Gall bladders suck!

Nine and a half years ago, I gave birth to the most beautiful little girl in the world! About a month later, I experienced, for the first time in my life, an excruciating pain in my stomach area. I went to the ER, but it stopped by the time I got there, so we left. For the next eight months or so, I experienced more pain, nausea, vomiting, until my daughter's pediatrician suggested it was an ulcer. He suggested I take Zantac75 once a day until the pain stopped. I did, and after about six months, the pain was gone.

For the next six to seven years, I had an occasional flare-up of pain, usually resolved with Zantac or Rolaids. After the birth of my son nearly two years ago, the flare-ups became more frequent and more severe. For the last few months, they've been really bad, with me vomiting on average about once a week. Since my last pregnancy I've been taking PrilosecOTC (or the generic) daily, in an effort to keep what I thought was an ulcer under control.

Friday night, the pain reached a level I have never experienced before. I couldn't lie down or sit or even move without a great deal of pain, and I was standing against the wall, crying in pain, when my boyfriend got back from picking up my brother's girlfriend from work. Off to the ER I went, while my son stayed with my brother's girlfriend, and my daughter stayed with my boyfriend's sister.

At the ER, I peed in a cup, and they took some blood. Then they gave me a nice cocktail of meds - anti-nausea, two stomach meds, and phyntenol (is that how you spell it?), a pain med. I felt loopy, and the pain stopped. However, ten minutes later, it was back, and just as bad as ever. They came in and gave me morphine (yeah, morphine). Even loopier, but the pain was still there. It went down to about a 1 on the pain scale for about fifteen minutes, then went up to about a 6 or 7 (had been a 9 or 9 1/2 earlier). Finally, they came in and gave me Demerol, more anti-nausea, and a bag of saline. Very loopy, sick for a few minutes, but NO MORE PAIN! In the meantime, they'd had me drink this whole bottle of white goop that tasted like berries. After an hour, they wheeled me off the the CT scanner. There, they injected me with contrast, which made me feel warm and fuzzy all over, and took pictures of my insides. Later they came to my room and told me it was my gall bladder, and they were putting me in the hospital to schedule the surgery.

Until Saturday morning, I had all my body parts. I have never had anything removed, I have never had any kind of surgery or stitches or hospitalization or anything like that. I was a little scared (more than a little really).

Saturday morning, the surgeon came and talked to me, I signed the consent papers, and I went into surgery about 11:30 am. They strapped me down to this skinny table, and strapped my arms to little attachments on the sides of the table. Not to sound sacrilegious, but I felt like I was being tied to a cross. They injected something in my IV, and suddenly I couldn't keep my eyes open. They told me to take a few deep breaths, and after the third breath, I was out. I came to in the recovery room, two hours later. They were asking me how I felt, and I felt fine, just a little tired and a little sore. They wheeled me back to my room - the bumps made me hurt, and the turns made me sick.

I stayed the rest of Saturday and all night, taking a Lortab every four hours or so, eating only liquids (which was OK since jello, ice cream and pudding all counted as liquids). This morning, the surgeon came and talked to me, and I got my walking papers. Apparently, my gall bladder was so full of stones that it was practically a marble bag. One of the larger stones had become impacted in the duct, and the whole thing was infected as well. He said there were so many stones that my gall bladder probably hadn't worked in years (which is why I gave the long back story - my gall bladder probably stopped working back during my first pregnancy). Now that it's out, I will probably feel a LOT better. The pain, the nausea, the vomiting, the fullness will all stop. I probably won't have to take the Prilosec anymore. At least, I'm going to postpone taking them for now to see if I even need them.

I'm on restrictions for the next two weeks at least, until I have a check-up with the surgeon. I can't drive, pick-up anything, push, pull, bend over, anything strenuous at all (including amorous night-time activities). I have to have help sitting down and standing up, I can't sit for more that 45 minutes in one position, but I can walk as much as is comfortable. It really sucks, because my son is sick right now, and wants mommy to pick him up and hold him, which of course, I can't do.

But for all the worry warts out there reading this, I am fine. The four incisions on my abdomen (they took it out laproscopically) are tender, the internal bruising is sore, and Lortabs make me very sleepy, but I'm not in anywhere near the kind of pain I was in Friday night, and according to the surgeon, I won't be again. Yeah!

My mother had her gall bladder out a few years ago when she had her gastric bypass surgery. They had said that gall bladders can usually cause problems after that particular surgery, so they removed it at the same time, just as a precaution. However, it occurred to me, my grandmother was about my age when she had hers removed. It was after her third or fourth child (can't remember which exactly). I am very much like her, which is scary at times, so I should have suspected that it was my gall bladder.

This was all very sudden and fast and surprising. I had planned to sing Handel's Messiah with the Choral Society today at 2pm. But I missed that, and the rehearsal Saturday morning. I'm hoping I feel up to going to Jackson-Hewitt tomorrow to do some of the Labs I need to get done for the training (that was the plan before this weekend). All my job hunting plans for the next two weeks have to be cancelled, or at least cut back. My daughter is learning how to do laundry, because I can't. I can sit next to the dryer and fold clothes, that's about it.

Going to finish now - the Lortab I took fifteen minutes ago is starting to shut me down. I feel a little loopy and sleepy. I'm getting fuzzy tunnel vision too. Fun.

I'll post more later about the rest of my life and how it's going.

P.S. A HUGE thanks to all the nurses and aides at the hospital for their care and patience. The took such good care of me and my boyfriend during my stay. And a big thanks to the surgeon for his patience in explaining everything to me and answering my questions, and for his skill in removing my pain.

P.S. 2 A great big thanks to my younger brother and his girlfriend, for watching my son. A big thanks to my boyfriend's sister and her husband, for watching my daughter. A big thanks to my older brother for going to get my mom and her boyfriend from out of town, and to my sister-in-law for watching my nephews so my brother could go. And the BIGGEST thanks to my boyfriend, who hardly ever left my side, stayed two nights in the hospital sleeping in a very uncomfortable recliner and a slightly less uncomfortable cot, and helped me shower, get up and down, fetched things for me, ran to the store for pudding in the middle of the night, etc. He is the most wonderful, caring man, and I wonder what I did in my life to deserve him. To all of you, I love you, and this is the definition of FAMILY. XOXOX