Another entry about my gallbladder
It's another thrilling installment in the saga of...my gallbladder! I know, you just can't wait!
I saw the internist today and discussed options. The clinic didn't send my ultrasound results to her ahead of time, which really irked me, because we were flying sort of blind. But what she said was that if I have big gallstones, it's possible that maybe nothing will happen with them. However, if I have smaller ones, I could shake one loose anytime, and then I might really be in trouble. If one of my bile ducts gets blocked and/or infected, I could rupture my gallbladder, end up in emergency surgery, and then I'd be stuck with a traditional surgical procedure and six weeks' recovery time flat on my back, not to mention a lot of pain. On the other hand, big gallstones can sit in the gallbladder and calcify so that the gallbladder becomes rigid, and then laparoscopic surgery isn't available anymore - once again, I'd have to have traditional surgery if I started having bad flareups. Even with diet and exercise, there's no guarantee that I wouldn't have trouble somewhere down the line, since gallbladder has such a high genetic component. And the older you get, the more likely you are to have hardening of the gallbladder.
So I think I'm going to have the laparoscopic surgery to take out the gallbladder, and I will meet with a surgeon next Thursday to discuss how soon we need to do it. I will make sure that he has my ultrasound results to tell me exactly what I'm dealing with, just so I can be clear about it in my own mind. I know that I'm willing to do whatever will give me the least chance of ever having a gallbladder attack again, and I think taking the gallbladder out will do that. Not that I'm happy about it, but I think it's the best option for me. Yes, my diet will be a little restricted, but that's going to happen whether or not the gallbladder comes out, so that's not a deciding factor for me.
The funny thing is, my staff member who is currently out on medical leave for unrelated reasons called in on Friday to tell me that she's going to have her gallbladder out also. Weird. She had an attack last week, went to the emergency room, and they diagnosed pancreatitis, but after an ultrasound, they discovered it's her gallbladder. For her, it wasn't even an issue - she decided right away to take it out. What are the chances that we would both have flare-ups within a week of each other?
I saw the internist today and discussed options. The clinic didn't send my ultrasound results to her ahead of time, which really irked me, because we were flying sort of blind. But what she said was that if I have big gallstones, it's possible that maybe nothing will happen with them. However, if I have smaller ones, I could shake one loose anytime, and then I might really be in trouble. If one of my bile ducts gets blocked and/or infected, I could rupture my gallbladder, end up in emergency surgery, and then I'd be stuck with a traditional surgical procedure and six weeks' recovery time flat on my back, not to mention a lot of pain. On the other hand, big gallstones can sit in the gallbladder and calcify so that the gallbladder becomes rigid, and then laparoscopic surgery isn't available anymore - once again, I'd have to have traditional surgery if I started having bad flareups. Even with diet and exercise, there's no guarantee that I wouldn't have trouble somewhere down the line, since gallbladder has such a high genetic component. And the older you get, the more likely you are to have hardening of the gallbladder.
So I think I'm going to have the laparoscopic surgery to take out the gallbladder, and I will meet with a surgeon next Thursday to discuss how soon we need to do it. I will make sure that he has my ultrasound results to tell me exactly what I'm dealing with, just so I can be clear about it in my own mind. I know that I'm willing to do whatever will give me the least chance of ever having a gallbladder attack again, and I think taking the gallbladder out will do that. Not that I'm happy about it, but I think it's the best option for me. Yes, my diet will be a little restricted, but that's going to happen whether or not the gallbladder comes out, so that's not a deciding factor for me.
The funny thing is, my staff member who is currently out on medical leave for unrelated reasons called in on Friday to tell me that she's going to have her gallbladder out also. Weird. She had an attack last week, went to the emergency room, and they diagnosed pancreatitis, but after an ultrasound, they discovered it's her gallbladder. For her, it wasn't even an issue - she decided right away to take it out. What are the chances that we would both have flare-ups within a week of each other?