Got mine removed yesterday
This is a long story that I would like to share with the community.
I started having RUQ pain late 2018 and did not think much of it since I have high pain tolerance and thought it must be pulled muscle since I play basketball a lot.
June 2021, 12am during peak of Covid in my country I suddenly I suddenly feel a sharp squeezing pain in my whole upper abdomen while drinking warm milk. Went to ER and told that they can’t admit me since they have full capacity and expect other hospitals to be the same as well. I started having some episodes that year and my coworker said that maybe it was just acid (I know it’s not and already believe it’s gallstones) and offered me some antacids. The antacid worked and thought to myself maybe it was just acid lol (it’s not). I did not have any painful attacks since then until fast forward to Nov 2024 when I experienced the same pain again after eating Mexican food. I was driving with 9/10 pain for an hour and bought some antacids and it worked, it was like that for 1 week straight.
Morning of 2nd of December 2024, I was having my coffee in the morning when suddenly I am having the worst pain of my life. I thought this acid is killing me and asked my wife to buy some antacids for me. Spoiler: the antacids didn’t work and asked for an ambulance to bring me to ER where I was shouting my heart out thinking I’m going to die from pain. To summarize, I had gallstones pancreatitis and stayed in the hospital for 6 days and told to come back after a week for lap chole surgery screening. Lol I did not come back and believed my friend who had gallstones pancreatitis in 2017 that this shit can be dissolved with some fasting and apple juice. I maintained a strict diet since then and still get some stomach irritation.
May 4 this year when I started having gastritis like symptoms, the pain was mostly felt in my stomach and can be felt 30 mins to 1 hour after any meals. My body will be in real pain regardless of what I ate. Last Saturday, I told my wife to get my gallbladder checked and possibly removed soon because I can no longer tolerate any food without writhing in pain. Monday came and I requested for CT and was actually scheduled Wednesday after showing my previous medical records. After I got home from the hospital, I suddenly experienced 15 minutes of abdominal pain which eventually subsided, I had 39C fever that night and felt like my eyes are burning, when I woke up I saw my eye sclera was yellow. I freaked out and went to ER, had some imaging tests saw my gallbladder was badly inflamed and 1/3 of it was filled with stones. I was operated 2 days later (yesterday) while waiting for my bilirubin level to go down a bit. I am now 24 hrs post op, wounds hurt but I am glad that gb was gone!