Jacob Roloff’s Wife Isabel Details Gallbladder Surgery, Recalls Asking for ‘Graphic’ Photos of Organ

Little People, Big World alum Jacob Roloff’s wife, Isabel Rock, recalled undergoing gallbladder surgery earlier this month, and she revealed that she asked her doctor one odd request.

“I asked my surgeon to take pictures of my gallbladder during surgery,” Isabel, 28, told her followers in an Instagram Stories post shared on Monday, December 16. After she made the request, the surgeon showed her the pictures before she was discharged later that day.

She also explained that her doctor told her that her gallbladder was “going to burst” and was full of “hundreds of stones” before the surgery. The surgeon even compared the enlarged organ to “the size of a golf ball!”

While Isabel was able to see what the organ looked like, she did not share the photo with her followers because she feared it “might be too graphic.”

Isabel’s health issues first came to light on December 16 when she told her social media followers that she was headed to the emergency room for “pain meds.” She then explained that she has been “living with chronic gallbladder pain for at least four years” after she was diagnosed with an unspecified condition in 2020.

She went to an urgent care for the abdominal pain, and ultimately went to the ER to have emergency gallbladder removal surgery. “I actually woke up crying from such instant relief after the surgery,” she recalled, explaining she still had “some pain” following the procedure.

While the emergency surgery was likely scary, Isabel assured her fans that Jacob, 27, was taking care of her amid her recovery process. “This guy has been a really good ‘nurse’ taking good care of me,” she said in an Instagram Stories post uploaded on Tuesday, December 17.

Isabel — who married Jacob in September 2019 – continued to open up about the experience in an Instagram Stories Q&A session on December 17. When asked if she had “learned” anything about herself during the health scare, Isabel responded, “That I’m strong but also that I need to learn how to ask for help and be open to receiving it when people offer.”

Another fan asked how Isabel and Jacob’s son, Mateo, was handling the situation. “He keeps saying how much he missed me,” she wrote alongside a photo of them holding hands. “I think he’s adjusting because I’m a stay at home mom so we’re normally together 24/7. So right now he just wants to be close to me which I love all the cuddles!”

She concluded the series of Instagram Stories by admitting she felt “guilty because Mateo kept asking to play tonight but I can’t move right now.” Isabel continued, “We watched a movie in bed together and read three books tonight, but I’m sure it’s so confusing to him that I can’t do what I normally can with him right now. It’s a hard age because you can explain it, but he can’t really understand.”

Isabel added that she didn’t want Mateo, 3, to think that she was “choosing this in any way.”

“I can’t wait to be healed and back to exploring and doing things with him,” she concluded.