[Outdated, please look at pinned post] Casual Conversation

So, between that and diarrhea, I think I’d personally err on the side of diarrhea.

I've had to experience both in the last few months, unfortunately. I haven't had solid food since August, I've been surviving on Ensure and Gatorade. So basically it's a lot of constipation and it's not pleasant. But this is worse because I've had accidents three times now. I sleep and sit on towels all the time until this is over. The constipation is painful, but at least it doesn't last long and doesn't end up with showering and changing a couple of times a day. I guess it's six of one, half a dozen of the other, but I'd rather have the short-term pain.

Ugh, sounds pretty awful. My issue isn't gallstones. I talked about it elsewhere in the thread so I don't want to annoy people by repeating it, but I do understand that sort of pain issue both because I have a nerve disorder and because I had kidney stones last year. I really won the genetic lottery.

Anyway, good luck with your surgery!

Please, I am not a clergyman.

Overall, it's been a pretty easy recovery. The pain is minimal enough that I'm doing okay with one tramadol a couple of times a day and by tomorrow, I'll probably be off the tramadol. The diarrhea has been the worst part so far. And it's been pretty bad, admittedly, but the lack of serious pain is not something I expected. In my case, the gallbladder removal was a last effort at solving my weird issues before I go to the Mayo Clinic. I'll know if it was a success in 1-2 weeks.

Good luck with your surgery! I hope it goes as smoothly as mine.

My only complaint is that my surgeon used a robot on other people but not a robot on me. Why didn't I get a robot?

That would have been nice to hear from my surgeon. Oh well.

Thanks. Honestly, it sounds worse than it feels. I'm not in pain and I feel fine most of the time. It sucks not eating, obviously, but I generally feel okay. That's part of what has made this issue so mysterious.

Do not take the stool softener. Not if you value your underwear.

Listen to what your surgeon says, doubly so if they contradicted your discharge papers

Stool softener is so you can poop after being on opiate pain meds for a while. If you can go without opiates then you don’t need a stool softener.

If you begin to feel constipated, a stool softener will help.

For me it was similar to OP. About a week or two of diarrhea and massive shoulder pain because over the years my posture turned to shit to accommodate the whinebladder.

I appreciate the advice. I spent a couple of years on various opioids at various dosages due to a shitty neurologist trying and failing to treat a nerve disorder, so I'm pretty aware of what withdrawal is like. It helps that I don't really like any of the effects of opioids apart from pain relief. I'll be okay taking it for only 3-4 days and only for pain.

And yeah, I'm doing a follow-up soon after Christmas. They said 1-2 weeks.

My issues were not gallstone issues. I had low function in my gallbladder based on certain metrics which led to mild dyskinesia. But even the surgeon said he only gives it a 50/50 chance of working.

Basically, I have had no solid food since August. I live on Ensure and Gatorade. This is the second time around for that because I couldn't eat solid food for about six weeks starting in February of this year either. It's not nausea, it's a total aversion to food. My doctor described it as like anorexia except with a physical rather than a psychological cause. I also dry heave most mornings when I get up, but nothing has ever come out.

The good news is I haven't heaved in two days. The bad news is that the aversion to food has not abated even slightly and I've gone two days without heaving before. So we'll see what happens. If this doesn't work in 1-2 weeks, it's off to the Mayo Clinic.