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The Saga of the Gallant Gallstone
| OldHLSDude | 02/16/26 |
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Date: February 16th, 2026 2:05 PM Author: OldHLSDude Brothers, I am going to regale you with a story of my gallbladder. One night about three weeks ago I ordered Doordash Mexican food. Afterward I felt full and uncomfortable, but that’s Mexican food, right? It progressed to severe abdominal pain radiating around to my back. I got excruciating muscle aches plus violent chills and stayed awake all night. Then the projectile vomiting started, with blood. Thinking this was unusual I dialed 911 and got myself transported by ambulance to the hospital. Mrs. OldHLSDude was so freaked out she couldn’t manage to dial 911 so I did it myself.
I spent 6 days in the very efficient and well equipped hospital. For the first four days I was not allowed to eat or drink anything at all. Turns out that not only did I have an infected gallbladder, but it also gave me ESBL (antibiotic resistant) klebsiella sepsis. First they put a stent in my bile duct to drain the gallbladder, then the next day a hot young woman surgeon who was also a ballet dancer used a robot to remove said offending organ. She found that it has been inflamed so long there were various omental and bowel adhesions which she also cut loose.
The klebsiella was another matter. If you haven’t had sepsis, I don’t recommend it. Tachycardia, lots of PVCs, lactic acidosis, temporary kidney injury, crashing blood pressure, and a general shitty feeling.I was so weak I had to use a walker to get to the toilet. I had to go a lot (every 15 minutes) since they were pushing IV fluids and meds to prop up my BP. Then they overdid it I had to take more drugs to bring it down.
While in the hospital I managed to sample both oxycodone and some IV morphine. I was hoping for more from the morphine, but it was an interesting sensation nevertheless.
The bug turned out to be sensitive to carbapenem antibiotics, so I was discharged with instructions to give myself daily IV infusions for 10 days. Here’s me injecting saline to flush my picc line. https://imgur.com/a/Bj55Jj8
I’ve been out of the hospital since Jan 28 but still am dragging a bit. My doctor friend said I am lucky to be alive and credits my otherwise strong constitution. He said this stuff has a mortality rate of 20-40%. In ICU settings it’s 70%.
When the Haitian hospitalist saw the blood culture report he actually turned pale as he said, “Oh, my!” and rapidly left the room to put in the correct antibiotic order.
I have to go back in a few weeks to have the bile duct stent removed. When they put it in I developed temporary pancreatitis as a result (a common side effect). That sucked, so I hope it does not happen again when they take it out.
Be nice to your gallbladder.
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