Warning - Just so you know I am a little hopped up on Percocet at the moment. I will let you know later if blogging while under the influence of narcotics is a good idea or not. I mean they tell you not to drive but there is no warning about blogging of Facebooking.
Early this morning I had my gallbladder removed. It was a scheduled surgery at LDS Hospital and I am feeling much better than I expected. I am sure my pain meds have a great deal to do with how I am feeling though :) Wow - that makes me sound like a druggie.
I had what is called Cholecystitis: Inflammation of the gallbladder, often due to a gallstone in the gallbladder. Cholecystitis causes severe pain and fever, and can require surgery when inflammation continues or recurs. - Thank you Web MD.
The reason I decided to share this lovely information is that when I first started experiencing Gallbladder Attacks, I had NO idea what was going on. I feel somewhat informed on medical conditions from being an EMT, working in the ER, my years working for an Internal Medicine clinic and growing up listening to my Dad who is a Physician take calls when he was on-call for his medical practice. I have had hundreds of conversations with patients asking them "what brings you into the ER/Dr's office today?" and I had never talked to a person who was experiencing the same symptoms or pain I was having.
I had 6 excruciating painful attacks over the last 3 months. It is hard to describe the pain. I couldn't get off the floor, it felt like someone had reached inside my chest under my diaphragm and was squeezing as hard as imaginable in between my ribcage. Breathing would cause stabbing pain in my back and I had sharp pains shooting down my right arm, along with my hands going numb. I would be fine one moment and then brought to my knees another. I could hardly get to my phone, debated calling an ambulance during the first attack since I thought I was having a heart attack. It sounds SO ridiculous now but the reason I didn't call an ambulance was that my kids were home, Justin was out if town and I think I must have been delirious with pain since I was worried what would happen to my kids if the paramedics took me to the ER. Poor Cole was scared to death each time. He kept telling me to call a Fireman.
The first attack lasted 15 minutes, after I felt exhausted but OK. I told myself if it happened again I would go into the DR. 2 days later I had another one that lasted over an hour. Justin was in town this time, came home early form work after I called begging him to come help me with the kids. He raced home, took one look at me and said we are going to the ER. On the way there the pain went away and I am so stubborn I refused to let him take me to the ER so I made yet another ridiculous decision and had him take me to the InstaCare near our house. Not knocking InstaCare but for what I was going through it was a dumb decision on my part.
We had the kids with us in the car so I had him drop me off and I just walked in. The Nurses were awful, they kept smiling. nodding their heads and asking me if I was feeling a little anxious and was I possibly depressed and that is why I was in "some pain". I practically yelled the words "I don't want pain meds" I just wanted to find out what was wrong. The instaCare Dr. did a few tests and said he had no idea what was wrong and to go home and try to relax. As I was walking out of the office he told me it could possible be my gallbladder but since I was younger and not overweight it was a small possibility.
My OBGYN was wonderful and after calling there she immediately sent me in for an ultrasound which showed multiple gallstones and I was scheduled for surgery a few months later.
SO again why am I telling you my boring story. Well it turns out that pregnancy can cause gallstones to form from the increase of hormones in your body which causes the gallbladder to not function properly. Since a large number of my friends are in the middle of pregnancies or starting families I thought I would blog a little PSA about the gallbladder.
I was really nauseous for weeks leading up to my first attack. I had a newborn at the time and I just thought I was a little tired and rundown. I even bought a pregnancy test since I couldn't understand why I was so nauseous. At the grocery store checking out the lady looked at the test, looked at me trying to wrangle Cole back into the flipping buscart and then she asked how old Mason was. When I told her my baby was 3 months she got this funny look on her face. It was actually pretty funny. I am sure she thought oh this poor lady.
So there is your PSA on gallbladder. I had a great surgeon and really feel better today - my surgery day - than I have in 5 months. I feel so lucky to have had great friends and family that have rearranged schedules to help my with my kids and shared their nice words of good luck and get well.
On a funnier note I think I misspelled 50% of this blog (and I typed email instead of blog). Thank goodness for spellcheck, it makes blogging while under the influence possible.
Happy Thanksgiving.
