5 YEARS and still going strong

If you want to read about my actual surgery, FOLLOW THIS LINK!If you want to read about the day(s) right after, FOLLOW THIS LINK!

So, what is it like 5 years after a successful surgery? I am sure everyone's story would be a little different, but here is a quick summary of where I am at these days:

• 99.9% of the time, I don't think about or remember I am without a gallbladder. There are times when I do think about it, which I will try to break out down below in this list, but even those things are typically fleeting thoughts that last but a few minutes.
• In terms of scars and such, no one really ever notices I had surgery unless I point it out, and point my finger at the almost unrecognizable little scars. Can't ask for much more than that!
• I will always have my incisions. Let's face it, someone cut through my abdominal wall muscles with a blade. Fortunately this was laparoscopic, and the incisions were small, but they are there nonetheless. This means scar tissue. How does this impact me? Well, when I try to do intensive abdominal exercises, there are times where I feel pain in those spots. I find that if I exercise my abs regularly and strengthen all the muscles, this can go away. But more often, I am in and out of working out, and when more out of shape these incisions can be a bit of a pain. From time to time an ab muscle may cramp around that area as a result. I tend to try not to go too crazy on my abs for that reason.
• My #2 is a little more liquid than it was before my surgery. If my diet is clean, it's not so bad, but I would say that on a 1-10 firmness scale, before the surgery I was in the 5-9 range, depending on my diet. Years after the surgery, it's more like the 3-7 range. I guess this can be expected somewhat with the constant bile drip. Long periods of fasting (like skipping breakfast but just having a black coffee) can result in a 1-3 range urgent trip. It's just something I have gotten used to and have learned ways to manage it. On a typical day though, we're talking 5-7 ish.
• Eating heavy junk food (deep dish pizza, Bloomin Onions, etc) can sometimes lead to digestive discomfort (slow digestion, aches in the gut). This makes total sense without a gallbladder to push out extra bile to help digest the fats. It is what it is - again, I learn to live with it. I also tend to make sure that I am not eating those kind of meals back to back, and often try to eat very clean the day after a super fatty processed food meal.
• Satiety: Can't say for sure if this is age, but ever since my Gallbladder was removed, my hunger pangs were never as strong as they once were (not a bad thing), and I felt full earlier than I used to. For example, Thanksgiving for me used to be where I would eat 2-3 large plates of food. These days, I feel completely full after one large plate. Because it's a holiday, I still go back and have a second plate, and then some dessert, and then I feel painfully stuffed. But even on normal days, I don't have that ability to double down on large plates. Again, this isn't a bad thing, it's just more a sense of not feeling like my old self. As I mentioned, this could just be age (in my early 40s now versus 20s and 30s).
• Although a Bloomin' Onion might cause me some discomfort later, for the most part I have no food restrictions of any kind, which is in itself a blessing.

Keep eating clean, and keep your chin up!

3 months away from my GOLDEN 5 year anniversary

Well, this is a little exciting. I am only a few months away from my 5 year anniversary of having my gallbladder removed. The big day will be on 8/26/2016. Five years ago it fell on a Friday, and this will also be a Friday. Even more reason to celebrate into the weekend.

Thinking back, 5 years ago today I was under a ton of stress. I had gone through a number of bad gallbladder attacks (some had forced me to leave work and lay in my bed for hours). My doctors had been looking at my gallbladder and felt it was advisable to remove it.

Major surgery. Very scary. Sure, nothing compared to real issues and surgeries, but to me, a healthy 36 year old guy, it was the first thing I needed to have done outside of wisdom teeth being pulled and a few knee and head stitches from various times I was playing too rough as a boy.

Now I was told I was going to be put under, cut open, and a have an organ removed! This did not sit well with me. At the time, I started taking walks, and I developed a playlist on my smartphone that was essentially 20-30 of my favorite relaxation songs. Going on these walks and listening to these tunes seemed to help ease my worries. I found it cathartic.

If you are in these shoes, find something that takes the edge off for you. It helps.

