Day 22--Gallbladder surgery

Day 22 is supposed to be something like review your favorite free software, but since I don't have any idea what I'd write about that, why don't I just write about the gallbladder surgery I had yesterday instead?

Thursday afternoon I was helping clean at a neighbor's house.  Jacob called and said he needed to be picked up, so I left the neighbor's house to pick him up.  As I walked down the street towards my house to get the car, I felt what I thought was some gas bubbles in my stomach.  I got Jacob, went back to the neighbors after we got home, and spent about 10-15 more minutes there helping before we were done and I went home.  My tummy was still feeling gassy, and as I folded laundry it started to get worse.  I thought antacids would help, so I took a couple and waited for them to take effect.

They didn't seem to help at all, and the pains continued to get worse.  I tried to lie down, it didn't seem to help.  I stood up, no help.  I rolled in a ball, no help.  I did yoga cat pose, trying to get what I thought was a terrible gas bubble out.  I called Jacob in to pat my back like a baby who needed to burp, nothing helped.  It was terrible!  I spent the next hour to hour and a half trying to get comfortable, to no avail.  By the time Craig got home I was feeling really yucky and told him I needed to be taken to the doctor.  The pain had seemed to settle in the upper right of my abdomen and reading over things on the internet it seemed to indicate that it could be gallbladder issues.

We drove over to the clinic.  It was pretty much a miserable ride, actually, pretty much a miserable night for me.  Nothing I could do would get me comfortable, and I could only stay in one position for a minute or two before I had to change to see if another position helped me feel better, which it didn't.  The doctor listened to my complaint, did a quick check, and then said that I was obviously very uncomfortable and that the area I said was hurting seemed to indicate the gallbladder area.  He thought it would be best to get an ultrasound and see what was up for sure, so away we went to the hospital for that.

In the end they found that I had two large gallstones in my gallbladder, one of which was blocking the neck of the gallbladder, which the ultrasound tech seemed to think was part of why I was hurting so badly.  They sent me home though, because the radiologists who would read the ultrasound needed to make their report to the doctor before anything else could be done.

I went home, and Craig went off to the pharmacy to fill the pain med prescription that they gave me.  The doctor called a little bit later and said he set me up a consultation with a surgeon for the next morning at 9 AM.  After Craig got home and I got some pain meds in me I felt like I could handle waiting until the next morning.

When we visited with the surgeon in the morning he indicated that his normal surgery days were Monday and Thursday, but he could see if there was an available slot at the hospital that day and take care of it that afternoon.  We decided that would probably be the best, so the hospital was called and surgery set up for 4 PM.

Later that afternoon we arrived at the hospital.  I was admitted and they got me all ready for surgery.  I got a lovely lilac gown, some nice white tights, and they attached me to things that squeezed my legs throughout the surgery to prevent blood clots.  They put an IV in (which I HATE!  IVs are always the worse.  They NEVER feel comfortable to me.), and we waited around until the operating room cleared and they could wheel me in.

When I was in the operating room they got me ready to go, and I really remember only about 3 things before I was fast asleep.  The next thing I knew the nurse was trying to wake me up, which was awful!  You know how it feels when you try to take a nap and you wake up twice as groggy?  That was how I was feeling, but luckily my head seemed to clear pretty quickly. 

The nurse brought me some Sprite and some crackers (both graham and saltine) which I thoroughly enjoyed as I hadn't eaten since the night before.  Before too long I was itching to get up and move, and we took a little walk and she told me that I seemed to be doing well enough that I could go home if I wanted.  I then got dressed back in my regular clothes and Craig took me home.

I came home with a lovely souvenir, one of the two gallstones that was in me!  I slept fairly well last night, although today I am definitely a bit more uncomfortable than I was last night right after the surgery.  I am still doing pretty well, though, and I am hoping to definitely be on the mend!