A few days before school holiday started, Teng Hong had sore-throat and later passed the germ to mummy (me). I was having fever and chill that night when hubby suddenly woke me up in the middle of the night. It was 7th June 2010, 2am! He told me to take him to a nearby 24 hours clinic. He had severe chest discomfort, heart burn, nausea and vomiting but nothing came out, only the gas.
The doctor gave him injection and some medicines to stop the vomiting, gastric and wind. He said hubby had food poisoning.
On the way home, hubby asked me to send him to Sime Darby Medical Centre Subang Jaya (previously known as Subang Jaya Medical Centre); the discomfort seemed to get worse.
Arrived at the Emergency, the medical officer examined hubby and gave him a painkiller injection. One and a half hour later they sent him to ward for further diagnosis. He felt sleepy soon after the injection and I went home to get some rest after shivering the whole night in hospital.
In the morning, there was no more pain and the nurse sent hubby for Abdomen Ultrasound. They found out his gallbladder is swelling but no definite stone is identified. However, tiny stones especially in the neck of the gallbladder may be missed. This may be suggestive of cholecystitis.
Hubby never had gallbladder attack before, no such pain as what he just experienced. All he had were 3 times of mild discomfort like having gastric and heartburn within the past month. These were actually the symptoms of gallbladder problem.
In the afternoon, hubby had an endoscopy followed by ECG. Both results are OK. Doctor then prescribed him antibiotic and some gastric/wind medicines; ask him to go back to control next week. Hubby later discharged in the evening.
The next day everything was fine until midnight. Hubby started to feel the discomfort again; this time the attack was worse than the first one. At 6am, after the continuous pain for six hours, he woke me up to send him to hospital. Again the medical officer gave him a painkiller injection and sent him to ward, waiting for the doctor to visit him. This time the pain attack didn’t last.
The specialist who handled hubby previously was on leave, so another on call specialist visited hubby about three hours later. He examined and did some pressing at hubby’s right lower chest (beneath the rib cage) where the gallbladder is located. Hubby was having cold sweat. The specialist said hubby’s gallbladder may be infected and need to be removed. The antibiotic given by the other specialist couldn’t help anymore. He then recommended a surgeon to hubby.
Soon the surgeon visited hubby. He examined hubby, same as told by the other specialist, he said hubby’s gallbladder may be infected and need to be removed. He explained to hubby about the gallbladder removal surgery, the side effects and method: Laparoscopic and Open surgery. Open surgery will be done if Laparoscopic couldn’t work well. He then handed out a letter of surgery agreement to hubby to sign if hubby agrees to undergo the surgery. Thinking of the unbearable pain and infected gallbladder, hubby signed it as he had no choice! The severe pain didn’t last; he was not able to rest even after the Pethidine injection. Pethidine is an analgesic used for relief of moderate to severe pain.
An hour later the nurse sent hubby to have Chest X-Ray.
It was an emergency gallbladder removal surgery, so hubby was prepared for the surgery as soon as the Operating Theatre was available. The surgery was done at around 6pm; it took an hour to get the gallbladder out. About two hours later the surgeon came out and told me the surgery was done and everything was alright. Half an hour later the nurse pushed hubby out from the Operating Theatre; he was reclining on the bed, feeling much better after 18 hours of torture. What a relief! It was 9th June 2010 8.45pm.!
Three days later hubby discharged from Sime Darby Medical Centre Subang Jaya. Total medical bills for the two admissions are almost RM15k.
The infected gallbladder and the small stone
HistoPathology of the infected gallbladder showed there is no evidence of granuloma or malignancy.
After came home from hospital hubby was on a semi solid diet for about a week. Life is pretty normal after the gallbladder removal but in future he should avoid too greasy and too spicy food because this food may cause some discomfort.