As for me, I am looking forward to the next 5 years, and continue to try to EAT A CLEAN DIET, the thing that would have likely prevented this from the beginning.

Cheers all!

Almost 4.5 Years Now Post Surgery

My surgery was on 8/26/11, which puts me at 4 years and just about 4 months since my surgery. First and foremost, I am still here, so that is a great sign.

Painful Gallbladder Attacks Since Removal: 0
Complications: 0

Doubt always creeps in. We think everything is going fine, but then one day you start to feel some abdominal pain, and you always flashback to your gallbladder removal and wonder if it is time to finally pay the piper.

A few months ago, I began having terrible abdominal cramps (in the intestines area). It felt like ulcers, or something, on my lower right side. I was worried ... was this a result of my surgery? Was this something worse, like diverticulitis, Crohn's Disease, or colon cancer? The pain persisted for a week and I began to wonder if it was appendicitis based on the radiating pain from the lower right abdominal area. Doc had me do an MRI to check for appendicitis, and they saw nothing wrong. They also said other organs looked normal (no large grapefruit tumors or anything).

So now what? The pain persisted for another week so I went to my gastroenterologist (the same one who helped me resolve the gallbladder issue) and we set up the dreaded colonoscopy. I should put together a whole other blog for that experience ... hah ... but another time perhaps. The colonoscopy had me fast for essentially 2 days while "cleansing", and then the procedure. I felt better the day after the procedure, and within 2 days I was entirely cured. So what was it?

Apparently, I had been taking a men's super multivitamin that my wife had picked out for me, that included a bunch of other things I wasn't aware of. Saw palmetto, probiotics, and so forth. How am I sure this was the culprit? Because I had stopped taking these just before the surgery, and the pain went away. A month later I started taking them again, and within a few days those same abdominal pains started to return! It had to be the MV, not sure which ingredient, maybe just the probiotics?

In either case, that is now resolved, and as I am not in my early 40's (I was only 37 when my GB was removed), I am wading through one minor health issue after another, whether it be a bone bruise in my foot from trying to start up running again, or being checked for Sleep Apnea. But the one thing I do not worry about on a daily basis now is my gallbladder. 

My diet is much better now than it was then. I still eat cookies or bad foods, but very much in moderation. I follow a somewhat Paleo type diet. I'm not a believer that Paleo means you have a green light to eat bacon and steak all day (the WHO recently claimed that processed meats were carcinogenic, and even non-processed red meats probably were as well), but I do try to minimize the refined carbs (breads, chips, etc.) and go heavy on vegetables instead. I also try to stick more often to poultry or fish than steak and bacon. Other things I try to avoid: Added sugars and other preservatives.

Signing off for now, thanks for following and reading, and for those of you who have had the surgery or are planning to have it, good luck and best wishes! Hopefully I am updating this blog with happy news for the next 40 years =)

3.5 Years After Surgery

It is about time for an update ... Been a few years. I am happy to say that 3.5 years later, I am still doing well. I will mention a few things down below but overall it was still what appears to be a good decision.

Painful Gallbladder Attacks Since Removal: 0

I have mentioned in the past that I wish I could go back in time and erase the decade of terrible eating they I feel was the culprit to a number of my health "challenges". I was a processed food junkie. Are plenty of sugar (bbq sauce, candy, General Tsos chicken), and fried foods (chicken tenders in honey, donuts, General Tsos Chicken), microwave meals, pizza, burgers, Taco Bell ... And did I mention my main man General Tso?

I would also eat healthy quite often. I was equal opportunity ... Problem was I did not say no to many things, healthy or otherwise. Why not? I was young and healthy and invincible. Alcohol? I wasn't by any means an alcoholic - but more of a social binge drinker. No alcohol for a week or two, then 14 beers on a Saturday, or a bunch of pints of Vodka and cran. I'm sure it didn't help ... This was my 20's.

It was in my 30s that the problems came. Serious weight gain, fatigue, pale skin, and gallbladder pains and attacks. I cleaned up my diet and lost weight. Still, over the years the GB attacks recurred. I'm sure the damage was already done.

