Open surgery to remove a dislodged gallstone

The abdominal pain started last December 16 but after a massage, the pain was gone. Then that sunday, my sister in law told me she has gallstones. As she described her symptions, it sounded like mine. So on Monday, I visited Philcare, my HMO for 23 years. An ultrasound of my abdomen on Tuesday showed I had 5 stones which were only .33 cm and didn’t need surgery, however my blood tests showed I had bacterial infection.

The extreme pain started at 10:00 AM today. I cannot describe the excruciating pain. Cold sweat was all over my body. There was no way the pain would go away even with two Buscopan pills. By 11:30, my husband drove me to the emergency room. There were so many people in the ER that I wasn’t attended to at once. I begged for pain reliever. The gave me IV for abdominal pain. The pain refused to go away. They tried Demerol. Pain still didn’t go away. I asked for more and the doctor gave me higher dose of Demerol which relieved me but only for 3 hours.

The gastroenterlogist assessed the problem to be biliary colic probably due to gall bladder stones. Repeat ultrasound was done this afternoon–distended gall bladder found. Doctor thinks a small stone could have lodged in the common bile duct this morning.

This pain I was told is due to a dislodged gall stone. My liver, pancreas enzymes, were elevated. My blood sugar shot up to 379 due to body stress. My surgeon says he will try laproscopy with open surgery as the last course of action. Then change of plans..it will be open surgery just when the pain and tenderness is totally gone.

What gives? I told attending doctors to please check my blood sugar as it is still high and might not be ideal for surgery.

I am a bit sad that I won’t get to meet M who is flying in from Australia. Butch will stay with me. L will fly as scheduled.

Surgery is scheduled at 8:00 AM 12 noon, December 23. I hope they find the dislodged stone and that I recover fast.