Tag Archives: Cholecystectomy

Whip It Out?

St.Thomas’ Hospital – Outpatients’ waiting area in Gassiott House

Friday 10th November 2017 – St.Thomas’ Hospital

My second appointment with the Upper GI surgeon to discuss a cholecystectomy. For some reason I was convinced it was at 10:40am and had arranged to be in Whitechapel at 1:00pm to attend a medical research meeting. When the text message reminder came through it showed the appointment was actually booked for 11:40am. If the clinic was running late then it could be a rush to get the other side of London on time.

I arrived early at St.Thomas’ so that I could drop off a sample at the path lab for calprotectin testing and to call into the Endoscopy Unit to ask why they had written to me about booking a procedure that had already been carried out the previous week.

When I arrived at the Outpatients Waiting Area I worked out that as long as the clinic was running within 30 minutes of the alloted times I should be OK. The large screen showed the clinic was indeed running “approx 30 minutes late”. My definition of “approx 30 minutes late” does not stretch to over an hour, which is when my name finally appeared telling me which room to go to.

The surgeon apologised for the delay and for facing away from me as he read my notes on his PC. He asked how I was feeling. I explained that I was still getting the pain/ache on my right hand side but I believed it to be from scar tissue/adhesions after my ileostomy reversal. He asked if it the pain was worse when my bowels were full. I confirmed that it was and he replied that this tied in with my theory.

He ran through the results of the recent MRI Pancreas scan. It showed that no further gallstones had made their way into my biliary duct and that there was slight thickening of the gallbladder wall. More worryingly varices had grown around the gallbladder. He explained that this was to be expected due to the blockage of my portal vein and the blood flow needing to find alternative routes. The presence of these veins would make potential surgery more hazardous.

They had discussed my case in their Multi Disciplinary Meeting at St.Thomas’ but there was no clear cut decision on whether surgery should go ahead. He wanted to further discuss my case at a meeting with his liver specialist colleagues at Kings College Hospital.

I explained that I wasn’t against surgery, per se, but whilst I was feeling fit and generally well I would rather postpone it until absolutely necessary. We went on to discuss the risks of waiting. The major one being a further blockage of the biliary duct which could lead to pancreatitis (serious).

He stated that in a “normal” patient, with no other complications, the usual treatment would be removal of the gallbladder by keyhole surgery. Because of my concurrent conditions and previous surgery it would not be possible to use keyhole techniques. The choices therefore were to operate now to prevent a problem in the future “that might never happen” or to postpone the decision and review again in 6 months time. He was minded to go with this second option and that was also my preference.

I asked if, in the meantime, there were any measures I should take such as the adoption of a special diet. He replied that this would be appropriate if I was overweight but that was clearly not the case. I also asked about whether I should be avoiding alcohol. He said that he didn’t see any need for this providing I did everything in moderation, after all “life is for living!”

He handed me a 6 month follow-up request form to hand into reception but said if I needed to see him sooner then not to hestitate to call their senior nurse co-ordinator who would make the necessary arrangements. With that the consultation was over. He shook my hand and said goodbye

I left St.Thomas’ at exactly 1:00pm. Big Ben was chiming the hour as I made my way towards Westminster Bridge. 35 minutes later I arrived at my meeting which proved fascinating and enlightening.

When I thought back to my appointment I realised there were a number of questions that I had intended to ask. I will put them in an email to the co-ordinator :

How long is the waiting time for elective surgery?

How long is likely recovery/recuperation time from open surgery?

Please could I have a copy of the MRI Pancreas scan report?

Was the appointment that had recently come through from the Haemophilia Unit as a result of the Multi Disciplinary Meeting?

Next visit to St.Thomas’ – 19th December 2017 for my pre-Christmas esophageal varices check up. This will be my tenth endoscopy since late 2012. The taste of the burnt banana spray doesn’t get any easier to bear

Gallbladder Surgery? It’s Not That Simple In Your Case

Friday 22nd September 2017 – St.Thomas’ Hospital

My second outpatient trip to London in a week and, unlike Wednesday, a beautiful clear morning without a cloud in the sky. I needed to be at St.Thomas’ by 9:00 to see a surgeon about having my gallbladder removed. It was an early start and my first waking thought was to wonder if eating a complete can of baked beans for dinner the night before had been such a good preparation for a journey on public transport. Hopefully a couple of extra Loperamide would do the trick.