Now I am down 1 gallbladder. This means there is a slow and steady drip into my intestines from my bile duct. What does that mean? Well it means you don't like to go too long on an empty stomach. Bile is coming in with or without food, and without food over time that can make you have a tad of diarrhea. Not terrible but it is what it is.

On the flip side, when you really go overboard and opt for onion rings and a burger, or fried dough, or fried chicken, there isn't enough bile being produced to take care of it. What you end up with is aches, pains or discomfort in the intestine area at times when you eat like this. Feels like it takes a long time for your body to break down the food. It may. It break down comprehensively either.

For the most part - if I eat whole foods and healthy choices more often than not, I fee just fine.

Other issues? There is a permanent weakness in my abdominals where the incisions were made. I did 18 months of CrossFit without a gallbladder and got into the best shape of my life, but there are times where if I am doing something with the abs I suddenly get a very painful ab muscle cramp. It actually feels like it pops inside out and its searing pain ... But I squirm around until it suddenly fixes itself and goes away. This has only been for the last few years. It's right where the main incision was over the GB. I feel minor aches and tugs in the spots where there is scar tissue at times. More discomfort than pain - but most times discomfort away entirely.

Not too long ago one morning I suddenly got colic type pain in that area. It lasted about 10 minutes and I broke into an icy cold sweat but I kneeled on my bathroom floor (head down, a technique I was taught to deal with vasal vagus syncope symptoms that I get once in a while when very ill, and it subsided and never returned. What was it? No idea, but if I had to guess I would say maybe it was a small gallstone passing from the bile duct?

As per the vagus - I think I have had vagus issues from around that time. Could a GB surgery trigger vagus issues? Possibly - or it could just be an unrelated issue. Vasal vagus is an issue related to the vagus nerve, which runs from head to heart to stomach and controls quite a bit. A few times I have passed out when very ill. One time was during my sole kidney stone, a few other times when I had a bad intestinal virus. It's like a head rush ... But you get cold sweat and maybe a little nausea, But instead of recovering you just pass the heck out. Then you wake up and it all resets itself and you feel better. I had it once at age 12 before my GB surgery, and a few times since. Might just be me getting older!

I've conjured these symptoms a few times on nights of heavy alcohol and food. Like going to a baseball game with pals, getting beers and dogs and nachos and such and eating too much ... I will go to bed and wake up at 2 am and feel like I'm going to hurl - and I make way for the bathroom and I never do get sick, but sometimes the nausea has to pass and that can take a while.

Another mixed bag on the post surgery life is that my appetite is not as large. I still want to eat 3-5 times per day, but no longer can I consider 3 helpings on thanksgiving. I tend to feel full much sooner, and my hunger pangs have never been as strong as they were before surgery. I still get hungry and still eat bad at times - but the damage is limited.

That's about all I can think of. Sounds bad but these events are few and far between, and manageable. If I exercised and stretched more it would likely knock out the kinks and aches I sometimes feel. If I ate healthy all the time and minimized alcohol and sweets, might have no issues!

I hope anyone who has had the surgery that is reading this is doing well, and that anyone going through gallbladder pain or facing this surgery can get some comfort from this blog. See you soon!

Almost One Year After Surgery

It's about 11 months since the surgery, and I have only good news at this point.

For starters, I am still alive and I did not become a statistic ... always a plus. I have been pain free for as long as I can remember, and 99% of the time I don't even think about my missing gallbladder or my surgery.

At this point I can eat anything I wish. I try to follow a paleo style diet anyway (mostly real food: meats, veggies, fruits, nuts, healthy oils, etc.) and avoid fast food now, but from time to time I go to town and the system seems to work just fine.

If I go nuts eating foods that are high in the unhealthy kinds of oils such as fried chicken, deep dish pizza, and so forth, I may feel a little bloated and uncomfortable, but isn't that normal?

I only have two regrets at this point:

1) I should have done it sooner.
2) Wish I had eaten better earlier in life as poor diet was probably the reason I had issues to begin with.

