surfergirl having her gallbladder out in the am

“she's been in the hospital since wednesday night with sharp pains in her belly and non-stop diarrhea. her gallbladder isn't functioning properly so she will have it removed in the morning. she has had alot of test and we are still waiting on the e. coli test to come back. she had an upper and lower GI today and all that was clear. she has a histiory of gi problems.

i have also been looking for a nursing home for my father and arranging home health care for my dad. he has dementia and has fallen several time in the last week. and he didn't become a nice dementia patient. he yells and screams at my poor mother all the time. it has been really rough on her and i am concerened about her health.

well off to bed i'm exhausted.......”

“So sorry to hear that Cyndee. I will keep your family in my prayers.”

“i'm sorry cyndeee, i will pray for you and yours.

on the gallbladder surgery, i've had it and it WILL take care of the pain. first her diet will be liquids of course, tell her to not push the solids, and when she does, go slowly. then, tell her to stick to the no fat/low fat diet very carefully for a while afterwards. these are things i wish i'd understood better, but it was a VA hospital and it was not explained for me. if you have any questions on this, i'd be happy to answer them.

p.s. above all tell her not to be stoic about the pain, ask for the meds, keep a steady blood level of them and she will heal faster. pain messes with your immune system.”

“prayers!

tell surfergirl hello,
it will get better soon!

did they do the surgery liposcopic?”

“this sounds crazy, but mixing a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with a glass of water helps with gallbladder pain.

old home remedy that actually works.”

“tell me how that would work happyclicker? cider vinegar is great stuff mind you for a LOT of things, but you've lost me on this one.”

“Sending those positive thoughts down south --- !”

“I went to Wikipedia, but I still don't understand the Why of Surfergirl's problem. She's too young and beautiful to have to suffer so.

You and your family are in my prayers. Good luck with all the problems.

I was thinking that your father should come and stay with me. I'm used to the shouting. But I'd probably want to divorce him, just like I did with my wives. Perhaps I should start taking my Arecept Pills before it's too late.”

“I'll just pause now and pray for you all: Surfergirl and cyndee............................................................................................................................................................”

“Amen.................”

“I had mine out three weeks ago, male age 38, and It was done out patient and lyproscopically (i know that is spelled wrong but I never claimed to be bright)
The attacks prior to the surgery amounted to the worst pain I had ever been through. this coming from a fire fighter who had molten tar run down his helmet onto his neck, and the surgery cleared all of that out.
The week before the surgery I went on a backpacking trip into Linville Gorge and was so worried that I would have an attack down there.
I wish the best for her and she will do just fine.”

“I had mine out Laparoscopically. It consists of 4 incisions, each of them about 1/2 to 5/8 inch, in order to insert various tools, camera and a light. My surgeons made an extra incison because they miscalculated where things would be, interesting considering how small I am, I only weighed 123lbs at the time.”

“When I saw this thread I thought it said the gallbladder was coming out of her arm. I didn't know how this was possible. Duh!

Hope everything went well!

From one Cindy to another, I hope your dad will be comfortable in the nursing home. I know it must be very hard to deal with. My parents are aging too and I hope their twilight years are happy ones.”

“@Pamela - i don't know how it works, maybe it's the acidity of the vinegar or something, all i know is that when i had gallbladder attacks, my ex-grandmother-in-law made some for me and within about 15 minutes the pain went away.

here are other things apple cider vinegar is good for.
last edited: 2/10/07 8:08:01 PM”

“Best wishes for your current dilemmas, cyndee and surfergirl. The gallbladder might be the easier of the two.

I have other friends who had to put their father into a nursing home because he was having dementia -- yelling and threatening their mom. But otherwise he has few health problems at age 94 and is in fact quite active.

They went through circles and hoops to find a home for him -- he needed a locked facility, but a nursing home alone wasn't quite right. And because of his health, he needed ample room to be active. They finally found a place, but it took probably three medical/social worker evaluations, etc. I hope you have better luck than them!”

“how is surfergirl?”

“ACUTE ACACULOUS CHOLECYSTITIS
Acute acalculous cholecystitis is an acute inflammatory disease of the gallbladder not associated with gallstones. About 10% of the 500,000 cholecystectomies performed each year in the United States are for acalculous cholecystitis. The pathogenesis is felt to be an ischemic injury to the gallbladder wall compounded by chemical injury caused by bile acids. It is often seen in patients hospitalized for trauma or burns who have a superimposed sepsis and are on mechanical ventilation. It is also associated with patients with vascular disease and immune deficiency. Clinical manifestations can be similar to those seen with calculus cholecystitis [right upper quadrant pain, fever and a positive Murphy sign (pain during inspiration associated with palpation of the right upper quadrant)] but are typically subtler in a ventilated patient in the intensive care unit where usual clinical clues are absent. When acalculous cholecystitis is being considered, ultrasound is the diagnostic test of choice and shows a thickened gallbladder wall, pericholecystic fluid and a sonographic Murphy's sign. Cholecystectomy, either open or laparoscopic, is the definitive therapy. In patients who are a prohibitively high surgical risk, an ultrasound-guided percutaneous cholecystostomy tube provides drainage of the gallbladder without surgery. Another nonsurgical approach is transpapillary endoscopic drainage of the gallbladder.4 The outcome of patients with acalculous cholecystitis depends to a large extent on their underlying illness, but mortality can be as high as 30% when perforation of the gallbladder occurs as a complication

this is what she had. she came home sunday from the hospital and is still in a little pain. she made the doctor make very small incisions so there wouldn't be much of a scar. she will be out of work the rest of the week while she recovers. between wednesday night when she went in and until saturday morning she had 5 iv's. her veins are not very good and alot of the meds burned even after she told them how to administer them. she had an allergic reaction and her forearm broke out in hives.
thanks for all the well wishes.

we even came home with a picture of her insides. don't know if she will let me post it but it is very cool looking.”

“was the allergic reation from the iv antibiotics? they gave me keflex iv pre-surgery and i had hives from that, won't take keflex anymore, already have an allergy to erythromicin. potasium burns, i've had a problem with that more than once. murphys sign, is that the rebound (after palpitation) pain?”

“no it was from demerol and the anti nausia meds that went with it.”

“oh that sucks. try vicadin? benedryl is what i use with that.”

“Heal well, surfergirl!
Hang in there, cyndeee!”