Gall Bladder: What Did They Do?

Here's a little more information on gall bladder removal, a procedure known in the medical profession as a cholecystectomy:-

Removal of the Gall Bladder

In open cholecystectomy the gallbladder is removed through one large incision in your abdomen. This technique is called open surgery. It is a more invasive operation than keyhole surgery. You need to be in hospital for longer and it takes longer to recover.

Open surgery is now usually only used if there are medical reasons why laparoscopic cholecystectomy cannot be safely performed, or if the surgeon decides that it would be safer to switch to open surgery during the procedure (this is known as conversion).

Here's a diagram.

Here's another diagram, showing what they had to do.

This is what I'd hoped to see upon recovery:-

Unfortunately, this is what greeted me when I came up out of anaesthetic:-

Still, the end result is the same - freedom from that abdominal pain, and renewed vigour and joie de vivre, after what had felt like a lingering shadow looming over me for nearly a year.

Totally worth it.

The New Normal

I still find it hard to get into the new normal.

I look at my long scar, and feel along the ridge of the length of it like one of those Roman fortifications, a miniature Offa's Dyke stretching across my abdomen, curling downwards at one end.

I'm getting used to a body now slimmer than before, with the abdominal swelling removed. I'm getting used to loose-fitting clothes. I'm getting used to having a lighter step.

Most of all, I'm getting used to not having a lingering abdominal pain.

It's a new normal; but while these scars are still definitely taking a lot of effort to get used to, it is a normal that I think I can enjoy getting used to.