4 Weeks After Surgery: Going on a 3 Mile Run

Today I went for my first 3 mile run since the surgery. To be honest, I am surprised at how quickly I have recovered in 4 weeks, especially when I consider how I wasn't feeling so great about 3 weeks ago.

For the record, a 3 mile run for me is my standard run. I am not a regular runner either, I usually run once a week, but sometimes miss a week. I never run more than 3 miles (although I would like to try that going forward). The point is I am back to doing something I was doing before the surgery that I worried might take me 4-6 months to achieve, and it only took 4 weeks.

On a side note, I still feel a little nagging ache in my lower gut area, the same one that started several days ago. It's very light, and it comes and goes, but it bugs me. Not sure if it's even related to the GB surgery though.

Day 27: What is that dull ache down in my abdomen?

The last two days were great, with no issues. In fact, yesterday I actually forgot for a while that I had my gallbladder removed. In fact, I was feeling better than I have in a long time.

Today, I woke up with a mild ache in the lower right abdomen. This seems to me to be outside of the area where the operation happened, almost between the navel and the appendix. ItSo if I had to guess I would say it's somewhere in my large intestine. For all I know this may just be a problem I would have felt today even if I had a perfectly fine gallbladder.

Either way, it's a reminder that even 4 weeks after your surgery, you may still feel minor aches and discomfort in your abdomen. It may or may not be related, but I can assure you that if you are anything like me you will always assume it is.

Day 26: A Little Acid Reflux

I wanted to mention today that there have been a few instances in the past week where I have experienced a little acid reflux sensation. I do not suffer from GERD (that I know of) and rarely experience acid reflux. Well, following some heavier meals lately, I have felt some of the minor symptoms.

It's interesting to me that I did not experience these symptoms before my surgery and it had really been years since I had any reflux, and today I feel completely fine. So I am going to chalk this up to part of the healing process at this point.

I didn't need to take anything, and within a day it went away on it's own. Obviously this is something to keep an eye on, but no alarm bells just yet. In fact, yesterday I felt perfect all day, so I can't complain too much less than 4 weeks after my gallbladder surgery.

Day 24: First Run After Gallbladder Removal Surgery

My doctor had given me the go ahead to exercise at the 3 week mark (although I cheated a little and did some elliptical work and free weights and pushups taking it easy a few days before my green light date). Now that I was 3 weeks and a few days in, I decided to give running on the treadmill a shot.

Right away I didn't like the way it felt. My fear coming in was that the impact of running would make things hurt in the gallbladder surgery area, and my fear came true. Within 30 seconds of starting my run at 6 mph I felt a little uncomfortable tug inside with each impact.

It wasn't seriously painful, but my main goal here is health. I'm not a professional athlete with a contract on the line so I can afford to take my time on this. I tried slowing to 5.5 mph to see if that would alleviate the minor discomfort, but alas, no dice.

I went on like this for a few minutes, trying a few things. I literally put my hand in the gallbladder area to add extra support (less bounce) and this helped a little, but it wasn't going to be realistic or wise to run with my right hand holding my abdomen for 30 minutes.

At this point, I decided to stop. It was 5 minutes in and I had reached a quarter mile. That was good enough for me. I switched over to the elliptical for 20 minutes instead.

The pain was ironically reminiscent of a cramp coming on during a normal run. This made me wonder ... I aoften would get a cramp in that same area when running. Maybe it wasn't really a cramp, maybe it was always a problem with my gallbladder that was aggravated when I ran? This might have also explained why several of my gallbladder attacks seemed to happen within 12-24 hours of a hard run. Maybe that is what helped cause the gallbladder inflammation?

Day 22: What NOT to Eat After Gallbladder Removal

I attended a family party over the weekend and the only real option for food was pizza. The pizza also had something called "hot oil" that came on the side. This is essentially olive oil and vegetable oil cooked in spicy peppers, making it a "hot oil".

