I was asked to describe my surgery and recovery, so here you go. I had a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, done as an outpatient procedure. The day of the surgery, I arrived at the hospital very early with Tiffany. They had me change into a gown and put my stuff away in a patient locker (since Tiffany had to head to work at some point, and my mom would be arriving from MA to take over surgery buddy duties). Then we spent a couple of hours in the ambulatory surgery area, watching bad morning TV and waiting for my turn in the OR. I also chatted with my surgeon and anesthesiologist, and signed some paperwork.
Eventually the time came, and I headed into the OR, which I remember being very cold. I found it kind of weird that the table was actually crucifix-shaped, but I imagine it makes things easier, so whatever. I was awake for a few minutes in the OR while my surgery team inserted an IV, made sure I was comfortable and in the right position, etc. I remember getting a little panicky when they put an oxygen mask on my face and finished strapping me down, but I was very quickly unconscious after that so it wasn’t a big deal.
I think I had expected to wake up in a dreamy drug haze in the recovery room, as I did after my ERCP. But in fact I woke up still strapped to the table in the OR, in a surprising amount of pain, with my surgeon still standing over me and people talking about me like I wasn’t there. My first thought was that I had woken up while the surgery was still happening, but that was not the case. No lie, this was the suckiest part of the entire gallbladder experience even though it only lasted 10 - 15 minutes. I think I tried making vague noises of distress and pain but was still too groggy to talk, so I just kind of had to wait while they undid the various restraints and got me on a stretcher so I could be moved to the recovery room. Someone noticed I was awake at one point and asked me what my pain level was, and I said “MUHHHHHHH.”
In the recovery room I was granted the privacy of a curtain, a spoon full of ice chips for my intensely dry mouth, and delicious intravenous painkillers that quickly put me in a better mood. My mom and my surgeon both arrived, and I was told that the surgery had gone well and I would be leaving soon. In fact, I was only in the recovery room for perhaps 45 minutes total - they had me get dressed as soon as I could sit up and drink some apple juice. This was intensely painful, even with the drugs, and I regretted not going with my initial instinct to wear pajamas to the hospital. The waistband of my jeans rested on or near three of my four incisions and it was not fun.
At this point I was fairly lightheaded but could walk a little, so my mom took me to my apartment and got me into bed before going out to fill my prescriptions. The drugs controlled the pain quite well but moving was still very painful, so I spent the rest of the day in bed, sipping water and trying to avoid getting up to pee.
This phase of the recovery period lasted maybe three or four days, with each day getting increasingly better. Tiffany came to stay with me during this time and did all my housework and cooking for me, and I am extremely grateful for it because there really just wasn’t much I could do. I lay on the couch or in bed, took my Perococet, and read or watched Netflix. I was advised to stick to clear liquids for the first 24 hours or so, and this wasn’t hard as I had no appetite. After that I started slowly re-introducing bland, low-fat foods and didn’t have significant problems.
The biggest unanticipated problem was that the Percocet completely prevented me from pooping for something like five days. I did not enjoy this at all.
After the first few days, I felt much better. I stopped taking painkillers. I could walk as long as I was careful and slow, and three of my four incisions healed quickly and painlessly. The fourth incision, the one in my navel, caused me pain for about two weeks but is now completely healed, and the other three are just scars. I went back to work exactly a week after surgery, and while it has taken a while to regain my old stamina and energy level, I now feel basically fine and healthy.
