The Surgery.

About a week after we moved, I woke up on a Friday morning with horrible pain in my abdomen. I thought it was because I had drunk way too much grapefruit juice the day before. The same day our furnace was being replaced so thankfully, Loren was already staying home from work. I spent most of the day in the bathtub with the shower hitting my back because it was the only thing that seemed to help at all! Finally, it subsided and I was able to get some rest. Being in that much pain is exhausting!

The next Monday morning the same thing happened, only even worse! We packed up and headed to the ER where they gave me a pretty huge dose of morphine. Even with that though, when I had an ultrasound I had to roll onto my side and I thought I was going to die! The ultrasound turned out normal and the only thing they could find wrong was an elevated liver enzyme. So we went home and the next morning got in touch with a family doctor.

Tuesday, I went in for an appointment and they still couldn't find anything wrong. They actually had a team looking at me to try to figure it out. I felt like an episode of "House"!

Wednesday morning I looked in the mirror and realized I was YELLOW! I called them back and they had me come in again, only to find that while my liver enzyme was getting higher, nothing else had changed.

Thursday I stayed home all day because I didn't want anyone to see me looking like a lemon!

Friday we got a CT scan scheduled. It was in American Fork so we got to go for a little drive. They finally found out what the problem was, and it should have been picked up on the ultrasound. I had several stones in my gallbladder and one had fallen into my common bile duct. I know, doesn't that sound cute! So that night, our doctor called us to let us know that I would have to have surgery to remove my gallbladder the next day. My family was at an NRA banquet and it was my dad's birthday. I called him and said, "Happy birthday! I'm having surgery tomorrow, when can Mom leave?" I'm sure it made for a great present... *sigh*. After the CT scan I wasn't supposed to nurse Ethan so we made a run to Walmart for some supplies and had to get him used to a bottle. Oh, that was an ordeal! Thankfully I had frozen quite a bit of milk so we at least were able to use that till we ran out Saturday night.

Saturday morning my mom left fairly early and we checked into the hospital at about 11 am. I guess it was good that I was so distracted by trying to get Ethan to take a bottle because I didn't get nearly as nervous about the surgery as I would have otherwise! Of course, all the nurses loved Ethan and it didn't hurt that he was being a total flirt! When I actually was taken in for surgery my mom wasn't too far away, so it was a comfort that I knew she would be there when I came out. More for Loren than for me! If I was distracted by Ethan, he did all the extra worrying for me! Mom is the veteran of being on the sidelines when someone has surgery(My dad had part of a lung removed, and he's had back surgery. So this was relatively minor to her!) so she was able to really take charge and take a lot of the worry away from Loren. She also kept me pretty in line whether I needed it or not! (Love you Mom!) Right before I went in for surgery Loren gave me a kiss and said, "It's weird kissing a yellow woman." Now that's romantic!

When I came out of the anesthesia after the surgery the first things I was aware of was an intense pain in my shoulder, and that I really needed chap stick! They gave me a little more pain medicine and some vaseline. The next thing I wanted to know was if my mom had gotten there yet. She had. They took me back to my room and told me I didn't get anything to eat. I hadn't been allowed to eat since Friday evening and while I was on IVs to stay hydrated, my stomach didn't know that! I got a few ice chips throughout the night, but that doesn't go very far to an empty stomach. We found out that a stone, had indeed fallen into my common bile duct, so I would have to have that removed the next morning. Loren and Mom took Ethan and got some food while I slept off the rest of the anesthesia.

About midnight Saturday night we ran out of frozen milk and had to start using formula. *Shudder* I never want to do that again! Ethan got really sick and started throwing up. He also got listless, his cheeks were red and a raw blotchy, and his diapers turned bright green! I felt so awful for all of that! I kept kicking myself for not freezing more milk, but I had never even expected to use it so I figured I had more than enough! Thankfully I was able to start nursing late Sunday night. He improved drastically and quickly after that!

Sunday morning I got to go in and have them stick a big tube down my throat, through my stomach and into my common bile duct. They then used a "basket" to get a stone(which they also took pictures of, but I'll spare you and not post them!). I woke up a little before they were done and I felt the tube still in my throat. That was a very strange feeling! I started to tell them I was waking up(around the tube) but almost immediately I was back under. When I came out, they said I could eat "clear liquids". I got to eat jello, apple juice and other things like that. Oddly enough, they all tasted heavenly! That evening I even got to start on a liquid diet which meant I could have tomato soup and let me tell you, that was amazing! I got really cold once during the night and asked for tomato soup. It was SO good!

Monday morning I was hoping to be able to go home, but because some of my liver enzyme levels were still pretty high they wanted me to stay another day at least. The worst part? I had to go back to ice chips... *sob* One of the strangest things about the whole experience was an itch that made me feel like I'd rolled in aloe vera(I'm allergic)! I'm sure I looked funny, but I was so itchy that I was almost constantly scratching my legs and arms. My feet and hands seemed to be the worst areas of all! I actually had a spot on my feet that I scratched to the point it was starting to go raw! My mom tried to be helpful by getting some Gold-bond lotion... but it had aloe in it. We had a good laugh about that. I've been away from home long enough that she didn't even think of it! We used to have to be really careful when I lived at home about our shampoo, conditioner, soap and lotions.

Aside from having a really fun nurse, Monday was pretty boring. We just hung out in the room except for walks to help me heal faster. I did get a shower and my mom got me some flowers and a few magazines to entertain us. I had a great book that helped time go by more quickly and it was wonderful to be able to nurse again and not mess with bottles or a sick baby. Loren had to run errands for a good bit of the day so he ended up not going to work and it was good to spend time with him. Casey Crosby came over that evening and we had fun talking to him for quite a while. Oh! And that evening I also got to EAT again! Not much and it was just clear liquids again, but when you only have ice chips ANYTHING else tastes fabulous!

Tuesday morning they came and gave the ok for me to go home. When I got home I was tired from just getting packed and down to the car, then to the house from the car that I just fell asleep for a while. My mom had lots of fun playing with Ethan and she even cleaned my house! I hadn't done anything the week before when I'd been sick and worried, so that kept her busy for a little while!

The rest of the week I was pretty weak(hee, hee... didn't even think about that till after it was out!). I fell over several times and it was a good thing my mom was there because I really couldn't have done it without her. Or rather, Loren wouldn't have been able to go to work! We went shopping for non-fat foods since my body couldn't process fat for a while and it would cause me to run for the bathroom. I've learned that some fat free foods are disgusting, but others are actually really good! For example, non fat butter spray? Delicious! Non fat cream cheese? Yuck!

My mom had to leave eventually though, things in Cowley seem to fall apart when she's gone too long! I really enjoyed her being here and it was the one bright spot about having to have surgery.
I have fully recovered and aside from not being able to have much fat at all(which is actually a good thing, it's really sped up the post partum weight loss!) I am pretty much back to my old self. It doesn't seem that my gallbladder was the culprit of all my health problems, but at least I'm not incapacitated every few days!