The thing to do at this party was to top your slices of pizza with "hot oil" and parmesan cheese. It was delicious. Unfortunately, the combination of this and alcohol didn't sit well in my stomach, and I did not feel to well that night later on.

In fact, I woke up at 3 AM feeling nauseated, probably the first time I actually felt ill from what I had eaten. My guess here is that the spicy pepper infusion, heavy oils and pepperoni pizza combination (3-4 slices worth) was just too much at this stage for my stomach and intestines to handle without some additional bile. For all I know, being 36 I would have felt sick after this meal whether or not I had my gallbladder removed and whether or not it was healthy.

I know I will tread lightly the next time I am around that combination of food. Maybe in time it will resolve on its own and within 3 or 6 more months eating those foods will not phase me. For now, I am moving too fast.

Lastly, I also experienced some acid reflux a few times when eating foods high in fat. Ice cream in particular. I wouldn't make much of a note of this except for the fact that I hadn't felt any acid reflux symptons in about 5 years. So there is something going on where the surgery has caused me to experience reflux again after eating some foods ... it's mild, but noticeable. Hopefully it's temporary and just part of the healing process.

Week 3: What is that pain in there where my gallbladder was?

Week 3 was even better than week 2, I was feeling better than 90% at this point. But a few days during the week, at random intervals, I would feel an ache inside. One day in particular this lasted pretty much all day and into the night.

The pain was not too intense, but it was there, seemingly with each heartbeat I would feel a little throb. I attributed this to "the healing process", but being somewhat of a hypochondriac, I was still worried.

The good news is that I would wake up the next day and feel fine, so it was easy to pass off.

I was now getting close to the day my doctor said I could exercise again (3 weeks). He also said "You can do whatever you want now ... you wont break anything at this point ... but it might hurt". Because of this, I cheated and started exercising a little earlier than I was supposed to.

On day 17, I did some work on the elliptical (no impact) for about 30 minutes. Felt pretty good, although I was fatigued and out of breath more easily than I remember. I attributed this to being lethargic for so many weeks.

On day 18 I mowed my lawn. I have a self-propelled, so it's not too difficult, but it was more the turning, swerving and pushing I was worried about. All was well and it felt good to be active again.

On day 19 I did some pushups, and then did some weight lifting. I kept it light, doing about 60% of my max, and I used the Nautilus machines for most of my work. I didn't want to be ripping something open using heavy free weights at this stage, especially if aforementioned weight was dangling over my head or neck!

Week 2: Getting Back to Normal After Laparoscopic Choclyestomy

The first week was now behind me, and I was feeling markedly better. Week 2 was more of the same. My incisions were really starting to look good. The two smaller ones were almost little pink dots now, and the large incision, while still visible, was looking healthy and pink. No scab and no stitch marks (thanks to the miracle of "paper stitches" and surgical glue).

The belly button incision was feeling much better, the scar had a little more red to it, but seemed to feel OK. I presume this is a more sensitive part of the body and it's also partially inside, stays wet longer after a shower, and so forth. I expect the navel incision to take the longest to heal.

I picked up the pace on walking this week, going for several 2 mile walks at a decent pace. I still had some soreness and random discomfort that would come and go, but overall I could not complain. I was back to eating a normal diet, eating out, and even eating some naughty foods. I had some ice cream at the local dairy farm, and was able to eat red meat if I desired without much issue.

One Week After Surgery: Doctor Visit, Stitches, Glue and the Green Light

The roughest days were the first 3-5 days after surgery. Around day 3-4 I was able to start sleeping again, and things continued to improve on a daily basis. I would experience different pains in different areas on a daily basis, and I think this is a natural part of the healing process.

After 5 days, I noticed a marked improvement. My belly button was still tender, especially when I was now going back to work and required to sit for long periods of time. If I touched the incision areas they were still a little sore, but not too bad. I had various aches and soreness coming from inside, all over the liver area. I had envisioned all of the pain would focus on the exact location of the gallbladder, but that was not the case.

