Surgery Experience

Well, I had my gallbladder taken out on March 3 which is now just a bit less than 2 weeks ago. As surgeries go I guess this was one of the easiest to have done and to recover from. But, having said that. I don't want to go through another surgery again. There's something unpleasant about having to go under the knife, isn't there?

I can see that I've got to go through a longer recovery period than I had expected given the positive comments I heard about the surgery. The truth is that I've had an organ removed from my body and at age 58 it may take more time to fully recover than I was willing to allow. I tire more easily and have a sore spot on my stomach that causes me to be careful when lifting and when I cough. Also, my right knee and hip ache terribly now and I suspect it has something to do with being lifted from the operating table. Maybe not, but I feel as if I've been jerked around somehow.

For 5 days after surgery I had terrible acid reflux! It keep me awake at night coughing and sputtering which began the sore spot on my stomach. After doubling up on my Protonix for a few days it is now under control. To make matters worse I almost had diarrhea  which kept me runnning back and forth to the loo. At my check up appointment the doctor said that will calm down and by then it had! I would hate to have acid reflux like that all the time.

This experience left me feeling a bit ignorant. When I don't know about or understand something I normally take to the internet. For some reason I didn't do that this time. It amazing now to look back to see that I allowed someone to perform surgery on me with having so little information! Perhaps I am wrong but I feel that I could have been better prepared to deal with the acid reflux and almost-diarrhea. Instead I felt a bit of panic and uncertainty about what was happening to me. So of course I ran to my computer to see what I could find out about what was happening to me. While it is rare with perhaps only 5% of all gallbladder operations, some people do develop persistent acid reflux and diarrhea. For those people it is a true misery which sends them searching for way to deal with their problem. I felt so bad for them as I read story after story.

Reading all that scared me but it is also the reason I talked to my sister who is a nurse and then asked permission from my doctor to double my Protonix. Plus I purchased a bottle of a really good probotic called Primal Defense to take to help get my gut back to normal. I used Primal Defense last winter after having to take so many antibiotics that my gut was constantly in an uproar. It's pricey so I only use it when I am having a problem. FYI: I do take another probiotic daily. So I'm doing well on the internal stuff now and just wish my knee and hip would calm down!

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Thanks for letting me vent a little. The next post will be cheerier.