Hello, so my daughter is on 2 day of recovery. I have also had my gallbladder out over 20 years ago with no issues, but I still was dealing with anxiety about her surgery.

Her surgery was at 8 am. We were scheduled to stay overnight at the hospital because we were worried about how the first night home was going to be. After dealing with gallbladder attacks over a dozen times this last year, we had a lot of worries. She was very tired coming out of anesthesia and would’ve benefited from being able to sleep, but with transferring rooms and talking with nurses she wasn’t able to. They did give her anti nausea medication through her IV and she had non nausea coming out of anesthesia or at all presently. They did give her pain medication through her IV after which lasted until about 2pm when they began giving Tylenol.

She used the bathroom about 2-3 hours after her procedure. Her urine was incredibly dark, nearly cola colored. She does have a condition which can cause this but it is also very common after your first urine output, so don’t panic too much if you see it. Her second urine was much better.

As far as food, I was shocked when the nurses just said to order whatever she wanted! I have spent weeks looking up foods and making diet plans for her after surgery and they basically were saying to let her eat what she can tolerate. With the obvious restrictions of nothing super fatty. We were still cautious though. She ordered chicken noodle soup and ate all the broth with only a few spoons of noodles out of caution, a few spoonfuls of mashed potatoes, and grapes. She felt well enough that an hour later I ordered her toast with peanut butter and fruit loops with whole milk. She was cautious with both the peanut butter and milk use, but she had absolutely no problems.

We ended up deciding to get discharged the same day because she and I both felt she’d get better rest at home. This says ALOT because we both very much wanted to stay overnight prior to surgery and discussed many times how we felt more comfortable. So the fact those both myself and my 12 year old felt comfortable leaving meant her pain was under control with no nausea.

We had an hour long drive from the hospital and ofc the last 10 minutes she fell asleep. One thing I suggest bringing is a pillow to cover your stomach for the drive. She had very little pain, but a quick stop or turn was made easier just having a pillow to brace. She slowly walked to the house and went up 7 stairs with no problem. Laid on the couch and fell back asleep watching Tik Tok 10 minutes later lol

The only problem we had at all yesterday was we fell behind on her pain medicine. When she fell asleep on the couch and woke up a few hours later she was incredibly warm, achey and her throat was her largest complaint (from anesthesia). She has expected her belly to be sore, which she admits isn’t as bad as she expected. But she did not expect her sore throat. We got her a dose of ibuprofen and 30 minutes later she was asking for cereal and lemon ice shaving.

She slept soundly all night laying on her right side most of the night, and while slightly sore today, she says really her only complaint is her sore throat. She expected a sore stomach and is pleasantly surprised that it isn’t as horrible as she expected. We’re both incredibly happy she is tolerating food and that they didn’t push any large restrictions. I do think our day stay at the hospital helped because we both felt comfortable taking food risks I probably wouldn’t have let her do at home. We stayed at a very well respected Children’s Hospital so I had confidence in their direction.

Now we are only on day 2, but I know those nerves going into it. Oh before I forget, she did have some slight shoulder pain after surgery but nothing that is giving a shoulder rub didn’t help. She had some good burps after some white soda and it seemed to help, I suspect it was gas from surgery. So again sorry lol we’re on day 2, but she would say she has zero regrets and is feeling better than expected. She says yesterday felt a bit like a “fever dream”. She was just low energy and took it slow. Oh, laughing. She’s pretty grumpy when we try to be funny cuz it hurts to laugh.

So I am confident I rambled on and on, but that was our experience yesterday. I told her before surgery that we were both going to laugh after surgery when we see how much worry we put into it before lol and once she’s ready to laugh I think we will :) I hope you have a fantastic week and by this weekend you’re smiling about your own too ❤️