I just had my gall bladder removed. Like so many things, I really didn't know anything about it until it became a problem.

A few months ago I started having this pain on my right side just below my rib cage. I actually went to an urgent care place once to have it checked out because I'd always heard that right side = appendicitis. And since I'm on blood thinners, emergency surgery is not a great idea for me. But the doc was basically like, "Nah, it's not appendicitis." And that was that. So I asked another doctor and he basically said, it's probably nothing, these things happen.

So I asked ANOTHER doctor, and she finally listened and said we should order an ultrasound of my right side to check the little cluster of organs there. It showed sludge and sludge balls in my gall bladder. Apparently most people have some sludge, made of cholesterol, and it's generally not a problem. But once it becomes symptomatic, there's no returning to normal function. The only thing to do is to cut the fucker out.

It's not that your gall bladder does nothing. It's just not essential and if it's more trouble than it's worth, law of averages says taking it out is better. It's just a storage sac for bile produced by the liver. When you eat fat, the gall bladder squeezes some of that stored bile into your intestines to break down the fat. Then the liver makes some more. Without a gall bladder, your liver just becomes an on-demand bile factory and everything works pretty much the way it did before.

I read plenty of horror stories online about what can go wrong (another reason I haven't been on Reddit since February). But so far things seem normal. I have 4 stab wounds in my abdomen that hurt an appropriate amount for what they are. But honestly the worst pain is in my right shoulder, which is so bizarre, but is apparently from the gas they inflated my abdomen with during surgery. It should subside after I burp enough, so I'm drinking fizzy drinks to facilitate that.

All in all feeling pretty good. Glad I got this done and added the gall bladder to my list of items removed from my lean, mean, human machine.