Pain in old gallbladder surgery site

Posted by mikehow @mikehow, Jan 22, 2017

I had my gall bladder out 40 years ago, the old major abdominal surgery way, with an 8 inch scar and a 1 week hospital stay. I have had no problems for 40 years,but now, right along the scar line, I get occasional sharp pains, almost stabbing. It feels like it is right under the skin line. Could it be that the internal staples are shifting after all these years?

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@ryanrayna1

It has been 7 years since my gall bladder surgery. Right under one of the incisions (lapriscopic) on my side I get horrible cramping when the muscle is strained in a certain position. When in a "crunch" position such as sitting on my office chair and having to bend down to pick up something that fell under my chair. Any kind of strain that would go beyond a regular situp for any sustained amount of time it feels like the muscles on that side, the closest muscle group name I could put a name to is the one in the title of this post, are twisting inside my body. The only relief I have once the flipping and twisting feeling has started (which is accompanied with extreme pain) is to straighten out as far as possible and stretch that muscle to the utmost, and even then, once the cramp has subsided, the muscle remains sore for days afterwards. I have spoken to my nurse practitioner (I am in the Canadian Military, we dont have regular doctors like they do in civi land. We dont have family doctors, we have nurses and then if you are deemed sick enough, you get to see a Medical Officer) about it and she thinks it is just scar tissue that attached to the muscle from the wall of the scar and there is nothing to do about it. I cant imagine living the rest of my life the way I have the last few years, terrified if I have to pick anything up, go to the bathroom, or have an orgasm (Yes, its happened then too, which adds yet another component of fear to it) that I'll be in crippling pain. Any help, or anyone who might be experiencing the same thing who might have some idea's would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.

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I just had my gallbladder out 10 days ago and am having a painful muscle spasm under the incision at my rib cage. It just started, happens when I sit to drive, bend a certain way or if I touch the incision spot. Is this the normal healing process or something more? I have 4 incisions and am not having this issue with the other 3. I'm scared to even touch that spot. It's like the muscle cramps and is incredibly painful. I have to stretch my arm up over my head for relief. Even then it is still sore, but not spasms.

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@kwatkins

I just had my gallbladder out 10 days ago and am having a painful muscle spasm under the incision at my rib cage. It just started, happens when I sit to drive, bend a certain way or if I touch the incision spot. Is this the normal healing process or something more? I have 4 incisions and am not having this issue with the other 3. I'm scared to even touch that spot. It's like the muscle cramps and is incredibly painful. I have to stretch my arm up over my head for relief. Even then it is still sore, but not spasms.

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I had a cholecystectomy about three months ago, everything normal, no complications.
I had a post-surgery evaluation appointment after 10 days. Didn't your doctor schedule this for you? You should have also received complete post-surgery instructions from your surgeon....as I did. My instructions clearly stated (about five times) to call if you have any swelling, intense pain, or unusual healing activity. What's holding you back from calling your doctor about this?

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Well, not sure if you were replying because you had a helpful suggestion or because you felt the need to parent me? As I said, it JUST STARTED. Thought I would post here because I saw that people would reply with suggestions, things they had experienced, thoughts, etc.

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I have abdominal adhesions from multiple surgeries and have serious pain and digestive problems along with intermittent numbness in my arms and face, random intermittent double vision, digestive issues like gastroparesis and constipation....random blood pressure spikes and drops with or without palpitations...bloating...the symptoms go on...range of motion in my torso has been narrowing over time as I feel like I am slowly being strangled to death on the inside! Bending to tie my shoes causes something to pull and spasm and the pain is excruciating!
Gallbladder removal was one of my surgeries:(

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40 years is a long time.Im going to assume you are somebody probably above the age of 50,possibly 60 years old+.
Perhaps you either have some Fatty Liver issue or possibly even Cirrhosis of the Liver or possibly Cancer..
You never had any issues until you said 40 years later..Hmmm..Symptoms would of have starter years ago from the very moment you got your Gallbladder removed--not 40 years later.🤔

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I had my gallbladder removed two years go and it was emergency surgery, also open surgery ( apparently I had tons of stones). Stayed in hospital for one long week. My problem is my tummy is extremely distended especially right below breasts and the long incision. Most of the time the scar area is very sensitive. I’ve had two cat scans with everything normal. Dr says I could go through another surgery to remove tissue but I don’t like that option. Just wondering if diet or exercise could help this problem. Or if anyone else has experienced this.
Thank you!

