gobble gobble

Well, I know I haven't written in my blog in ages. I've been so busy lately with life and everything that I haven't really gotten the chance to sit down and write. I'll at least have a little more time this week though, since I'll be out of work for a week.

Yesterday I had surgery to remove my gallbladder. Fun!

About a month ago I started getting a pain in my right side, which I have had before. I thought perhaps I pulled a muscle at work or something. I didn't really think anything of it until it persisted. A casual conversation with a friend at work brought up the whole gallbladder thing. She described all the symptoms she had before and it turns out I was having the same problems. Pain in my side, bloating, gas and heartburn (among other things) It didn't occur to me to put all of those things together.

At any rate, I made an appointment with my doctor for the next day just to be safe. When I went he asked about all of my symptoms, took some blood and urine samples and then felt around on my abdomen. He was pretty sure it was my gallbladder at this point, but obviously needed further proof. So he scheduled me for an ultrasound the following week.

The ultrasound was anything you'd imagine it to be. They took lots of pictures of my insides and sent me about my way. I asked for a picture of my gallbladder to take with me, which I think the technician thought I was weird for. I wouldn't have known what was what had she not pointed out what dark blob was my gallbladder. I knew she couldn't tell me anything because she's not my doctor, so I guess I thought having a picture would be helpful for me. (it really only brought up more questions)

My ultrasound was on a thursday and my doctor was out on vacation that week, so I didn't get any results until monday. Sure enough though, I had gallstones and the walls of my gallbladder were thicker than usual. So they set me up an appointment with a surgeon at Harrison County Hospital in Corydon. I thought "well, I guess I AM having surgery." Why else would they schedule an appointment like that?

My appointment was on monday of this week. I gave my medical history to the nurse and then met with the doctor. He asked me some questions about my symptoms and of course poked around my abdomen. Then he said he wanted me to have surgery (like I didn't see that coming). I told him I wanted it as soon as possible, but I certainly didn't expect him to say he wanted it done on wednesday! The day before thanksgiving, not fun. But, it needed to be done so I agreed (although in hindsight if I had realized it was going to cause me some issues at work I would have waited. Because I was going to be missing the day before and the day after thanksgiving, I automatically became ineligible to get paid for thanksgiving....and I don't have enough flexible time off to "pay" for all the time off I needed. So while FMLA will make it so that I won't get in trouble for missing, it certainly won't help the fact that my check is going to be crap)

Since I was already at the medical pavilion attached to the hospital they sent me next door to have some presurgery testing done. I gave my full medical history to a nurse, who was super nice, and then met with the anesthesiologist to go over the procedure. They gave me some booklets and went over the surgery with me step by step. And of course assured me that since I was young and relatively healthy the surgery would be a peice of cake. Which didn't stop me from being a nervous wreck up until I got into the operating room.

So Tuesday I went to work as usual and got the pleasure of explaining my whole life story to everyone who asked, heh. The doctors wanted me to eat a super bland meal that day, I'm not really sure why. So I had some cereal for breakfast, chicken broth, crackers and jell-o for lunch, and mashed potatoes and pancakes with no syrup for dinner. Oh, and only clear liquids (apple juice and sprite) I had to be up at 5 am to get ready the next morning, but I stayed up until almost 1 am because I was too nervous to sleep.

Wednesday morning came too soon. I showered and got my things together. And almost grabbed a bowl of cereal until I remembered I wasn't supposed to eat or drink anything. I'm thankful my surgery was really early so I didn't have to spend TOO much time starving and being thirsty.

We got to the hospital at 6:30ish and the registration lady walked me to the surgery area. There I had to take a pee test just to be make sure I wasn't pregnant (which I'm not, duh) then I got changed into a gown. I was actually pretty stoked about the gown since they told me about it. It's called a Bair Paws gown. It's made of thicker and warmer material than your standard hospital gown. It hooks up to a machine that blows warm air into little channels on the inside of the gown, which keeps you toasty warm up until surgery. It was really nice. Apparently being comfy and warm keeps the patient calm, and it actually aids in healing after surgery. When you're under anesthesia your limbs apparently tend to get cold and it ends up cooling down your core which isn't good. Instead of having to give you an average of 9 blankets while you're there, I only needed one thick one with my gown. I think that helped me stay a little more calm, and I certainly appreciate that.

