Dear Crabby,
After several bouts of pain, my doc says it’s finally time for my gallbladder to come out. What do you think? Should I have the surgery or do you think my doc is just trying to get money from my insurance?
Thanks!
Gal Stone
Dear Gal Stone,
You say you’ve had several bouts of pain? Lord knows I’ve never been accused of being a smart man (that’s why I married Mrs. Crabby), but how many more bouts of pain will it take before you’re convinced your gallbladder needs to hit the road? All I know is gallbladder pain is no joke. In fact, the only pain I’ve heard is worse are kidney stones and childbirth. Of course, like you I was stubborn when it came to dealing with my gallbladder. Even though everyone tried convincing me that it’s common and minor surgery. Well guess what? My daddy always said, “It’s minor until it happens to you.” And that’s exactly how it felt – like major surgery. But my howling finally got too much for Mrs. Crabby and she hauled me off to the doctor. He told me he’d done hundreds of gallbladder surgeries (which made me feel a little better) and that once it was out I’d feel like a whole new man! All I know is thank the good lord I married Mrs. Crabby and she loves me enough to haul my crabby butt in despite all my assurances I was OK. Because after surgery the doctor told me it was pretty bad in there. As in had I waited much longer… well, it was pretty bad. Like gangrene bad. So, I’m definitely glad it’s gone, but what I do find to be a head scratcher is that like your spleen and appendix, you can live without your gallbladder. So why do we have the darn things to begin with? I guess that’s why I never went into medicine. I’d be asking too many questions instead of studying and such. Oh, well. I’ll just have to settle for being good looking and right all the time. And if you’re holding off having the surgery because you don’t want to give up your favorite foods I say, “Get over it!” First, most of the foods you love probably aren’t good for you anyway. Second, most people I talked to after my surgery said they were eventually able to go back to eating ‘normal.’ And they were right. I was eating normal after just a few weeks. Although, I still try to limit my intake of Coney dogs and deep-dish pizza to special occasions.
So, just bite the bullet and schedule the surgery. You’ll feel crappy for a few days, but man will you better in the long run.
Hope you feel better soon!
Dear Crabby
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