First let me say that I am home and up and functioning slowly. Even put on my shoes and tied them all by myself today!
This current medical adventure started late Sunday afternoon. I had been doing some cleaning out in the drawers and cabinets in the dining room earlier and then I started having some mild discomfort in my mid-back area. I figured I had just tweaked a muscle reaching in and out and bending, even though I was very careful. I took a couple Tylenol and tried not to think about it.
Unfortunately, the pain got worse overnight and moved around from my back to my front and up into my chest. That was when it got scary and we were up and in the ER by 7:30 Monday morning. Their focus was the chest pain first so they did EKGs and started other labwork.......then x-rays. Once they determined that my heart, lungs, liver and kidneys were all fine and I did not have a UTI, the main doctor came in and started poking around. He hit a painful spot and ordered a CT scan. That was followed by an ultrasound. It was determined that my gall bladder was enlarged, inflamed, had some stones, and "sludge". They gave us this information along with the news that the surgeon had been called and would be in my room soon.
I had really been hoping to get through this year without any surgery. 😊 Didn't happen. Sigh.
They wheeled me off to the pre-op area and very quickly there was a flurry of activity and away we went. After I was under the anesthesia, the surgeon injected some dye to make sure there were no stones stuck in any ducts. There weren't. Yay! So he was able to do the surgery laparoscopically. I have four smallish incisions currently being held together with surgical super glue. (it itches) I see the surgeon for a post-op check next Wednesday.
At the risk of sharing too much information, did you all know that when this surgery is done they take your gall bladder out through your belly button??? (eeeewwww!)
I am on the mend. Les got me home from the hospital late Tuesday afternoon. I showered and got in my own jammies and sat down to read the paper and promptly fell asleep. I have taken frequent naps since getting home. Normal for anesthesia fog.
We asked if I needed to take medication to replace anything since I no longer had a gall bladder and we were told "no". Supposed to avoid rich, fatty, greasy foods. The doctor told us some people have no problems after the removal and others have some issues in varying degrees. Eat carefully and see what I can tolerate. So far, so good, and right now I really don't have much of an appetite anyway. BTW, those "issues" are usually explosive diarrhea, so we are hoping that I can avoid that. 😊
In other news, our weather has been warm and rather wet. Definitely feels like Spring right now. The yard guy was just here doing the first lawn treatment for Spring. We finally heard from our electrician; he is sending someone in the next couple days to see what all we need done. Our tax guy's assistant called and they needed a form we hadn't sent with our pack of info. Les took it over to them yesterday.
As far as I know all is well with our girls and families. Everyone is busy.
LIFE IS GOOD! Stay safe and God Bless America!
P.S.
I'll be honest, I've never really given my gall bladder a lot of thought. Before I started writing this post I looked it up and got a picture. I am pretty sure this is not an accurate description; this one is really, really green! Sort of looks like a fat zucchini. 😊
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