Gallbladder Torture

During my last trimester with Owen I started having severe chest pain every so often.  I remember my very first one on a Sunday morning, I thought I was going to die!  It lasted an hour or so and only eased after I vomited.  I experienced maybe 2 more episodes before giving birth and then nothing for 2 weeks.  Thanksgiving rolled around and the pain kept coming and coming.  We went to the ER on base and they immediately did an EKG to see how my heart was reacting and took blood to see if I had a clot somewhere.  They found nothing wrong.  Clearly something was wrong, because the attacks were getting stronger, longer and more frequent. Heart attack crossed my mind many times...I made an appointment to talk to my GP.  She determined that my esophagus was having painful spasms. I have always had acid re flux and swallowing issues but never pain!  I tried to live with the attacks, whenever I felt one coming I had maybe 60 seconds to get Owen to a safe place put a movie on for Ava and go into the bedroom to moan out the pain.  Until one day I had an attack after eating McDonald's, the pain had now shifted to my chest and right shoulder.  I made another appointment with the doctor and she said "It might be gall stones but it doesn't sound quite right, everyone is different so lets get an ultrasound."  The ultrasound took another 2 weeks but sure enough STONES! Now I had an appointment with a surgeon.  He talked over all the risks and benefits but called the surgery 'elective' because my gallbladder wasn't inflamed and no stones were stuck in my duct.  I was scared of surgery so I tried to just eat healthy and let the stones pass by themselves.  It wasn't consistent, sometimes I got pain and sometimes I could eat chocolate cake and nothing. 6 months later (now July) while helping my dad recover from bypass surgery my issues started up again.  I knew surgery was going to happen.  We set a date, but it was 6 weeks out.  I thought I was going to die, the attacks were so incredible I had to call Dave home from work when they happened.  I cried and moaned and rocked on the bed for hours waiting for the stones to drop.  I had lost almost 15 pounds eating no fat yogurt, raspberries, Rice Krispies and Skim milk. I couldn't wait 6  more weeks.  I called the surgeon and threatened to go into emergency and eat a cheese burger, to induce an attack.  Lucky for me she called the cell phone while on our way to Legoland and said there was an opening on Monday morning. I took it!

August 20, 2013
Nervous and ready to have this pain over with. I have never had surgery before.

Sweet brown socks and compression leggings

Goofing around, pretending that I'm not about to be blown up like a balloon and poked with 3 rods, while pulling a organ out of my body through my belly button...

I sent my camera in and asked the Dr. to take a picture of the blasted Gallbladder.  This is what she gave me, a fuzzy, out of focused picture.  I wanted clarity and maybe even 2 or 3 dissected ones.  You get what you pay for...

I asked Dave to video tape me when I woke up, just in case I was a super funny and said strange things.  Nope, I just talked loud and felt like crap.  

Dave had 10 days off work and took care of me, the kids, and the house.  The hardest part was not breast feeding Owen.  This surgery eventually lead to a quicker wean period but, I tried my hardest.  Best part was I ate my first brownie 1 week later!