If you get your gallbladder removed and your surgeon says it could cause diarrhea for a while but your discharge papers say take stool softener because of the pain medication? Listen to the surgeon.

It hasn't been a fun couple of days.

Thank you for reading my very short rant. Back to the bathroom!

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[–] flooppoolf@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Stool softener is so you can poop after being on opiate pain meds for a while. If you can go without opiates then you don’t need a stool softener.

If you begin to feel constipated, a stool softener will help.

For me it was similar to OP. About a week or two of diarrhea and massive shoulder pain because over the years my posture turned to shit to accommodate the whinebladder.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I believe the shoulder pain is from the gas they pump into you, because they talked to me about it (I don't remember why it specifically becomes shoulder pain) and I got the shoulder pain for a while, but the gas pains overall left me quickly thankfully. The nurse said that for some people, especially women, it can take a week or two like it did with you. The pain was right up there with some of my most severe trigeminal neuralgia flare-ups and the kidney stone I had last year, so I'm really, really glad it didn't last.

I was told walking helped, and I spent about an hour walking around the house (with a cane because I was still a little groggy from the anesthesia) and it did help.

[–] frogfruit@programming.dev 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's because the trapped gas puts pressure on nerves that radiate to the shoulder.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But not nerves that go to other places? Is there something specific about those nerves?

[–] plantedworld@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's similar to how men often feel pain down the left arm with heart damage. The theory is that in utero, as we develop, the tissues that the nerves going to your gall bladder area and your shoulder may have started as the same batch of tissue. As you develop things branch off and move away from the starting point in different directions. But your brain still has a little bit of holdover from when the structures were the same clump of cells.

Gall bladder can refer pain to the right shoulder sometimes. Is that the side you had symptoms on?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Interesting. Thanks for the explanation. My case was unusual. I had no pain... I've gone into it elsewhere in the thread and I don't want to annoy people by repeating it over and over again, but suffice it to say, I didn't have the typical symptoms of someone with gallbladder issues.