone as my pain reliever but it makes me throwup even with Finergan with it. So, I'm taking extra strength tylenol for the pain. I have a Darvocet prescription from something else I am thinking about filling. I hope that I feel better soon. The belly button incision is the worst. I have 5 incisions. I know people who only have 3. I'm wondering why they did so many incisions. I trust the surgeon, as he has done this particular surgery many, many times and is a great guy.

Well its been 6 days for me and still have some pain alot of bloating after eating.I still get dizzy and weak.I know there is no way I would return back to my job this week or next.I have a very physical job and the thought of pulling and lifting is not going to happen at least for another week .I feel pretty good untill I get up and start doing things around the house and then I am reminded that my body is not ready yet.

Hey all! It's me again. Giving you an update on my recovery process. It's been 3 weeks, and 3 days since my surgery and I'm still not normal yet. I'm finding it very hard to find what to eat that doesn't turn me into a twisted, curling in agony nightmare. I still have a stinging pain under my ribs on the right side. Like I have a sharp object that pokes me when I move, breathe, try to bend over or sit. I can't sleep at night yet, because I can't lay on my stomach and laying on my side hurts still. Stretching is still VERY painful...like my stomach muscle at the top is going to spasm. This has been a very long, hard and aggrivating process. I can't stand it. I'm thinking about calling my doctor because I don't know how long I can keep going like this.

This site is very helpful; knowing others are having the same recovery as I am. Today is day #4 for me, feeling better than yesterday, can only do 15 minutes of anything before I am ready to take a break. I have 4 incisions total and the worst is the bellybutton; pretty gassy and constipated; even ate some greasy cheese pizza and no pain, no movement? Scheduled to return to work in two days not sure how well that is going to go; most likely will be the day the constipation stops.....

Hi and HELP!! i HAD MY GULL BLADDER out 3 months ago and I still am in pain..only its diffrent from the pain I had with the attacks, now its under my rib cage and it feels like a bruised feeling. My job is extremyl physical and requires alot of lifting, im wondering if i have done some internal damage.

I am glad that I found this cite and that I am not the only one that has not been able to do anything after a week. I am on day 8 and feel awful. I have really bad pain under my ribs and where one of the bigger incisions was. I don't feel like eating and have lost 5 lbs in a week.

I call the doctor's office for the nausea, and they said it was the pain medication and took me off them on day 4 and told me to take Motrin. Which does nothing for the pain. So I called back 2 days later and they said to come in the next day. The doctor said I just needed more time to heal.

I have 3 kids and I can't take care of them. Thank god, for my mom and dad and my husband. My husband has taken the rest of the month off for vacation to help. I get tired really easy and I have a hard time sleeping from the pain. This is horrible.

If I would have known that the recovery time of a week was not true, I would have waited till after Christmas to have it done.

I had my gall bladder removed two weeks ago. Right after the operation, i suffered from pain under my rib cage, and under my right shoulder blade. This went after about 5 days (the pain under my shoulder blade was only made easier if i hunched over, no painkillers touched it). I was not told that i couldn't eat anything different. Also in hospital (i had to stay in for a few days due to low blood pressure) when they came round with the food i was offered everything from a full english breakfast to veggie foods so assumed i was back to normal eating. when i came back from hospital i went back to my old eating routine (not always healthy, but no binges either) and was fine. I was a bit constipated, which stopped about three days ago. I was not in any other uncomfortable situations til yesterday when I started to suffer from diahrrea. I think it has only stopped because I have not eaten anything yet, and to be honest am afraid to. Eating healthy in England costs a fortune, and as i am on maternity leave with bills to pay, I don;t have a lot of cash to spend. have read all about the effects and can see that it really does affect people differently. some have diahhrrea for a lifetime, while others don;t have it at all.
To be honest i just want someone to say that it is not going to last forecer, i will be able to work normally, and you can eat what you want. Though am certain that this is not going to happen for me!!