My Experience with Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy - Pain, Surgery, Recovery

Hi friends,

I hope you are enjoying the festivities to the fullest extent and having a great time with your friends and family. I’ve been missing in action from blogging since almost a month now and the main reason for my absence had been my illness, for which I underwent a surgery recently. I am currently on my recovery phase and hoping to be back on my blog soon. :)

Sometimes certain unplanned things do happen at times when you are in full swing of your actions, and then you have to put a halt on all other plannings all of a sudden. For me, though the symptoms of my illness started a year back, it wasn’t until last month that I could figure out the severity of my problem. Throughout my pregnancy last year, I kept struggling with occasional acidity and severe stomach ache, which could be subdued with usual medicines like Eno, Digene and Gelusil. My condition was credited as a side-effect of my pregnancy, and I was told that it’d all go after my delivery. However, things began to get much worse after a few months of my delivery. My occasional stomach pains would now last for 8-9 hours (instead of earlier 3-4 hours), and no amount of medicine could heal them, but for a Rantacid injection. My gut feeling told me that there was something seriously wrong, but somehow other chores took hold of me, and I again neglected getting any check up done.  

Life kept on giving my warnings, and I plainly ignored them. I was too engrossed taking care of my son, planning my online work, blog, household chores etc. As came the October, I became more busy in the festivities, shopping and planning for my son’s first birthday (which was on October 21^st), but as goes a popular saying -

"A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes and 

sometimes our bad experiences help us appreciate our lives even more."

Day 1 – October 12th - The day all hell broke loose!

I was happily enjoying Dussehra this year with my family, as last year my Dusshera was spent in labour room, so I was much keen to enjoy it to its fullest this year. On Ashtmi (October 12^th) I went to have Kanchka Prasad (poori, aalu gravy, kaaale chane, halwa) at one of my friend’s place. It was after ages that I’d had kaale chane ( Black bengal grams - which happen to be my favourite too!), and I really had a great time spending my day with friends and family.  I came back and took my afternoon siesta.

It was around 4 pm that I woke up from my nap, and felt some kind of gurgling sound inside my stomach. By the time I could acknowledge it, I could feel some kind of explosion taking place just below my ribcage. Now, just thinking about that gives me goosebumps, but the only emotion I had that time was of panic. It felt as if a bomb had exploded inside my stomach and my whole stomach was getting filled with some poisonous liquid. It was so surreal, that it took me some time to realize that I wasn’t dreaming. All I can remember now was the blindingly unbearable pain. I shouted at first, which turned into a shriek and then for the first time in my life – I fainted.

No amount of medicines or injection could subdue it this time. I knew there was something serious inside. The worst part was that I couldn’t do anything to reduce it. None of my body’s positioning – standing, sitting or lying down could do anything. My husband called our family doctor and he called us to get full abdomen ultrasound done.
In all Dussehra celebrations, we couldn’t get past the traffic and seeing my condition, my husband took me back home. Our local doctor gave me a medicine that could help me vomit out all the food that was inside me causing the discomfort. It was a painful process and made me faint twice again, and it wasn’t until 11:30 pm that I could get rid of all the food inside me. I was exhausted to the core till then, but finally relieved of the pain. I thought the problem was gone, but I was so very wrong.

Day 2 and 3: Pain and No food

Next morning, I thought of eating light and just had a piece of toast with jam, and a slice of apple for breakfast. The moment I swallowed my first bite, the same unbearable pain started. It was like restarting of a nightmare. For the first time in my life, I was scared of food. I didn’t want to look at it (which was an irony as I am a great foodie..or I used to be!). Anyways, my only concern that time was my son. He was getting neglected in my illness. My husband was having tough time dealing with me and my son at the same time, though we got help from our neighbours, but still it was a difficult time. We decided to go to Dhanbad (26kms) away from our home to visit the doctor, but luckily or unluckily my husband called the clinic first and came to know that the specialist had gone for Dussehra celebration and would be available only after Dussehra (which meant 2 more days of wait!). I called my dad and his family doctor suggested me to eat soft solid food like banana and suggested me a medicine  - Sucral, which I was supposed to drink before having any food. The combination gave me some relief, but I was so scared of eating anything that I survived the next 2 days only on one banana each day.