It wasn’t until I parked my car near the station that I remembered where my mobile ‘phone was – on the dining room table. Was this going to be a liberating or frustrating experience? How was I going to let my wife know what the surgeon had said? How was I going to let my brunch companion know where and when we should meet? (At least I had my camera with me).

Having spent the train journey pondering this dilemma I arrived at St.Thomas’ outpatients’ department without having reviewed my list of questions or the copies of the ultrasound scans and follow-up letters I took with me. After a few minutes my name appeared on the laser display board and I made my way to the room indicated.

St.Thomas’ Hospital – opposite the Houses of Parliament

I had been expecting to meet the surgeon himself but was met by his registrar. I explained to her that I really wanted to see the surgeon and she said she would ensure I could spend a few minutes with him before I left. She started to go through my medical history. To speed up the process I produced a copy of the diagram I had drawn showing the key points in 40 years of Crohn’s and its companions. She was very impressed and no doubt I started beaming like a Cheshire cat. That soon stopped with the next set of questions.

40 Years of Medical History – on a page

I thought I was there to discuss whether surgery was a good idea, or not, and the possible complications. She was clearly running through the standard pre-operative assessment checklist – “Are you mobile? Can you wash and dress yourself? Can you manage household chores on your own?” I answered “Yes” to all the above but of course the answer to the last one was “No, I can’t. That’s why I got married”  (I’m joking!). I told her that my preferred option was no surgery until absolutely necessary as it would be too disruptive at present.

We then started to discuss my medical history in detail. She examined my abdomen and complimented me on the quality of my scars. At this point it was obvious that surgery wasn’t going to be simple. She went off to see if the surgeon was available, taking the diagram with her. I think they must have then discussed its contents as about 10 minutes later they both returned and the surgeon introduced himself. He also liked my diagram and quickly ran through the key points.

He asked me to describe the circumstances that led up to me being there. I recounted the incident of violent shivering and turning yellow that occured at the end of January. He asked if I felt any pain (everyone has asked that one) and I was able to say I felt nothing at all. From that he concluded that a small gallstone must have temporarily lodged in my bile duct, long enough to cause the symptoms, and then quickly passed through before the pain started.

I went through the discussions I had had at my local hospital (East Surrey) and their suggestion that I needed to be seen by a specialist liver unit. I wondered why one of their concerns was liver cirrhosis? He replied that whenever a patient appears with esophageal varices / portal hypertension / portal vein thrombosis then it would be assumed that liver cirrhosis was the most likely cause. My latest Fibroscan result was 7.8 suggesting that cirrhosis was at a low level. I explained the hepatologist’s theory that the PVT had been caused by peritonitis following perforated bowel surgery in 1979. He thought this was very feasible.

Usually gallbladder removal is a same day operation using keyhole surgery. In my case it would be a lot more complicated. He noted my wish to delay surgery for as long as possible and was minded to agree with me. He wanted to present my case to their departmental review meeting to get other opinions. In the meantime they would arrange for me to have an MRCP scan (magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography), a targetted MRI scan that looks at the biliary and pancreatic ducts. This would determine if any other gallstones were lodged in the bile duct. He asked me to book a further appointment for 6 weeks time so we could discuss the results and the meeting’s conclusions.

I had some final questions :

Will a cholecystectomy make my bile acid malabsorption worse? “We simply don’t know”.

Am I likely to suffer from post operative ileus (lockdown)? “Possibly”.

If we leave surgery until it is absolutely necessary what could the consequences be? “Anything from pain to having to prepare one’s relatives for bad news”.

Timescales for elective surgery? “Surgery would be carried out in the specialist Liver Unit at Kings College Hospital so the timescales would depend on their waiting list”.

I left any further surgical questions for our next meeting. His final action was to introduce me to their senior nurse co-ordinator who acted as a single point of contact for their patients. If I had any questions or concerns then I should call or email him.

….and my ‘phone predicament? Don’t bother with BT public telephone boxes – they take your money and then don’t work. When I arrived at St.Thomas’ I explained my problem to a very helpful guy behind the Patient Transport desk who allowed me to use his extension to make the necessary calls after my appointment.

To read the follow-up post please click the link below :

Next appointment – Friday 10th November