I went to visit my grandmother in Birmingham his past Friday. I stayed with her and then had plans to go to my ONLY sister's first child's baby shower on Saturday. Friday was an enjoyable day with my grandmother and her husband, my mom and step-dad, my uncle, a friend, and, of course, Helen! We played and laughed with Helen for hours. We even went shopping for a new pair of shoes for Helen to wear to the shower. I was SOOOO excited, having planned to go for weeks.
Unfortunatley, after dinner on Friday night, I began to feel a little tightness in my tummy. I thought it was indigestion. I decided to go to bed and didn't sleep a wink. Tightness became ache, and ache became pressure, and pressure became pain. By midnight, I'd had enough. I called my mom and we decided it was best that we go to the ER.
At the ER, they took blood, but determined that everything was fine...except for my obvious pain. They wouldn't do an ultrasound due to that it was a Saturday and there was no immediate need or emergency. One would think a doctor would want to know for sure what was causing my pain, but not this one. So he gave me pain meds, saying it was "probably" my gall bladder, and sent me on my way. He told me to see my family doctor when I got back home. (How he thought I could physically drive home....I'll never know)
We got back to grandmom's about 6am to rest, but I couldn't, as the pain meds hadn't started working. Moma went home to rest. Little did I know that she would call an hour or so later, to tell me that she would be driving me back to GA. WOW. What a mom!!
She got Helen up, fed her some breakfast, and got her dressed. Then, she packed up and loaded all of mine and Helen's things into my van. Keeping in mind she's still had only a few hours of sleep, she gets all of us in the van and off we ride to GA....a four hour trip barring there are no stops. (Of course, with Helen potty training, we stopped several times)
The trip went well! The Lord kept us safe and without delays all the way home.
I was able to get an appointment with my doctor first thing Monday morning. By then, the pain had subsided (without pain meds), but as soon as the Doc pushed on my abdomen, she pretty much confirmed the ER's hypothesis that it was a gall bladder attack. She immediately called the lab and got me an appointment for an ultrasound. They confirmed that there was in fact a stone and infection (why the blood work in the ER didn't show infection, i don't know). So off to the surgeon's office for formality's sake.
Surgery to remove the gall bladder was scheduled for Wednesday (yesterday). It's long name is called laparoscopic "cholecystectomy" *co-lee-sist-ECK-toe-mee*. I don't remember anything after I left Brian, other than the nurse was nice and gave me a warm blanket...yeah...right out of the toaster! I woke up with cotton mouth, four band-aids on my tummy, and feeling as if I'd done 10,000 sit-ups while sleeping! Pretty good, huh? I felt way better than I did in the ER 4 days prior!
Gotta love American technological advancements! After they removed the organ, they found that the stone was actually blocking the exit to my pancreas and that the actual gall bladder was only filled with infection. I'm so thankful that I got rid of that thing before the stone made it's way into my pancreas. I think we all know what a detriment that could have been!
They say I'll feel better in 48-72 hours! And I believe it! Even without the narcotics I feel pretty good! Thank the good Lord for a successful surgery! Thank you to the seven wonderful people who came to visit me before they took me to surgery: Larry, Essie Mae, Harry, Mary Alice, Richard, Pat, and Tommy. It means so much that they came! Thank you also to my wonderful husband for being with me through this whole thing and for making me feel comfortable and cherished. Thanks to my mom too for the unending list of helps and for being at home taking care of my sweet Helen when I couldn't. (I'm sure it was hard work being with her grandbaby for days...lol)
Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts!
I can't leave you without a picture, so see it below. (second post for the day...see next) Have a great weekend everyone!
9 comments:
I am so glad you are feeling better..... If I didnt have to work I would have been up their in a second to help out... this darn job.... who needs one anyways lol. Im glad your mom was able to help with Helen... Im sure they both enjoyed the time....
Hope you are feeling better! Love the new look and the pic of Helen at the top. She is beautiful!
You are so sweet! I am super glad you are healing up and feeling better! I wish I could have helped you out and I feel extra bad I didn't get to see you on Friday before you broke. lol I hope we can get together soon!
LOVE YOU KRISTY!
bless your heart! Good to hear you are feeling better...
love your new look on the blog!!! and so thankful you're feeling better and that is alllll is was! I don't have my gall bladder anymore and haven't missed it BUT be careful about eating high fat foods and dairy :) you may need to be close to a rest room ;)
"It's long name is laparoscopic cholecystectomy..". You are so cute!! If only I were in GA, I would have been happy to be your scrub tech! I think we should start a club for all the cool people who don't have gallbladders anymore.
I am so sorry you were having so much trouble!!! Girl, I can honestly say...BEEN THERE DONE THAT! I'm glad it's over with and you are recovering so well! That sweet picture and comment you left almost made me cry. I miss you soooo much and am so glad that I can call you friend. LOVE YOU!!!!
I'm sorry that your gallbladder messed up your plans! I'm so glad that you are healing so quickly! Let me know if you need anything. Love you!! :)
Thanks for the great comments! I deleted my partylite blog b/c I wasn't using it that much. So I thought I would just delete it. And I could post any partylite stuff on this site. I thought if I only had one blog then i could manage it better!
Post a Comment