Post Gallbladder surgery pain.

[lisa]

I had my gall bladder removed in early December VIA the laproscopy method.  My recovery has been relatively uneventful with the exception to the fact that I cannot lay on my left side. This position causes me to have a burning, crampy  pain in my chest cavity as well and in and around the area of my right shoulder and up  the right side of my neck.   The pain is so intense that it actually causes me to be unable to breathe and I need to change position immediately.

Should I be concerned or is this a common symptom after this type of surgery and if so,  how long until it goes away?    

Thank you very much for any help that you may offer.

Lisa

[Annette]

I find these comments so interesting.  I had gallbladder surgery in Oct 99 and have had pain since.  I had pain in the middle of my chest prior to the surgery.  I was told I had gallstones but after surgery there were only sand particles in the gallbladder.  I now have pain in the area where the gallbladder was, in the front and back, as well as back pain, which I have now been told is a pinched nerve (unrelated to the other pain).  In the past few weeks, I have been experiencing pain every time after I eat in the area where the gallbladder was.  Anyone experience this?  Why do I have more pain now than before the surgery and pain whenever I eat?  Any suggestions?  My dr is now saying its my colon but I am skeptical.  I have pain in the chest, back and side.

[dean]

I had lapriscoic gallbladder removal in early December.  For years I suffered what I thought was heartburn or reflux or maybe a hiatal hernia.  I would get a lot of pain in the middle of my chest around the solar plexus and it would radiate into my upper chest. I am 39 years old and I must of had this pain for about 10-12 years.  The past couple of years I have put on some weight and the pains got worse.  My doctor put me in the hospital last year to rule out my heart.  6 months later I had an endoscopy which showed nothing.  A couple of months later I wound up in the emergency room with the most sever pain of my life. (and I have had several kidney stones) The pain was in the middle and right side of my abdomen.  My liver enzymes went through the roof and they told me it was a gallstone.  Luckily the stone passed but they told me the gallbladder had to come out.  

Since the surgery all the pain that I had been having  over the years is gone. The surgery was painfull for the first few days but the recovery went by quick.  Now I still feel a little week but I am ok and for the first time pain free.

It turns out my gallbladder was filled with stones and not working.  How could the doctors mis diagnose me for that long. Over the years I must have taken a million antacids or thought I was having a heart attack a hundred times. The doctors excuse is that my symptoms were not typical gallbladder sypmtoms. It took winding up in the hospital in what could have been a life threatening situation to figure out what was wrong. So if any of you are experiencing the same type of pain as I did, having my gallbladder removed has taken away the pain.
I hope this is helpfull to someone.

If you have any questions you can Email me at ***@****

[battlelines]

A related discussion, Still in pain was started.

[hayashi3386]

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[sp4life]

Well i have my gallbladder remove did have some pain after the surgery but with the help of some pain pills am doing fine but my worry now its five days the surgery but still if i go to use the number 2 nothing comes I've been eating a lot of fruits, drinking a lot of water and juice with cereals, what may be causing that.
Musa

[beddybettis]

A related discussion, Is this normal or the exception was started.