A blog about my recent gallbladder removal, surgery and recovery. The audience of this blog is those who are going through or are about to go through this experience. Please feel free to ask questions and I would be happy to answer whatever I can.

I recommend starting with the first post and working your way forward in time for the complete picture!

Monday, September 5, 2011

My Surgery (Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy)

There are two types of gallbladder removal. Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (also known as "keyhole" surgery), and the traditional open surgery. The laparoscopic approach is where they make 4 very small incisions in your abdomen, and use small equipment to remove your gallbladder. Open surgery is where they instead slice you open in the abdomen with a large 8-12" incision and do the work in the old-fashioned manner.

Laparoscopic requires no cutting into stomach muscles, and is much less invasive. The healing time is much much shorter, and you can usually leave the hospital that very same day and be back on your feet in 3-7 days. The open method is more hardcore and may leave you down and out for 3-7 weeks, and potentially longer. Some people have such a bad attack they do not have time for the laparoscopic approach. There are also some cases where your laparoscopic surgery has to be converted to an open surgery, based on your anatomy or some other unexpected complication that may arise. In these cases, you wont even know until you wake up from your surgery, so there is nothing to decide on in that regard.

For those who are not squeamish, you can watch this video which has footage of the process and explains it. Honestly, don't watch this stuff unless you are confident it wont mess with your head before your surgery. I chose not to watch this until my surgery was over, just in case it was too much. I was already scared enough with this being my first surgery ever and being somewhat of a baby when it comes to surgical stuff. I don't mind the sight of blood and I have been in my share of fights and sports collisions, but nothing bothers me like someone cutting up my insides.

The video with footage of actual surgery:

I will break the surgery into two posts to follow, one about the prep and going into surgery, the other about waking up.



Posted by Old Backstop at 7:02 PM

2 comments:

  1. Megan LeighOctober 31, 2012 at 9:18 PM

    Hi,

    I had my gallbladder removed on October 19th and I am doing pretty well but I had the same type of surgery but they only went in through my belly button and used "robotic surgery" - not sure if it is quite the same?

    I have been reading your blog and it is comforting to know many of the symptoms that I have been having are normal and not to panic. I am in the middle of my second week and my surgeon was not very helpful to any questions so I turned to Google and found your blog!

    Thank you for posting this because I had been miserable before I got mine out and I am feeling a little better each day with some minor issues here and there but knowing someone else has experienced the same issues helps me settle myself a little more.

    - Megan C.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Old BackstopDecember 29, 2012 at 8:50 PM

      Thanks Megan. This post was a few months ago, I hope you are feeling that much better that a few months have passed!

      Delete

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