Gallbladder Removal Surgery: My Honest Experience (2025)

Okay guys, I'm back from my surgery. Sorry if my voice is a bit croaky. They put an oxygen tube down my throat while I was under anaesthetic. This is standard practice just to maintain oxygen levels and help the diaphragm and help to keep me breathing during the operation. So apologies for the croakiness of my voice. But yeah, I'm really quite happy with the whole process today. It was actually a lot quicker than I thought it would be. I'll just give you a rundown of what happened throughout the day. Just so if any of you guys are going for the operation, you probably will have quite a similar experience I had my operation in one of the London NHS hospitals So I'm just going to detail the process just to give you guys a clearer example of what actually happens on the day they give you a lot of information beforehand, but it doesn't really go into specifics and I feel like a more detailed explanation could be really helpful it would have helped me a lot more just to calm my nerves and to help organize myself a bit better so i'm just going to throw it out there hopefully it will help some of you guys so yeah i arrived at the hospital at half seven in the morning this was the earlier of the two check-in times i had to fast from 12 a.m the previous night but i actually fasted from 5 p.m just to make sure as i wasn't too hungry anyway and yeah i just fasted from then i could still drink and they encourage you to drink right up until 7 o'clock for me. So when I arrived, the receptionist checked me in. A nurse then called me in to fill out a form and she gave me a cup of water and a paracetamol to take to pre-empt the pain from the surgery. So I had a small glass of water and a paracetamol. That's the first thing they'll give you at about half seven. And then after that, there's completely no water allowed. So next up I was taken to a waiting room where my anaesthetist had a meeting with me. He was very kind and went into great detail and answered a lot of my questions. He was really helpful and he helped to ease my mind as I was quite tense and nervous for the operation. But he really reassured me and he just double checked that I had completed the fasting. That I was not allergic to anything or taking any medication. So that was quite a quick 10 minute conversation. Next up the nurse came back in and she took my temperature. blood pressure and pulse rate and then she took my height and weight again which was good because since the last weigh-in that I had at the hospital for my pre-op assessment I had lost a further five or six kg so I was happy they re-recorded my weight. I also let the anaesthetist know about my weight loss just to make sure in case he needed to make adjustments but the nurse took the information anyway. So after that I then spoke to the surgeons. That would be performing the operation, they drew a nice little diagram to explain what would happen. They explained all the risks, the risk factor is not too high but they have to explain all the certain risks that can happen during the operation just to cover themselves. I then had to sign a consent form. After that the nurse gave me two gowns to get changed into. So I'd wear the first one with the arms going in and the gown facing forward. She then asked me to take off my underwear and she gave me a replacement underwear which no one warned me the whole front section is cut out so you're fully exposed so just a little word of warning for you there and then another gown you put your arm through and the rest of the gown is on the back. They also gave me sock stockings as well just to help with the blood clot prevention and they gave me non-slip socks which I wore over the top. After that I was seated in the room. And I waited about 20 or 30 minutes. I was then called up by a nurse and taken through to another room where the anaesthetic team were waiting for me. I then had to lie down on a bed, so I removed the front gown so they could put the ECG stickers on me. Thank The anaesthetist. Put a catheter into my left hand and they also gave me an oxygen mask just to make sure I had you so lots of oxygen going into the operation and then I was injected with the anaesthetic. much I don't really remember falling asleep, I was going to try to fight it just to see if I could for but yeah it really just knocks you out. having It reminded me of the gas and air that I had during a gallstone attack that the ambulance guys gave me. It felt a bit me. dreamy or spacey and then I just nodded off within I would say 10 seconds of receiving the drug. Okay and then the operation happened and the next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room. I remember waking up really fresh and it felt like I had just been asleep. The anaesthetic team was standing around me and a couple of nurses and straight away I asked how did it go? Was everything okay? The anaesthetist said it was all fine all perfect and the operation was a success. So I was really, that was my main concern. I was a bit worried there may be complications or they may need to make a further incision and open me up completely due to the gallbladder positioning or any complications like that. So I was really relieved. I was also quite surprised at how fresh I felt waking up. I thought I would feel really groggy and quite tired just based on videos that i've seen online. it felt like i didn't even have any anesthetic and i could have got out of bed that moment and just walked around. i was sharing the room with four or five other people and When they woke up from anaesthetic, they felt quite groggy and half asleep and a lot of them snoring. After the team had checked in with me, the nurse asked if I was feeling any pain and I was. It felt quite similar to the actual gallbladder gallstone attack pain, but it's a much milder kind of dull ache version. I would describe the pain as six or seven out of ten and she gave me this drug to take just to take the pain off. Here it is. Hopefully you can read that. But yeah after I took that drug the pain wore off within about 30 minutes. It was still there but like a two out of ten at that point so that was completely manageable. I was then told I would have a four hour wait in the recovery area so I just kind of settled in, tried to rest a bit. I couldn't really rest because there's so much going on and so many noises and beeps and alarms and People waking up and shouting in pain so I wish I'd bought some earphones with me just to drown out the noise and listen to some music or watch a little TV show or something just to pass the time. Also all of my belongings were in a locker. I put my phone inside my rucksack so the nurse apparently is not allowed to open people's rucksacks so she had to bring my whole rucksack to me. I had to open it, take out the phone and then she had to bring it all the way back. So yeah that's a bit of a mistake there as well I didn't know about that but when you're leaving your items in the locker make sure just to leave your phone on top so it's easily accessible for the nurses just so they can grab it. About three hours into the four hour wait they kind of sat me up and got me walking around and they agreed that I was ready to go home so they started the preparations to send me home early. They had one request which was that I passed urine before I left, which I did with no problems. They also offered me water, Coffee or tea and I had a cup of black coffee and they gave me three biscuits to have as well just to make sure that I was not vomiting and that I could keep my food down. So I had all of that and once I'd passed my urine and let the nurse know, they said I was good to go. So they sent me back to the changing room, I opened up my locker, I got changed back into my normal clothes and then I called a family member to pick me up and after about After about 10 minutes I was walking out of the hospital. And heading home. So I arrived at half seven and I was out about two o'clock I would say. So yeah I was really quite impressed with the whole speed and efficiency of the whole day. The only couple of things that I would change would be to bring earphones with me and also leave my phone in a more accessible place in my locker. But overall I feel like the day went really well. I'm not in too much pain. They advised me to keep up with the pain medication for the next day or two. Just as the local and general anaesthetic wears off, I may start to feel more pain. So it's a good idea just to keep on top of the painkillers. But overall, I was really happy with the day. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments and I'll reply to them. But yeah, I'll update you with my progress and thanks for watching.