For anyone who's interested, here's the heartrending saga of how my gall bladder and I recently parted company.
For the past 8 months I've suffered from pain and pressure under my sternum and bloating, which I'd been told was reflux. After being diagnosed by an urgent care physician, I took every over the counter medicine available for these symptoms with absolutely no benefit.
On the night of January 20, the typical pain and pressure under my sternum turned into severe pain and cramping accompanied by nausea and vomiting. I waited until I couldn't stand it anymore, then drove myself to the local ER and of course, waited a couple more hours in complete agony ("Would anyone mind hitting me over the head with a sledgehammer?") before being seen. They gave me an IV with morphine (highly recommended), did some lab work and sent me home with "abdominal pain, uncertain cause."
I spoke with my physician father, who was convinced that I had gall bladder disease - he had the very same symptoms, both his brothers had it, and so did my mom's mother and brother. I saw my doctor two days later and she suggested that it could be a hiatal hernia, but allowed that my father could be right, and scheduled an upper GI and abdominal ultrasound in 2 and 4 weeks, respectively (which my father called "ridiculous"). She said that in the meantime to reduce the risk of experiencing the same symptoms, I should not eat any fat (do you have any idea how hard that is?!) and wrote me a prescription for Vicodin in case the pain returned, admitting that it would only "take the edge off" the pain.
While in New Mexico for a conference the last week of January, the cold I'd had for several days turned into bronchitis - and as I sat waiting to board the plane home, I developed a fever and abdominal pain. When Peter arrived to pick me up at the airport, I had him drive me straight to our urgent care center.
After hearing what had been happening, the urgent care physician offered to send me to the local ER that night for a full abdominal workup, and I wound up taking my first ambulance ride (they wouldn't let my husband drive me thanks to fear of litigation if something went wrong between the urgent care center and the ER). Although my pain was not severe and my symptoms did not seem to warrant any emergency action, the ER doc took pity on me and offered to do a cursory ultrasound to check for stones. He found enough to warrant a more thorough ultrasound, and the results were troubling - one large stone had completely blocked off the mouth of the gall bladder, and as a result it was severely inflamed. The ER doc said that since I was running a fever he wanted to double-check with a surgeon and see whether I needed surgery right away or could wait. The surgeon responded that I needed emergency surgery that day (it was now early Saturday a.m.). So late that afternoon they arrived to take me into surgery.The anaesthesiologist made small talk with me while reviewing my medical history, and then gave me an injection which he said would make me start to feel drowsy. The nurse shared that thanks to the inflammation of the gall bladder, the surgeon was probably not going to be able to do the operation laparoscopically, and I expressed my sincere hope that he still could. I remember being wheeled into the OR and seeing the surgeon and nurses preparing the instruments, and then . . . nothing. No countdown, nothing - until I woke up with an oxygen mask on. The first thing I said when they removed it was "You gotta love the massage!" My lower legs were hooked up to some pneumatic devices which stimulte blood flow and prevent clotting by alternately inflating and deflating. Between that and my blood pressure cuff doing the same thing to my arm, I felt like I was getting a full-body massage. Apparently I wasn't breathing deeply enough, 'cause the nurse kept getting on my case about it. Once I was awake enough to be a little more sensible of how I actually felt, I became very nauseous, and began to perpire profusely. The nurses changed shifts while I was in recovery, and the next nurse on duty was kind enough to let me sleep for 45 minutes or so (instead of waking me and exhorting me to "Breathe!" every 5 minutes), which made a world of difference. They changed my soaking sheets and hospital "gown" and soon wheeled me back to my room, where my rather anxious family had been waiting for some time since hearing I was out of surgery.
Peter and Emmy, Mom and Stan, Joel, David and Renee were all there. Dave & Renee had gone the extra mile and brought cards and a huge, gorgeous flower arrangement that made my room smell absolutely divine.
Fortunately, the surgeon was able to do the surgery laparoscopically after all, thus shortening my recovery time considerably. Since I had absolutely no vacation time available, this was very good news to me - it meant one week without pay instead of two or three.
They released me the next day (Sunday afternoon) and I packed my bags and headed to my mom's so that she could help me take care of Emmy while I was recovering. This turned out to be a very wise decision, as between the aftereffects of the general anaesthesia and the effects of the Vicodin, I was pretty much comatose for the first several days. I was running a fever thanks to the cold/flu bug as well, so didn't mind being unconscious most of the time. The fourth day I finally gave up the Vicodin, 'cause I literally couldn't keep my eyes open for more than five minutes at a time . . . and I discovered that although the Vicodin had been responsible for my sleepiness, it wasn't responsible for the fact that I felt dizzy and likely to pass out at any moment. It wasn't until Saturday (a week after the surgery) that the faintness dissipated and I started feeling somewhat "normal" again.
Me and "Frankentummy" (as I've dubbed it) are doing much better now. My dang cold is still hanging in there (don't make me laugh or I'll cough for 10 minutes and share my nasty germs with you), but I'm slowly getting my strength back. Thanks to all of you who prayed for my recovery and who've had the sheer force of will (or lack of anything better to do) to read all the way through this incredibly long post. I love you guys!