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@martyspeicher123

I had my gallbladder removed two years go and it was emergency surgery, also open surgery ( apparently I had tons of stones). Stayed in hospital for one long week. My problem is my tummy is extremely distended especially right below breasts and the long incision. Most of the time the scar area is very sensitive. I’ve had two cat scans with everything normal. Dr says I could go through another surgery to remove tissue but I don’t like that option. Just wondering if diet or exercise could help this problem. Or if anyone else has experienced this.
Thank you!

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I might have had a similiar experience and I don't know that diet alone would help, but it might. I had kidney surgery, and my PCP says I have "reactive scars," meaning that the nerves are more sensitive to touch/temperature. I also learned from my pelvic PT that scar tissue doesn't have much discretion, it can build up and build up and build up and attach itself to other tissues, and that can cause some restrictions and reactivity. It can even contribute to slowed motility or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), which can also cause bloating/distention.

I saw a pelvic physical therapist for help. It's something a regular PT might be aware of, and I'm not sure if you're familiar (I wasn't!), but pelvic PTs (sometimes referred to as "Women's Health PTs," but that's a misnomer because almost all of them treat both men and women) are specialists in abdominal pain (including abdominal surgeries), disorders of the pelvis (which can include abdominal pain, bloating, low back pain, bowel/bladder, and hip issues) and have the "regular" PT experience.

I've had two surgeries: The first, an open spinal fusion and a bone graft across my sacrum/pelvis to help graft the fusion, and second year's later, a kidney removed. The kidney surgery was a laparoscopic surgery, but there are 5 small incisions from the ports and one larger incision about 6 inches long below my belly where they removed the kidney.

I started having abdominal pain and distention over 10 years after the kidney surgery and was sent to GI, but everything screened normal, so I got diagnosed with "functional dyspepsia," which is basically like the upper GI version of IBS (so no bowel issues, mostly stomach pain and distention and difficulty eating).

The thing is that bloating and distention can be caused by a bunch of different things. Like with most things, they always say it's important to figure out the cause, but it can be almost impossible with things like this, which is annoying. I found the book "The Bloated Belly Whisperer" (corny name, but it's by a GI dietician), which helped me narrow things down. You could consider seeing a gastroenterologist, but that could take a really long time...

I worked with a GI dietician, and she was able to help me with some adjustments to help somewhat minimize the bloating and distention, but restrictive diets really didn't help me and only made me more susceptible to disordered thoughts about eating. But she did have some good ideas I still implement, like eating smaller meals and choosing things that are easier to digest.

But working with the pelvic PT helped the most because she was able to identify where my scars were more reactive and where the tissue was thickened and also teach me scar desensitization techniques and an abdominal massage I could do on my own to help with motility. This is just one of the first pages that came up when I Googled, but she taught me some things like this: https://myhealth.alberta.ca/breast-cancer-surgery/at-home/scar-massage

You may need to try to determine if what you're feeling is more physiological (like if it's the scar tissue) or biological (i.e. SIBO) or both. For me, it was both.

Hope that helps at least a little!

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@emo

I might have had a similiar experience and I don't know that diet alone would help, but it might. I had kidney surgery, and my PCP says I have "reactive scars," meaning that the nerves are more sensitive to touch/temperature. I also learned from my pelvic PT that scar tissue doesn't have much discretion, it can build up and build up and build up and attach itself to other tissues, and that can cause some restrictions and reactivity. It can even contribute to slowed motility or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), which can also cause bloating/distention.

I saw a pelvic physical therapist for help. It's something a regular PT might be aware of, and I'm not sure if you're familiar (I wasn't!), but pelvic PTs (sometimes referred to as "Women's Health PTs," but that's a misnomer because almost all of them treat both men and women) are specialists in abdominal pain (including abdominal surgeries), disorders of the pelvis (which can include abdominal pain, bloating, low back pain, bowel/bladder, and hip issues) and have the "regular" PT experience.

