Sunday, September 10, 2006

Never a dull moment

So, I had surgery yesterday.

Let's start at the beginning. While pregnant with Kitten, I had a couple of "attacks", which got much worse and more frequent after she was born. So naturally, I went to the doctor. She put me on Prilosec and sent me for an ultrasound, which did not show any gall stones or inflammation. So they said that sometimes heartburn presents as a gall bladder attack, and after the Prilosec, I didn't have any more attacks, so I thought I was cured.

Then a week or two before Meimei was born, I had another one. Now, I maybe hadn't been as diligent about taking my pills as I should have been, so I chalked it up to my own carelessness. Then I had one about a week after Meimei was born, still the same stuff, no worse, no better, but I had been taking my pills. Hmmm. Odd.

Then, Thursday night. Ow. I don't know if you have ever had a gall bladder attack, but dang. Not as painful as Meimei's birth (Kashka, you can tell your dad that when you hit a ten on the pain scale, you will actually not be able to form a sentence, just random swears and atheistic howls to Christ). So if that was a 10, this was probably an 8. I could answer questions with words if required, so that's now my new judge of the pain scale. It started at 9 Thursday night, slowed down at midnight, but picked up speed again at 1:30 Friday morning. It started getting really bad around 4 a.m. when I couldn't stop throwing up. And there was nothing left to throw up anymore. The kids were asleep, Ryan was finally getting some sleep (Kitten was ill and had been up half the night too), so I called my mom to take me to the ER. I figured they would just give me something and send me home.

The ER was typical - slow-moving. Once they got me in, the doc saw me and then I finally got some morphine. And some Zofran to stop the vomiting, which didn't really stop, but it took the edge off it for about a half hour each time. But the morphine was good. And they did x-rays and an ultrasound and then they admitted me to the hospital. I think they might have explained why, but I was on morphine. Why do they even bother talking to people on morphine?

I think when they moved me upstairs, the stone finally passed, because I wanted to vomit until then and didn't afterward. So then my surgery became "elective" because I was no longer in horrific pain, meaning I had to wait until all other surgeries were done before I could get in. I finally saw the surgeon at 9 Friday night and he said I would inevitably have another attack and that my gall bladder was inflamed, so I could have it out this weekend or I could come back in a week and do it. Better not to think too much, so I said now and they scheduled me in.

So I had surgery yesterday and had my gall bladder out. I'm home today and I'm a bit sore, but mostly ok.

7 comments:

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Girl, your life is just NOT so much about the calm and quiet, is it? You poor thing - that's just not fair you had two such painful events so close together! Here's hoping your recovery goes smoothly!

Kashka said...

Well, shucks. And, once again, a faulty gall bladder takes forever to diagnose (they were convinced my mom had cancer, which, way to go to DefCon5, there, docs).

Anyway, I'm glad your mom was around -- take care of yourself.

Anonymous said...

Best wishes on your quick and full recovery, Syl!

Anonymous said...

Oh, you poor thing! Much sympathy. Here's to a quick recovery!

Allknowingjen said...

Oh no! I hope you are feeling a million times better now though.
Gotta love that morphine! Cure for pain indeed. ;)

Jaysan said...

You didn't like that morphine to much did you? From what I remember of Little Ghetto in the Meadow, kicking that beast is rough!

ShoNuff said...

Hope there is no more pain for awhile.
Jay are you saying that you know where to get morphine?:)