Day 4 - Consultation

Surviving on Sucral  and a banana each day, did give me some amount of relief from my pain till Dussehra, but the lingering pain as if something was stuck below my rib cage continued. We finally got empty roads (though we got stuck at one place because of Bakar-eid crowd), and finally got the specialist who gave me some medicines and advised certain tests which included full abdomen ultrasound. For Full Abdomen Utrasound, I was told that I’d have to prepare my stomach for a whole day for the same. I was given 2-3 medicines and was asked to get it done empty stomach with full bladder (which means drinking 1 liter water 45 minutes before the ultrasound) next day morning. The day again was spent in pain, blur and eating a banana.

Day 5 – Tests and Diagnosis

My full abdomen ultrasound next day clearly showcased the cause of my problem. I was suffering from infection and uncountable multiple stones in gall bladder. I got some more medicines from my doctor for the infection and was told to get my gall bladder operated asap. The good thing was that the medicines gave me relief from my pain, even though I was still surviving on bananas for all courses of my meals. The bad thing was that I had to get the surgery done asap as there were chances that one of the stones could go into CBD (common bile duct) and cause jaundice and other complications. I had to decide where to get my surgery done, as my main concern was that someone should be able to take proper care of my son during my surgery and recovery phase. After much thinking, I decided to travel to my mom’s place and get surgery done at N M Virani Wockhardt hospital in Rajkot, Gujarat.  In all the festival  frenzy, it was extremely difficult to get an air ticket from Kolkata to Bhuj.  I got just one ticket of October 20^th (the nearest date I could manage!) for Rs.20,000 (that too economy class....unbelievable!).  

Anyways , it was “marta kya nahi karta” situation for me, so I traveled to Gujarat with my son on that ticket. Luckily, my pain had subsided to a great extent (thanks to medicines and bananas), the doctor gave me a day off after such a long travel, so we were able to celebrate my son’s birthday on October 21^st. It was a small celebration at my mom’s place with kids invited from my mom’s neighborhood.   Ironically, neither me (because of my illness), nor my husband (because he couldn't travel with me) could eat the cake of our son’s first birthday. Still, I was happy that we could hold a nice little celebration against the odds of having one.

N M Virani Wockhardt Hospital, Rajkot

In all my hurry of packing, travelling, recovering from pain and my son’s birthday, I’d almost forgotten about the surgery. The realization however came to me in full swing next day i.e. on October 22^nd, when we had to travel to Rajkot for my surgery. It was supposed to take place at N M Virani Wockhardt Hospital at Rajkot, which is around 250 kms away from Bhuj. The journey by road took around 3-4 hours for us to reach there. N M Virani Wockhardt Hospital is located at the outskirts of Rajkot in a posh location. The hospital has beautiful outdoors and is surrounded with lush green trees and gives a calm and comfortable feeling as you enter the main gate. The hospital is stretched in three floors and the first impact somehow soothed my panic to a great extent. 

I reached there in evening at around 4 pm and was immediately admitted in one of those “special care” rooms. I’ve always seen such luxury hospital rooms in movies with those hi-tech patient bed beside a nice large window that gives a great view outside of roads and cities. Being admitted in one of such high comfort luxury rooms as a patient, however didn’t make me feel any glamorous! 

My surgeon came to me for the check up and told me about the process of getting me ready for the surgery, which was supposed to take place next day in the morning 8 AM. The whole evening went in doing the preparations. There were blood tests, Xray, some injections etc.etc.

As now my mom was taking care of my son, I wasn’t much bothered about him; however my complete thought process got focussed on my coming surgery. I’d never had any sort of surgery in my life, nor I’d ever gone unconscious. Even my delivery was a completely natural and normal one.

 I didn’t know what to expect and had the weirdest doubt in my mind – What if I couldn’t fall unconscious before the surgery! I know it is funny, but falling unconscious while I am being cut open and not realizing that, was something I couldn’t fathom in my thoughts!

October 23^rd: Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

At 6:30 AM, the nurse came and started prepping me up for the surgery. Just before 8 AM she gave me the surgery gown and head cap. It was a weird feeling lying down on the stretcher and going inside the Operation theatre. The first thing that hit my mind was the soothing music of the song “Aao na” from Bollywood movie “Kyun ho gaya na”, that was playing inside. I was quite surprised that there were nice romantic songs being played at low volume there. All the doctors and their assistants inside were coolly roaming around, occasionally humming with the music. The whole atmosphere calmed me down to a great extent. While I was given saline and some other stuffs there outside the operation room, the assistant there asked me certain questions and simply chitchatted with me as if we were standing in a super market waiting for our turn at the counter. 

