"I would define true courage to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it."
I have typically had pretty good health throughout my life which means my experience with medical procedures is minimal. Normally, this is a good thing expect for right now when I have to make a medical decision and don't really know how. The question is: do I get my gallbladder taken out or try to control my gallstones with diet and/or alternative treatments?
After the intense pain shrimp and curry sauce gave me last night, I am leaning towards ripping the sucker out. The problem is: what if I am wrong can never eat fatty foods again? What kind of a life is that? I have been able to control it with diet over the last week but what happens when I want to splurge on a burger at The Skillet? Which by the way I finally ate at a few weeks ago. (The burger was not only delicious it also helped diagnose my gallstone issue.)
I am considering a few things and I am meeting with a surgeon on Thursday and I'm guessing
she is going to recommend surgery since she is a surgeon. I am just skeptical that you can remove an organ from your body with no major repercussions. Am I just being paranoid?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I hope this isn't too much information and that Rachel will forgive me for talking about her. Rachel had her's out and had the same thoughts about having to alter her eating habits forever.
ReplyDeleteThrough trial and error she has figured out what causes problems. By "problems" I mean having a rather urgent need to visit the bathroom. So the trade off is to basically not eat fats or have the pain, which you and she both describe as horrific, or eat too much fats at one time and in an hour have diarrhea.
(sorry if that is TMI) She has figured things out such as, if you eat a burger, don't have the fries. Maybe she will post a comment. I think there are only a few things she totally avoids. Mostly she watches the total combination of foods in a meal or limits large portions. It seemed like within a month she had it all figured out. The surgery was very easy on her. They made three small (maybe an inch) cuts and then do what I call Nintento surgery. One of the little cuts is for a little camera and the rest is just like a computer game. Sounds like fun, right?
Sorry for such a long post. Good luck with what ever you decide.
I really dont have issues after getting mine out.
ReplyDeleteCollin, I have to agree with Anna. I didn't have any issues either after I had mine out. The terrible pain that I had after almost every meal was gone and I didn't feel like I was dying anymore. The way they do it now - like Sylvia said with the 3 incisions - is really a piece of cake. And after having 3 babies, a hysterectomy,ear and sinus surgery, I positively can say that was the easiest surgery/or medical experience that I've had. So I hope that helps.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that if gall stones are the problem that you can essentially reverse the effects by flooding your system with a bunch of pectin or something like that (this was a random conversation at church a while back) and then you wouldn't need to have it removed. If you are interested in trying something like that you can look into it before you make a decision. It does sound a bit homeopathic, but at the time it sounded promising to my scientific brain.
ReplyDelete