When good gall bladders go bad

By Amy S.

I had my gallbladder removed last week; I'm sore, slow and tired of TV, but otherwise feeling pretty good. Before "the attack" I had no idea how common it is for women in their childbearing years to have gallbladder problems. (Side note: Pain that makes you want to climb the walls the way you wanted to when you were in labor? That could be your gallbladder calling.)

Thankfully, laparoscopic surgery means I have a few puncture wounds but no more gallbladder. In and out of the hospital in about four hours and poof, it's gone! I spent the first two days in a slight Vicodin haze just willing time to pass and my body to begin healing. But after that, well after that, things got interesting.

I began feeling better about the exact moment my 2 and a half-year-old daughter came down with the telltale eye goop of the Pink Eye that had been making its way through day care. And the next morning, the ceiling in my daughter's room began leaking water from a broken air conditioning pipe.

We made it relatively unscathed through all the excitement, in part because after I'd been a parent for a while I became more comfortable with a certain level of chaos. (And that "lived in" look the house is so fond of taking on, too.)

If I'd had this surgery before having a child, I'd have had time to get nervous, lose sleep over it, etc. But taking care of my daughter left no time to worry about surgery -– the night before I was busily packing up day care supplies for her and doing laundry. And now that I'm on the mend, I can't wait to be able to lift my daughter up for big hugs again.

Has parenthood changed your tolerance for chaos?

Comments

[Lisa]

I had my bout with gallbladder during the last month of my pregnancy--my little man was busy stretching himself so that he was choking my gallbladder something fierce. It was agony--like extreme sharp pain coupled with nausea--a delightful combo! Add to that that I was swollen like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, and it wasn't pretty. After my son's birth, I had one more attack and told my doctor that I wanted the ultrasound right then and there (since I hadn't eaten for so many hours, it was perfect timing). They took me to the floor in the hospital for ultrasounds...and left me in the hallway all by myself for over a half hour. Just sitting on my bag of ice...Anyway, the end of the story is my gallbladder problems were over, thankfully--at least for that chapter!

[Maman]

I had that problem too! Once after my first fille came along and then worse after the second. After a battery of questions about my alcohol problems (I developed pancreatitis as a result of my gallbladder problems.. and the 2 ways to get pancreatitis are through gallbladder disease or chronic alcoholism... )they finally removed my decrepit organ. Hang in there and don't do too much too soon (HA! like any Mom follows that rule!)

[christina]

Oh my..after I had my first baby..I all of a sudden ran into gall bladder trouble...the pain was so bad I wanted to die...and I had heard it is kind of a common thing after a woman has a baby..go figure...so I had emergency surgery to have it removed...I was filling with posion so fast I would not of lived anohter 2 days..whew..dodged that one....have a speedy recovery...