After 10-15 minutes they took me inside the Laproscopy surgery room. It had these huge instruments overhead. I was lifted and placed on the T-shaped bed, with my arms outstretched on both the ends of the "T". I was still wondering about the process of falling unconscious, when one of the doctors placed a mask on my nose and mouth and asked me to breathe normally. In first breath, my ears went numb, in second breath, my vision began to get blurred, and I don’t remember what happened after that. It was like falling asleep, just the process was fast forwarded by 1000 times!

Post Surgery

It was around 11 - 11:30 AM that I gained tiny bit of consciousness. All I could remember was that I was outside the main operation room, but still inside OT. My surgeon was there, who gently tapped my tummy and said to me "Don't worry, your surgery is done!". I tried to say "Thanks", but my voice was all gone. I could feel terrible dryness in my mouth and all along my throat with not even a single drop of saliva inside. There was bitterness inside my mouth and as I tried to clear my throat, the cuts on my stomach pained. After a few seconds of struggle, I gave up and let it go and continued to bear with the dryness and loss of voice. I remember being pushed out of the OT in a stretcher. My parents' anxious faces were outside the OT, and I could hear their voices asking the nurse about me. I don't remember what she replied back. I wanted to see my son's face, but he wasn't there. Despite all my efforts, I could manage to keep my eyes opened for just 2-3 seconds in a stretch, and the temporary vision was also a blur. I was carried back to my room, where I stayed quietly half asleep, half awake, in parched throat, bitter mouth and with no voice till around 4-5 pm in evening. 

It was in late evening that I began to get some senses of what was around me. My voice was somewhat back now in bits and pieces. My throat was still super dry and my stomach felt extremely bloated. Even though I wanted to drink gallons of water, I could manage to take just a sip at a time. At around 6 my surgeon came for the check up and told me that my throat's dryness and my mouth's bitterness was because of some telescopic tube that they inserted inside through my throat till stomach for the surgery. My stomach's bloatiness was because of a gas they filled inside my stomach for the surgery. My immediate vision was of Harry Potter's bloated Aunt Marge. Would I've also floated the same way, if by mistake the gas had gone in excess? Anyways! my surgeon told me that it took them an hour longer to get the surgery done because the infection had gone severe and one of the bigger stones of my gall bladder had impacted the bile duct (or cystic duct..I don't remember much what he said!), which was causing all the pain and it took them more time to take it out and then remove the gall bladder. Luckily, there were no stitches, but the main cut from where they took gall bladder out, would pain for another 8-9 hours. I was ok with that, however, what I was not ok with was all the bloatiness, parched throat and all the bitterness in my mouth. The anaesthetic drugs still made me woozy and all I wanted to do was sleep. The doctor suggested me to stay awake and walk so that I could get rid of all the gas. The problem was that I couldn't walk for more than 2 minutes in a stretch. I could get occasional burps similar to what you get after drinking thumbs up and I hated them!

It was the time for me to start consuming liquids, however I couldn't drink anything and moreover couldn't hold anything in my stomach coz of all the bloatiness. Of all the juices (lemon juice, coconut water etc.), I could sustain only water melon juice. 

It took me another 7-8 hours to start feeling normal. My stomach felt somewhat back to its usual self the next day and I was discharged from the hospital. Since our journey back home was a 5 hours road journey, my dad decided to spend the day in hotel and move back to our home the next day.

Life at Present

I feel pretty much back to normal now, except for certain discomforts owing to my surgery. The bad thing was that I couldn't hold my son for initial couple of days. Even now I have to be very careful that he doesn't kick or punch on my stomach while he sits and plays with me. Though I can lift him from a height occasionally, I can't carry him for more than 5 minutes in a stretch. Also, I couldn't bend down to pick up anything for initial 10 days.

My diet for the first 10 days post-surgery comprised totally of soft solids and easily digestible food items like Bananas, Boiled rice and daal, Upma, Poha, Idli and dosa (everything oil free!). I was forbidden to take any milk product, eggs, roti and basically anything with "fat". At present, I have slowly included eating thin chapatis for  my dinner, and evening tea with one spoon of skimmed milk. I have not included any spices or chilies in my diet till now, but I am eating all the vegetables cooked in half teaspoon oil.I will be including other elements slowly into my diet and hope that my digestive system gets back on track soon. 

I've been off blogging world since almost a month now. Just this post took me around 5 days to finish, however I am recovering fast and hope to be back in action soon. Sometimes, somethings do make you appreciate the things you've ignored the most. I've realized how precious my life is. As a mom, I don't want to get injured or fall sick because then I can't take care of my son. I hope my post helps anyone who has been experiencing similar problem. I do wish a happy and healthy life to everyone.