lisaviolet's diary

We had a really nice time at the Disney meet. The first night we ate kind of late for us, The Rainforest Cafe, then proceeded to drink at Tortilla Jo's. At Tj's it looked like they had a complete staff change. None of the bartenders were familiar at all. The old timers were gone. After TJ's, we went over to the Grand for drinks with the Baygirls.

We got back to our hotel around 2:30, in bed at 3:00. I was in the shower by 6:30 since we were supposed to start the day at 8:00 at Disneyland.

I honestly overdid. Pushed myself too hard. I was pretty tired when we headed home on Sunday. We drove through Carl's Jr's on the way home and made great time. Got unpacked and I got the bedding changed.

Between five and six that night, I had a really nasty chest pain. Gallbladder? I threw up, which was a first for me if this was my gallbladder. But I felt immediately better.

The problem was, it went on all week. No matter how little or what I ate, the pain kept coming back. Finally, on Sunday, the 23rd, Brian took me to a walk in clinic. They did some testing and it wasn't heart, it was gallbladder. They said "you need to go to the emergency room".

I was admitted to the hospital the morning of the 23rd, had an ultrasound, was put on NPO status (no food or water), IV fluids and antibiotics. I was scheduled for surgery to remove my gallbladder on Monday. I was taken to a building and given an MRI (OMG, I NEVER want to do that again) and then back to surgery. The surgeon came in and explained that I was scheduled for ten minutes later, but the MRI showed stones in the duct and they'd have to come out first.

Monday I got an ERCP, which emptied the ducts. Monday night, I puked. A lot. I'd not eaten anything since Sunday morning, which I lost before I was checked in to ER (I made it to the bathroom, I puked so hard I wet my pants; when I checked in I told the check in woman, hoping they had some disposable underwear or something and she told me "don't sit down anywhere", so I just stood there until they took me back). All that was in my stomach was the fluids and anesthesia stuff. My stomach rebelled. *lol*

Tuesday, I had gallbladder surgery. The worst part of that was the blowing up of my belly. The only way to get rid of the air is naturally. The gassy way. But you have to walk to get the gas to descend. It's hard to walk when you're so achy.

Wednesday, I came home. I had a prescription for percocet and when we got home, I called Costco to see if they had it in stock. They did and Brian went down to pick it up. There were thirty pills, take one or two every four hours as needed for pain. I've got twelve left, I only took them for a couple of days. I was counting the hours so I could take some Excedrin for the headache I brought home from the hospital.

I took it easy for the rest of the week, spent the first night on the sofa since it was so painful to move my torso. Thursday I slept in bed, using a pillow on my belly (Brian's suggestion) so when the cats jumped down from the window, it wouldn't hurt so bad. By Sunday, I didn't need the pillow anymore. It did hurt a little to lay on my side, but that's gone away.

My throat had problems. I had a tickle that I expect was from them shoving stuff down my throat for the procedures. But it turned out I'd also caught a cold. I was living on cough drops, which my tummy didn't like and every night when I laid down, I could feel the acid coming back up. But the coughing finally went away and no more cough drops and the last two nights have been great.

I'm going in for my followup this afternoon (unless they call and say "don't come, doc's out on emergency").

And now I get to watch the bills come in. I'm glad we have insurance. We're still going to be on the hook for thousands of dollars in bills, but it could have been a lot worse.

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Monday, November 07, 2011