Where have I been?

So a few weeks ago I had pain in the right side of my abdomen right beneath my rib cage.  I'd never felt this pain and it was excruciating.  It gradually kept getting worse until I could not remain still because of it.  I thought it was as bad case of heartburn, but because I'd never really had heartburn and it wasn't in the middle of my stomach area, I wasn't sure.

The pain lasted for about 8-hrs and eventually went away at around 9am the following morning.  By this time, I had woken up my husband and spoke to an on-call nurse who said it was either my gallbladder or heartburn.  I had an appointment to see a doctor that morning.

The doctor said it sounded like my gallbladder and there were two options: 1> Do nothing and hope it didn't worsen, or 2> Surgery to remove the gallbladder.  However, I couldn't know for sure until I had an ultrasound. 

Needless to say, when trying to go the slow route, well, it's slow.  I eventually had an ultrasound, and bloodwork done, and a follow-up appointment.  I had another attack, but fortunately it was only half as painful and lasted only 4-hrs. 

Then, Jun 4th happened. I had received my ultrasound results which were inconclusive, but no stones present.  I thought maybe I was in the clear and decided to celebrate with a meal that would be my downfall.  I ate the fried, the beef, the lobster with butter sauce, the chocolate, and the coffee (all things on the BAD list).  I was fine for many hours; however, at 3:30am, I awoke with a pain 20x worse than the first attack.  Then came the vomiting. Finally at 8am, I woke up the husband and told him what had been happening.  Again we consulted with the on-call nurse and an appointment was made.

At 10:3am, I saw a new doctor and explained everything to her.  I had to get more blood taken and there was a note in records about high liver enzymes.  I was told I could get a referral to a GI specialist, but that wouldn't happen until AFTER Monday.  For my current situation, they gave me IV fluids and some anti-nausea meds.  The anti-nausea meds did NOTHING to stop the nausea except make me so sedated I could barely function.  Try having pain, feeling like you're going to puke, but make your body feel like it's underwater and you're too heavy to swim.  Not a good combo.

Finally, after I proved that I did need to puke and did, they said I could go to the emergency room if I felt I needed too.  My husband did not hesitate to take that option.  About 35-Min later, we arrived at Piedmont Hospital.

I was still in my sedated pain and was taken fairly quickly.  We spent most of the afternoon in our own room with me in a hospital gown curled up on my new favorite bed.  Doctors, nurses, administrators, etc came to see me.  Finally at 3:30pm, I was given the best stuff ever...MORPHINE & 2 anti-nausea meds.  By 3:45pm, the pain stopped.  Within that time, I had another ultrasound, many vials of blood taken, and was told I'd be admitted because my liver enzymes were too elevated.

It took awhile, but by midnight I was in my home away from home hospital bed with my own bathroom and shower.  I threw up these potassium pills they gave me, but once that was done, the morphine and anti-nausea meds worked great.  I was only allowed a small cup of broth (my diet for a few days) and then nothing after midnight.

Day 1 - Sunday: Had a test called a HIDA scan where they inject dye into me and take pictures of it passing through my liver, gallbladder, and lower bowels. After an hour, it never went into my gallbladder.  Finally after 2-hrs, my gallbladder showed up, but not my bowels.  They were going to have me do an MRI. but decided against it because after all the consults, my gallbladder had to be evicted.  There were no stones, but there was "sludge".  Yup, that is the medical term for it.  Lovely, my gallbladder looked like a sewer.

I was going to have surgery on Sunday, but they found a blockage in a common bile duct between by liver and gallbladder most likely caused by a gallstone or the sludge.  The way to get it out was to have an ERCP or endoscope procedure where they stick a camera and tools through my mouth down through my digestive tract until they can clear it.  Or if they can't clear it, they have to tag it for the surgeons to get later. 

Day 2 - I had the ERCP.  They knocked me out for it.  I peed myself afterwards...not one of my best moments and it was embarrassing.  The problem I had was afterwards I had the worst tickle in my throat and developed a nasty cough.  They gave me spray and a one time lydacain (sp?) drink that numbed my throat and tasted NASTY.  Neither helped much.

Oh yeah, they couldn't find a stone, but did have to cut open the duct to remove sludge.  Ouch and yuck.

Day 3 - I had laproscopic surgery to remove my gallbladder.  Everyone said it was a super easy surgery and I would barely feel any pain.  THEY ALL LIED!! I had lots of pains and then they wanted to kick me out 3-hrs after surgery.  I couldn't eat, I was nauseous, I was dizzy from being knocked out again and there was NO way I was leaving.

They finally let me stay, but I had to prove I could eat.  I barely ate anything and needed anti-nausea meds and during the night needed some morphine.  The main problem I faced was the IV fluids made me have to pee every hour to 2-hrs.  Each time I needed help getting out of bed and overcame my fear of peeing in front of someone else.

Day 4 - I wanted to go home.  Even though I was still in pain, it was time.  I got my drugs and we left the hospital.

So what happened.  Well, I would have eventually needed to have surgery regardless of the catalyst because that's how it works.  The gallbladder isn't needed so it's like an appendix.  My liver enzymes rose to dangerous levels because that block was causing bile to go back into my liver making it toxic.  Now that everything has been corrected, all levels are much better.

Side benefits...2 weeks off from work.  I go back Monday for 3 days then I'm off on scheduled vacation until after the 4th of July.  Not a bad June.  LOL

But because of this, I am 2-wks behind on blogging SYTYCD and will be traveling next so who knows if I'm going to start up again.  It's a responsibility that I have shirked and I am sorry for that.  

But as of this write up, I am almost healed, have 4 new scars, and seem to be able to eat whatever I want again which I like.  I really missed coffee and spicy food.