I felt dull aches all the way down by my hip and to the top of my liver area, and some around the side in the middle going towards the kidney. I have no idea what it all means really, but the good news is that in time this goes away (at least for me it did), but one week in there were random aches in there. Nothing terrible, just discomfort and healing taking place. I partially wondered if it's the body's confusion, trying to send messages to an organ that no longer exists, or if the surgery really was spread over a larger area than I imagined.

I went to the doctor and he asked me how I felt. He said "85% right, like I said you would be after one week?". In truth, I was feeling about 70%, but that was close enough for me so I just nodded in agreement.

The doctor quickly peeled off my "paper stitches" and they came off pretty easily. He then used a cotton ball with alcohol to clean off some of the dirt that had stuck to the paper stitches area - again, painless. He told me to apply vaseline to my belly button and the incision sites and over a few days that would remove the hardened surgical glue that was on the wounds. Sounded crazy, but I tried it and it worked very well. Within a day or two all of the glue had come off of the incision marks, and the glue in the navel slid right out as one piece on day 3-4. Now I was feeling clean, no more annoying hard glue on my torso.

The doctor essentially told me to call him if I had a problem, otherwise I was good to go.

Around this time my diet had opened up entirely to what it had been before the surgery, which is a Paleo/Primal approach (lots of foods high in healthy fats), and no real issues from that. My diarrhea was long gone, the CO2 gas issues had subsided, and all that was left was the dull aches inside from the healing process.

I was looking forward to week 2, and in all honesty, week 2 was MUCH better than week 1 ...

After Gallbladder Removal: Dealing with Gas Pains (CO2)

As discussed before, when they do a laparoscopic surgery on you, they will inflate your abdomen a bit with carbon dioxide (CO2) in order to give them more space to work in. I am not sure of the details of how they get most of this CO2 out after they are done, but I am under the impression that they do. In either case, there is always some residual CO2 left in your body.

The good news is that your body can absorb CO2 gas over time and get rid of it. The bad news is that this can take some time (sounds like everyone processes at a different rate) and until it's gone, you may feel some discomfort or pain.

From what I have gathered, the gas will rise. If you are primarily sitting or standing (which people tend to do), the gas will want to travel upwards toward your chest, and even find it's way to your shoulders or neck area. This can be alarming as you may feel pain in your chest, shoulder(s) or neck that may worry you. Without knowing about the CO2, you might think it's something else.

The way to test is to re-position your body. If you are standing/sitting and the gas is rising, you may want to lie on your side or on your back, perhaps even elevate your feet and butt a little. This can get it moving down and potentially out of a discomfort area.

If you are laying down the gas may descend towards your intestines or hang around near your incision area, which can be uncomfortable. This happened a bit to me and I would be attempting to sleep and get these nasty little stitches. I found getting up helped, or rolling to my side. Or even kneeling down and putting my head towards the floor. Anything to get it to shift out of a painful spot.

The CO2 pains subsided for me after 3-5 days and got easier with each passing day. For others it can take longer though.

After Gallbladder Surgery: Constipation and Diarrhea

On the day of and day after my surgery, I was pretty constipated. I was told this would be the case for a number of reasons. First, anesthesia shuts down your organs for a while, bowels included, so it takes them time to get going again. Secondly, you probably haven't eaten much food in the last 24 hours since you have to fast after dinner and usually don't eat anything until the next evening. Third, the painkillers and meds will cause constipation.

So my experience was one very solid stool the day after my surgery. After I went off the painkillers things got a little more normal.

Diarrhea

I had heard the tales about this. Some people talk about how months or years after their surgery they struggle with this. That was not the case for me, but for a good 3-4 days starting on day 3 I started to get it in spades. Coffee seemed to really make it worse, but I was getting really nervous at this point that it may be a chronic thing.

The good news is that it was temporary, and to be expected after such a surgery. By the 6th or 7th day I was back to normal again and have been that way since (I am not about 15-16 days posy surgery).

Make sure you keep yourself within striking distance of the porcelain god. Don't get caught out on a nature trail or in the middle of a mall too soon after your surgery :)