Gallbladder Fun

Took this pic last Friday unaware that the food I would eat that weekend would trigger an attack of what was already a diseased gallbladder. It started Friday night when Allen's boss told him to take me to dinner on the company (good call too, I was getting really sick of late nights, early mornings and whatnot) so we went to my favorite restaurant of all time; HB Steakhouse. It's one of those Japanese places where they cook the food at the table. I LOVE it! Asian food is my favorite by far; Japanese, Chinese, Hunam especially and Thai. I also get Mai Thai's at HB,so that makes the night even better. Even got all dressed up and cute, which is why we stopped by my mom's to try out her new digital camera.

Saturday came around and we were lazy and decided to do the Olive Garden never ending pasta bowl deal for lunch since we had a little in the restaurant fund. Still not too bad.

Saturday afternoon rolls around and Allen's mom calls and says his sister drove in from school for her birthday and SHE didn't feel like cooking either. SO we headed to Red Lobster since his parents were paying. (Three HOUR dinner, I'll have to tell that story later).

SUNDAY comes around and after church, some of our friends who we hadn't seen in forever wanted us to grab Mexican food with them, and we didn't want to say no.

That adds up to a LOT of eating out, which I am not used to. By Sunday afternoon, I felt like a muscle across my stomach was cramping. It was a very weird sensation. I didn't feel nauseous and was able to eat fine. As the evening progressed, it got worse and worse. Getting ready for work Monday morning was so painful it made me see spots, so I called into work and called my chiropractor, still thinking it was a pulled muscle and I could go into work after getting adjusted.

Everyone in the office that I described my symptoms to asked me if I still had my gallbladder. My younger sister had hers out last August when she was only 21, so I guess it wasn't that weird for them to think mine was acting up at 26, though it is still very young. An adjustment helped, but my doctor told me my back was not what was causing the pain and to see my regular doc that day.

I made an appointment for 3:15 and hung out with my mom some. She has just gone from working 60+ hours a week to only part time (at our chiropractor's office as a matter of fact) and I have thoroughly enjoyed her being more available. As the day progressed, the pain worsened by the hour. It felt tight continuously and would cramp up so bad I would break out into a sweat. It felt pretty much like labor pains and contractions, just up higher on my abdomen.

Allen took off work to take me to my appointment. By that time, the pain was so bad that when the doctor pressed on me, I literally screamed. If you have read any of my other posts you know why that is a big deal; I was conditioned all my childhood to deal with pain and to deal with it silently. After only a few minutes examination, she told Allen she was calling the nearest ER to tell them I was on the way.

The call from the doc got me in fast. About 15 min after arrival, I was through triage and in a bed with IV fluids going. The doctor ordered an ultrasound, and since they were going to have to push pretty hard on my stomach to get a clear view, ordered me some pain killers. First good news all day. When the nurse injected me, I asked if it would make me sleepy. She doubted it, but said it all depended on my tolerance to drugs. Well, there was my answer. I barely had time to wave to Allen and slur out "Good night" so as not to freak him out before I was GONE. I never fell asleep, but just felt warm and happy and didn't care what else happened. I remember my mom and sister arriving as the silliness wore off a bit. I got some more pain killers before the ultrasound (different kind though, not as fun) and of course had to wait forever to get results. Found out after awhile that we were waiting for my urine analysis to come back. Thing was, I hadn't done one. SO we got that taken care of and the doc says there's sludge in my gallbladder and it needs to come out. I get pain killers to take home; yay!

Tues was spent finding a surgeon who could see me before next leap year. I know gallbladder removal is not emergency surgery by any means, but the attack had not stopped at all and I knew I couldn't get back to work until it was fully taken care of. Finally found one that came highly recommended that would see me that day. He did, but the presence of sludge was not enough for him to do surgery. He ordered a HIDA scan and asked me to be admitted to the hospital, but I declined. I preferred to go home so I could rest better; I know you get zero sleep in hospitals.

The HIDA scan Wed was not painful and was the only IV stick I got all week that didn't bruise terribly. The other three are still nice and yellow and gross. There was some slight discomfort as the second half of the scan actually triggered my gallbladder to release bile to see if it was functioning properly. I got some pain then, but nothing like the weekend had been.

The scan proved my gallbladder was NOT functioning at all and we scheduled surgery for Friday.

Pre-op stuff Thurs, paperwork, blood work, yadda yadda.

Friday morning they gave me my first meds and wheeled me back at 8:45 and I was fully awake in recovery by 10:30. I remember helping them get me on the operating table and that's about it until I was sitting up in the bed and asking the nurse to take off my oxygen mask. By the third time I asked, she consented and by the third time I asked if she had let my family know it was over yet, she was just laughing at me.

It was this part that I had dreaded, being with my sister last year. She had been terrible when she came out of it and in dreadful pain due to the gas they use to inflate the abdomen area so they can see. I somehow escaped all this and by the time they let my family come back to see me, I was sitting on my own, on my second glass of juice and asking for more to eat. (Found out from a family friend who is a nurse that some people react that way to the drugs. I seriously had the munchies for the crackers they were giving me.) When the doctor had come to tell Allen that the surgery was over and went well, he said he had not opened my gallbladder to see if there were any stones (my sister's had some, though sludge was all that had showed up on the ultrasound) but that it was inflamed and had junk growing on the outside of it; it was obviously diseased and infected and we made the right decision to get it out.

SO, that was my week last week. Recovering is going well. I am still very bruised, but my incisions look good. There are four; one below my belly button, one higher on my chest, and two on my right side. I am backing way off on pain meds already but still get soooooo tired soooo quickly. I have my post op check with the surgeon tomorrow, so we'll see what he says.

Now since you read that whole thing, here are some more cute pics we took Friday night before the whole thing happened.



Aren't we adorable? Ten years together, five and a half years of marriage.
Love him more every day.



My family, Mom, sister, me, Dad
(good dad, not the one you have read about on this blog)



The best man on the planet