I've had two surgeries: The first, an open spinal fusion and a bone graft across my sacrum/pelvis to help graft the fusion, and second year's later, a kidney removed. The kidney surgery was a laparoscopic surgery, but there are 5 small incisions from the ports and one larger incision about 6 inches long below my belly where they removed the kidney.

I started having abdominal pain and distention over 10 years after the kidney surgery and was sent to GI, but everything screened normal, so I got diagnosed with "functional dyspepsia," which is basically like the upper GI version of IBS (so no bowel issues, mostly stomach pain and distention and difficulty eating).

The thing is that bloating and distention can be caused by a bunch of different things. Like with most things, they always say it's important to figure out the cause, but it can be almost impossible with things like this, which is annoying. I found the book "The Bloated Belly Whisperer" (corny name, but it's by a GI dietician), which helped me narrow things down. You could consider seeing a gastroenterologist, but that could take a really long time...

I worked with a GI dietician, and she was able to help me with some adjustments to help somewhat minimize the bloating and distention, but restrictive diets really didn't help me and only made me more susceptible to disordered thoughts about eating. But she did have some good ideas I still implement, like eating smaller meals and choosing things that are easier to digest.

But working with the pelvic PT helped the most because she was able to identify where my scars were more reactive and where the tissue was thickened and also teach me scar desensitization techniques and an abdominal massage I could do on my own to help with motility. This is just one of the first pages that came up when I Googled, but she taught me some things like this: https://myhealth.alberta.ca/breast-cancer-surgery/at-home/scar-massage

You may need to try to determine if what you're feeling is more physiological (like if it's the scar tissue) or biological (i.e. SIBO) or both. For me, it was both.

Hope that helps at least a little!

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Thank you so much for taking the time to help educate me with your situation and I do intend to to see a PT. Actually, the PT that came to my home suggested I do massage the area but I thought all of the swelling would just go away and it didn’t.
This was my first surgery - ever, and I was probably a little naive thinking things would go back to normal.

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@martyspeicher123

Thank you so much for taking the time to help educate me with your situation and I do intend to to see a PT. Actually, the PT that came to my home suggested I do massage the area but I thought all of the swelling would just go away and it didn’t.
This was my first surgery - ever, and I was probably a little naive thinking things would go back to normal.

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You’re welcome. I hope you’re able to find something that helps. It was 7 years after my kidney surgery when a PT finally told me: “Just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s normal,” and that it could get better. It’s not the way it was, but I’ve made progress.

Especially in an emergency, I feel like physicians/providers aren’t really thinking about what happens after the diagnosis is “solved,” that most things have some sort of ripple effect.

i.e. I was told the kidney surgery was “minimally invasive” and most people are back to usual activities within two weeks. That was laughable! But I believed them.

Wishing you all the best.

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@ryanrayna1

It has been 7 years since my gall bladder surgery. Right under one of the incisions (lapriscopic) on my side I get horrible cramping when the muscle is strained in a certain position. When in a "crunch" position such as sitting on my office chair and having to bend down to pick up something that fell under my chair. Any kind of strain that would go beyond a regular situp for any sustained amount of time it feels like the muscles on that side, the closest muscle group name I could put a name to is the one in the title of this post, are twisting inside my body. The only relief I have once the flipping and twisting feeling has started (which is accompanied with extreme pain) is to straighten out as far as possible and stretch that muscle to the utmost, and even then, once the cramp has subsided, the muscle remains sore for days afterwards. I have spoken to my nurse practitioner (I am in the Canadian Military, we dont have regular doctors like they do in civi land. We dont have family doctors, we have nurses and then if you are deemed sick enough, you get to see a Medical Officer) about it and she thinks it is just scar tissue that attached to the muscle from the wall of the scar and there is nothing to do about it. I cant imagine living the rest of my life the way I have the last few years, terrified if I have to pick anything up, go to the bathroom, or have an orgasm (Yes, its happened then too, which adds yet another component of fear to it) that I'll be in crippling pain. Any help, or anyone who might be experiencing the same thing who might have some idea's would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.

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I had my gallbladder removed in 2021 and this is exactly the pain I have and my doctor did testing and ultrasounds and found nothing wrong. It's absolutely horrible and everyone around me has no idea why I'm such in horrible pain when it cramps up like that. Usually coughing bent over does it for me.

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