Monday, October 27, 2008

Who needs a gallbladder anyway??

As most of you know I went in for surgery last Friday to have my gallbladder removed. I have been having problems with it since I was pregnant with Shawn. The surgeon I went and saw said that if I was done having kids then I didn't need to get it out. However, I am not done having kids. He said that being pregnant makes it a lot worse and having the surgery during pregnancy can cause preterm labor or miscarriages. That convinced me to get it taken care of sooner than later.

The day of the surgery:

I wake up to Jon sick with the what we think was the flu. I call the hospital and the doctor to see if I should reschedule because of the odds that I would get sick also. They said to just go ahead with the surgery (a decision I bet was based more on not wanting a cancellation that late then really worrying about my recovery time). We decided to go along with it anyway.
We dropped Shawn off at my friend, Maria's, house with no promise of what time we would be back (what a friend :) ). We got to the hospital and waited to be taken back. About 2 minutes before I get called to go back, an inmate dressed in his orange jumper gets taken back with two cops following him. That makes me feel safe. At least I won't be alert and awake if anything happens. :)
They do all the preparations and finally take me back to the operation room where they strap me to a table and ask me if I am ready to go to sleep. I say, "sure" and then next thing I know i wake up in the rocovery room in a lot of pain. They quickly get me more pain pills and the pain lessens.
I am taken to another room where they let Jon come back to see me. Poor guy wasn't without his share of drama for the day either considering he had to leave the hospital for a while because he got sick. Luckily he made it back in time for the Dr. to find him in the waiting room and tell him how everything went.
So I went in for surgery at 2 and by 4 I am ready to go home. However, the medicine they gave me made my blood pressure really low so I was dizzy and weak. They watched me for a while and then sent me home at about 5:30.

My new visiting teacher brought us dinner. I don't know if she thought I had 10 kids or what, but she brought enough food to feed the whole ward. Maybe I will put it in my freezer and it can be my three month supply of food that the church tells us to have.

Anyway, I am feeling okay. Yesterday I decided to stop taking the pain pills because I didn't like how I felt on them. Now that those are out of my system and I am taking a little IBProfin, I am feeling okay. Jon went back to work and I am able to take care of Shawn. I can't stand or sit up for too long, but it isn't too bad. I should be ready to go for Halloween.
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has helped me so far in this event either directly or with your phone calls and prayers and thanks to those that I know are planning to bring meals for the next couple of days. You are all the greatest!

P.S. my gallbladder did not weigh 20 lbs. like I was hoping it did. Shoot!



2 comments:

Laura Robins said...

Well, I had no idea you were having surgery, but I am glad to hear that it went well. Did you end up getting sick like Jon? I hope not. Are you going home for Christmas? Do you know when you will be there? I just want to make sure we arrange a time to get together. Keep getting better!

Amy F. said...

Very glad you are up and feeling pretty good. Weird that a part of you is missing now. :) I've always wondered how much I could lose if I shaved my head. :)