Once I was changed and IV'd up, they sent Mike back with me. He was really tired too, so he napped a little on the couch in my room. And I drifted in and out of sleep waiting to go back. I had a fancy flat panel tv in my room, but I didn't feel like watching anything. They did come at one point to put some stockings on my legs. They hooked up to machines that pumped air into them to massage my muscles. This helped with blood circulation to keep any blood clots from forming.

Eventually the nurse came back and asked me to empty my bladder so they wouldn't have to hook up a catheter (thank jeebus!) then they took me back. At this point I felt like freaking out, but I think I did a good job keeping things under control. When we got to the OR they moved me from the gurney to the table and hooked up heart monitors and what not. They they gave me some medicine, told me to take some deep breaths into the oxygen machine and everything went black. Next thing I know I'm waking up in the recovery room! It seemed like I was out for 5 minutes, but it actually took about 45. My throat was sore and my stomach hurt like crazy. They gave me a couple of shots of Demerol, which helped, but it was still pretty painful.

Because of the risk of getting pneumonia they asked me to take a lot of deep breaths and to try to cough. Which hurt something fierce. But they needed to get my blood oxygen level back up above 95 before they could let me go back to my room. I think I was there about 40 minutes. Thankfully once I got back to my room they gave me some percocet with some apple juice and graham crackers. My mouth was so dry, it felt like I was eating sand! I was still in quite a bit of pain, so after I ate some more crackers and had some juice, they gave me another pill.

At this point, while I was still quite sore, I felt good enough to go home. So they took out my IV and I got dressed...which was a feat. You really don't realize how much you use your abdomen muscles for doing even the littlest things. Bending over, getting up off the couch or bed, even walking is painful.

Mike went and got the car while the nurse wheeled me to the exit. I'm so thankful the nurse told me to bring a pillow with me. The car ride would have been even worse had I not had that pillow to absorb the bumps. Since we were already out, we went ahead and stopped at the pharmacy to get my pain meds filled. I stayed in the car and slept while Mike got it filled, and then we went home. We got home around 1pm I believe. A nice short visit to the hospital to suck out my gallbladder, lol.

Yesterday evening was mostly a blur. I was so tired and in pain, I drifted in and out of sleep. Watched some tv and ate a little bit. I had some crackers with chicken broth, a little bit of jell-o and some dry cereal. At one point though I felt so nauseated, I just wanted to curl into a ball and die. I guess from all the pain meds pumping through my veins. Thankfully Margaret (Aaron's mom) had some phenegren and let me have some. Which helped tons. Yay for living with an ER nurse!

I ended up having to sleep propped up with about 5 pillows. I hate sleeping on my back, but there was certainly no other alternative. And I can I just reiterate how freaking much it hurts to get up and down in bed??? Oddly enough it hurt more to lay flat on my back than it does to just sit cross-legged on the bed. Go figure.

Today I'm feeling somewhat better. It hurts, of course, but not as sharply. We're supposed to go to Mike's mom's house for thanksgiving, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to go or not. It's Mike's birthday today too, btw. He's 29 :) I don't really want to stay at home by myself, but at the same time I'm not really sure how well I'm going to do trying to get around at someone else's house. I guess I can try though, since they only live down the street 2 minutes.

The biggest thing I'm thankful for right now is that I can actually eat! I was given the impression I needed to eat blandly, but the nurse told me that she didn't think there was anything I should stay away from. I just need to take it slowly. Eat small portions and don't over stuff myself. She said eating small portions through out the day should be ok. I'm certainly not going to chance making myself sick, but I'm definitely going to attempt to enjoy thanksgiving.

So, to recap, I have to be out of work for a week. I go for my follow-up appointment next wednesday, so I should be good to go back on thursday (hopefully) Then I have to be on light duty for 2 or 3 weeks. I can't lift more than 10 pounds for that duration, so hopefully they can find something easy for me to do. Did you know a gallon of milk weighs 8 pounds? Fun fact, heh.

I have to say, while I was really scared about the surgery, at the end it didn't turn out to be too bad. Everyone at the hospital was so nice and friendly, it was definitely a good experience on that end. The hospital is brand new too, so everything was top of the line as far as I can tell. Perhaps it seems trivial, but being in a brand new hospital with new equipment and nice interiors really helped me stay a little calmer. I think it helped my over all experience. I think at some point I'm going to write a nice letter thanking everyone for being so nice and for helping me enjoy my stay (well, as much as you can enjoy having your guts ripped out, lol)

oh, and I apologize if any of this seems incoherent. I took my pain meds in the middle of writing this so I'm a little out of it.

Happy turkey day! <3