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Archive for February, 2017

Surgery Update!

February 11th, 2017 at 06:24 pm

Well it is the beginning of the third day after surgery and I'm doing better than the day of lol.

The day of surgery I arrived at the hospital and while waiting, the power to the hospital went out but the emergency generators did kick on. So my surgery didn't happen at the time that it was anticipated. The Surgeons wanted to wait until the power was stable. They had to actually stop in the middle of another surgery when it first went out.

The surgery did go well and my gallbladder was successfully removed. It was done by laparoscopic so therefore I only have four small incisions in my abdomen. Three of them don't hurt at all but the one in my tummy button is the worst. That's the one where they pulled the gallbladder out. I figured that they went in at an angle because it's mostly the center of my abdomen that is painful. The doctor was very cool and gave me pictures of my insides. One of my gallbladder before removal and after it was gone (I asked if he would be able to). SO COOL.

I had a friend stay with me the first night but I'm on my own for now although she does check up on me. Both myself and my parents are very grateful that she was able to do so. Especially since it was last minute and I didn't know I needed someone to stay with me until a few hours after my surgery was done. I take my pain medicine and try to stay ahead of it. I've learned to only take one of my percocet instead of two no matter the pain, which is less than the abdominal pain I suffered BEFORE surgery. It somehow affects my breathing when I take two. I don't understand why but I think it's the dosage. It didn't do that in the past... I also have grunt candy (ibuprofen 800mg) that I take to supplement it as well per nurses orders.

I do have only one current issue that should go away in due time. I cannot sit up for long periods of time. I tend to start getting light-headed. It feels like my blood pressure is dropping but I don't have a BP monitor to check it. Guess I should purchase one eventually... But the time I'm able to sit up gets longer and longer. I do get up and walk around my apartment so I'm not always laying down.

Other than that I eat only when I need to and very little. I like the chicken broth I bought but should eat more, but since my tummy hurts when I eat I keep it to a minimum. (I see how people lose a lot of weight after an abdominal surgery)

My incisions are glued together on the outside so I don't have to worry about having my stitches taken out. Last time the nurse missed some and I ended up finishing the job when I returned home. LOL.

I contact my parents daily by video call, so they can monitor me too. My follow-up is in one week and hopefully if I can't drive by then, I'll find someone to take me. My friend will be on holiday then so I'll have to find someone else.

I'm pretty much just laying on the couch with my wedge pillows (best thing I ever bought right now) and I have almost 30 books to keep me company all within easy reach. I'm drinking water but definitely need to eat more.

At this point, I'm hoping that this post is clear and understandable. Being on the medicine I'm on makes me feel loopy which I distinctly dislike. I've gone over this post several times so I hope it's good to go and forgive me please if I am rambling.

Surgery!

February 4th, 2017 at 05:51 am

So what had happened was.... lol

For the past month I've been having abdominal pain. REALLY BAD abdominal pain. On a scale of 10 it was about a 7.5 at worse. So a few weeks ago I was in the ER, on morphine.. Between then and now, I have had 3 pregnancy tests, 1 CT Scan, and 2 ultrasounds.. NOTHING... absolutely nothing was found.

So finally the Doctor ordered a test to see how my gall bladder was functioning because I'm the right demographic for it (I'm 40 years old). So the test is to last two hours and occurs this past Wednesday (Feb 1st). I showed up at 0830 and was told I'd be given this radiation so that they could track the functioning and I could actually watch it on the monitor. They allowed me to sleep the whole time because I wasn't allowed to move anyways.

So as two hours slowly roll by, I'm watching the monitor and talking to the technician. The whole time the only thing that shows up on the monitor is just my liver and large intestines. So they decided to do a delayed test which means that I had to do another one at 1300... Again, nothing on the monitor but liver and intestines. So she calls the doctor and lets him know what's happening and he's like "come see me right now".

So off I go and at about 1400 he tells me that my gall bladder isn't functioning. So I get recommended for gall bladder removal surgery because if it's not removed then bad things like death will happen.

So I'm like ok, I'll get surgery within the month or so, not a big deal. The surgery department calls me THAT DAY. Not even an hour later... Tells me to come in the next day for the consult. So I'm thinking.. maybe this is serious...

So I see the Surgeon and she tells me that I'm getting surgery NEXT WEDNESDAY (the 8th)! DEFINITELY SERIOUS. This is being considered as emergency surgery. After she talks to me for a bit, and I'm telling her stuff that has happened. She states that the time that I went to Korea and about this same time last year when I was vomiting and having nauseau was when my symptoms actually started. I even had an EGD and the Doctors there were like "it's just bad acid reflux" and gave me prescription prilosec.

She also tells me that if the pain spikes again (because my tummy is always tender and I'm in pain a LOT), to go directly to the ER and they will do the surgery then and there. (I hope it doesn't spike because I need to clean my apartment and car lol).

So now I'm a few days from surgery and about to clean my place and do as much as I can before Wednesday.

The good thing that I learned is that I should lose weight, at least an average of 15 pounds. This is great because I'm still trying to lose about 50 pounds.

But I am very grateful to know what the problem is and have it taken care of. Ironically there have been about 4 other people in my company that have had this same surgery. I don't know if it's the altitude here or what... (I live in Colorado).

By the way, I don't have gall stones at all. My gall bladder is just no longer functioning correctly.

I'll keep ya'll updated though!