When Weekends Go Wrong

Saturday was supposed to be my catch up day. I was supposed to mail out some books and gifts, go to the library to return some books, get groceries, pay the mortgage...all that good stuff. But, alas, it wasn't to be.

On Saturday, after waking up at 3:00 freaking a.m. to what felt like an iron ball below my sternum and sharp pain in my back, my body decided it was going to rid itself of everything I had eaten on Friday. And then continue to rid itself of stomach fluid. This went on for a couple of hours when I had enough and A took me to urgent care.

One blood test, an IV of nice rehydrating fluids and two doses of anti-nausea medication later, and I was off to ER because the docs at urgent care thought it might be my gall bladder rather than food poisoning or the flu.

I got to ER at 10:30am (or there abouts). More IV fluids and some wonderful pain medication helped to ease my suffering before they wheeled me up to have an ultrasound taken of my abdomen. Gall stones. Two freaking big ones. One blocking a duct. The prognosis? Surgery.

Funny thing is, I've never had any of the symptoms they asked me about. I've never had pain like this before. Never felt like I was having a heart attack or been wakened by pain like this. I've never had pain like this after fatty meals. Sure, I've had indigestion before, but have been diagnosed with mile reflux. Tums usually took care of it and life went on.

It was busy at the ER so they admitted me and then at 6pm I went down to see the doc. The surgeon was great. Very calming and very kind. He told me they would try to remove my gallbladder laparoscopically but if the stones were too big to be removed via my belly button, they would have to cut me open. The stones were almost too big, but they managed and I have four nice little holes in my belly.

I was in the hospital until Monday. The pain was not under control on Sunday so they kept me an extra day. It was kind of nice. They had cable. I don't at home. *sigh*

I'm still not at work. I'm sleeping a lot and it hurts when I do certain things, but I'm walking around, eating relatively normally and am not becoming a couch potato. Tonight, we're going to try a brief walk outside.

I have a tonne of gas. Some of it's from the carbon dioxide they use to push organs and such out of the way. Some of it is my body getting used to not having a gallbladder any more. But gas hurts. So does belching. And don't get me started with the hiccups. Ouch!

The Man's been great. Work's been okay. And my belly is hurting from sitting at the computer, so I'm going to go. Who knew that when I went to bed feeling fine on Friday that I would end up having surgery on Saturday? Crazy.