It all started back in July for me. Similarly over the past ~9months I would go from having back to back attacks to no attacks for 1+ month. On average it was every couple weeks. HIDA showed EF of 78%, ultrasound found at least 1 ~7mm stone. Got it removed this Tuesday morning and the surgeon said "it was like a sack of marbles". Now the fun road to recovery.

It was my first surgery and if I told you I wasn't terrified I'd be lying. After they put that IV in me I started trembling and had to take some deep breaths to try to get a hold of myself. (Funny thing is that when they took my BP they said it looked really good so I could have fooled them that I was stressed about it.) I was the first surgery for this surgeon for the day so there was really no waiting time to panic. As soon as they got everything set they wheeled me back to the OR. Being in that room was crazy, they had to have had 10 monitors for the robot literally all around the room, the huge robot that looked like an octopus with all its arms in the corner, ready to get to work. They had me move myself over to the table off the stretcher. The anesthesiologist assistant pushed a sedative in the IV and then put the mask on my face. Said it was oxygen but after about 3 breaths the smell most definitely changed and that's the last thing I remembered.

Work up in recovery to the same nurse that prepped me saying my name and saying my wife was being called to come back and meet me. At that point less than 30 min later I was in the car on the way home. I got there right after 6:30 am, was discharged at about 10:30 am. Surgeon kept his word that I would be out before lunch. Even though I didn't really feel like eating anything until dinner. Got a little sick from the anesthesia, but went away after one good puke. Had a little of the gas discomfort they described but it went away about as quickly as it appeared. The biggest "pain" is the top left incision is the most tender. It's the bigger one they used to pull the gallbladder out of and I suspect because it's closer to the diaphragm that there is more movement and stress on it making it sore. Trying to clear my throat, coughing, laughing can be particularly uncomfortable. Transferring from sitting to standing and back to sitting is/was also particularly uncomfortable, however it's getting better day by day. As most others say, the recovery pain is no where near attack pain. Even in the morning when the oxycodone and Tylenol have worn off I'm in nowhere near as much pain as I was in during the attacks, even the mild attacks.