So after a lifetime of indulging in all the cheese, bacon and junk food my little heart and gallbladder could handle turns out I ended up with a wicked case of gallstones. This basically meant that anytime I ate anything even remotely fattening (including my moms home cooked meals) I’d have massive pain right below my ribs around 3am in the morning. At first I thought I could manage this but then after a couple bad episodes where the pain was so bad I couldn’t focus at work the next day I decided I needed to do something.
So what are the treatment options for something like this? Well one is using painkillers like Norco whenever the pain sets in however that takes about 30 minutes to take affect and by then I’m normally already doubled over in pain so not really the best long-term solution. The doctor said a change in my diet could help however like I said, this isn’t about being good 90% of the time and then being able to splurge. Any time I would have even semi-fatty foods I could be sent into an attack and if it were bad enough, I might have to go in for emergency surgery so the best path forward was to remove the gallbladder via a laproscopic (“band-aid”) surgery called a cholecystecotomy.
Everyone told me I’d be feeling better in a couple of days but should still take time off to fully heal so I thought “What the heck” and actually agreed to a surgery date of December 19th, essentially 5 days before Christmas. Here is my story:
On Friday, December 19th, Marshall bundled me up to take me to Kaiser Pleasanton for my 8am appt. My mom had also insisted on coming out to be with me during the surgery which although I had resisted ended up being really nice having her there. Surgery was scheduled for 10am however I was told they would take me sooner if all the other surgeries went well. At about 8:45 I was admitted into the back where they asked me a ton of questions and then had me change into an outdated surgery gown, non-slip socks and a hair net. Oh yeah, let’s get this party started. 😉
The nurse Rima was super nice and promised that she would not hurt me when putting in the IV. She kept her promise but I never promised not to get sick at the thought of having something sticking into my arm so she had to talk me down when I started to get a little light-headed from being grossed out. Once I had the IV inserted and had calmed down she called back my mom and Marshall to keep me company until it was time for me to go into surgery. My mom cracked a couple jokes that only the two of us would find funny which made me laugh even more so that put me at ease. Because I was second on the list for the days operations it wasn’t long before they were ready to wheel me back. That’s where things get a little fuzzy.
I remember a medium sized operating room and being asked to slide myself off the gurney onto a very narrow table where they strapped me down so I wouldn’t move. The next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room with a very dry throat because they had needed to intubate me but still being strangely alert. I had expected to feel much more groggy so the fact that I was able to think and speak clearly was kind of a suprise. The other thing that surprised me was that everyone had said you feel great coming out of surgery because you’re so doped up you don’t feel any pain. Well at first I didn’t because I hadn’t tried to move but as soon as I tried to adjust myself on the bed I realized something was wrong. My stomach was in excrutiating pain.
I told the nurse and she gave me a dose of some painkiller through the IV and I waited like 5 minutes and said “Should this be kicking in yet?” She said yes so I let her know that, “No, that made no difference.” Over the course of 40 minutes she gave me 4 other doses which is when I started to freak out because I wasn’t feeling groggy at all and I could feel the pain as strongly as I had felt it that first time I had tried to move. The nurse said she would call Marshall in so he wouldn’t worry since I had been in recovery so long. When Marshall came in I couldn’t help it but I started to cry. I tried to hold it back (which hurt even more) but I was totally freaked out because I just wanted to go home and knew that I couldn’t leave unless my pain level was way lower.
When the nurse came back I explained why I was freaking out and that I still felt the same as when she had given me the first dose. She decided to give me a big dose and told me that was all she could legally give me so I crossed my fingers and waited for the relief to come. It wasn’t what I had expected but at least it was enough to where I could maneuver myself up so I could get dressed and get out of there. She also said I could take two pills if I choked down 8 saltine crackers so I asked Marshall to keep bringing me water and somehow managed to get those down. Woohoo, now I could get out of there! =)
Well before I could leave I needed to hit the restroom. The nurse guided me to the door and what was hilarious is right before I entered the restroom the nurse made a kind of flabbergasted comment about “Oh! Look at your body” as in “you needed to have gallstones removed from that??” which made me laugh and smile at the accidental compliment. Then after I had come out of the restroom I looked around for Marshall who wasn’t there because I guess they had sent him down to pull the car around and one of the nurses thought I was visiting someone because I didn’t look like a patient. Once they realized I was a patient they started rushing around trying to make sure I got into the nearest wheelchair as quickly as possible. All this fuss over me? Oh you shouldn’t have. 😉
As I was getting wheeled out the nurse mentioned that she had been in the operating room with me and was also amazed to learn that I was being operated on because I had gallstones. She was even more surprised when the doctor had trouble pulling my gallbladder out due to the size of the stones. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let me have the gallstones or even get a picture of it. I guess it has to go to the lab for analysis but at least with this nurses story of how difficult it was to pull the gallbladder out, I know that the stones I had were maybe not the size of marshmellows but were at least larger than average. Still it would have been nice to know exactly how big and how many there were. Come on, wouldn’t you be curious?
So once I got home I knew I’d need to rest but first to send some e-mails, make some calls, take some pictures and then hopefully the painkillers would kick in because my brain was still going a 120 MPH with no signs of slowing.
My war wounds
Well I still never really hit the wall I thought I would but I decided to follow doctors orders and lay in bed. My trusty dog Sierra kept me company (although she accidentally stepped on my stomach twice, Ouch!) while Lotus kept guard at the foot of the bed.
Ice pack on belly, blankie and Sierra by my side =)
Lotus "keeping guard" at foot of bed
From this point forward it is pretty much a waiting game until I feel better. Unfortunately this is taking me a lot longer than I had expected to heal from so I won’t be able to make it in to work until after Christmas. Because certain things seem to be getting worse instead of better I scheduled an appt. with the doctor for tomorrow to make sure everything is ok. Painkillers no longer work which is kind of worrisome to me. Hopefully I won’t need them soon. Until then, I just need to figure out the best way to let my body heal.
Day 1 - Incisions look clean, no swelling yet, feels ok
Day 3 - Removed bandages, more swelling, bruising and back beginning to hurt
Day 5 - Swelling and soreness increased, back pain strong, scheduled appt. to see doctor
Day 10 - Steristrips removed, little raccoon wounds but bumpy as heck. =P
Well, that’s it for this part of the story. Hopefully things will start to go better once I see the doctor. Normally that’s the way it goes right? Everything sucks until you actually schedule time to see a doctor? That’s what I’m thiking. I’m using reverse psychology on my wounds. 😉 Hope it works. =)
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