Gallbladders, Who Needs 'Em?

So, I had a pretty rotten week! I started feeling sick Sunday night, went to the emergency room on Wednesday night, was admitted with gallbladder disease with a side of jaundice, had surgery Thursday, and was able to go home Friday night... Ugh! I have always been really healthy, so this was quite a shock!



Shortly after the girls went to bed on Halloween night, Kasey and I were watching TV before we went to bed and I fell asleep on the couch. He woke me up so that we could go to bed, I got up and all of a sudden I had sharp stomach pains. I felt like I was going to throw up and minutes later my back started to hurt horribly! Kasey tried to help me by popping my back, but it didn't help - not one bit! I tried really hard to fall back asleep, but after tossing and turning for quite a while, I got out of bed so I didn't keep Kasey up since he had to work in the morning. I wanted to throw-up so bad, even though I absolutely hate it, just so that I could feel better! A couple hours later, it finally happened and I didn't feel ANY different! I had no idea what to do. So after brushing my teeth, I got a heating pad and my pillow and layed down restlessly on the couch. It was awful.

Monday morning, Kasey got up to go to work and saw that I was still awake and in tears. I got up to get Mikenna ready for school, but he had called Mike and told him he was going to stay home to take care of me (awww... :-) he is so sweet) I told him I could handle it, but he insisted. So I took a hot bath while he got her ready, packed her lunch, and took her to school; the only thing I had to do is do her hair (and that's because I insisted! haha) Kasey was really worried because the pain hadn't let up ALL day, I have to admit that I was a little scared myself but I toughed through it and got a little bit of sleep that night.



Tuesday, I felt a little better so I thought I was getting better - maybe the stomach flu or something. I still had a constant dull pain in my stomach and back. I got more sleep that night than the last two and when I woke up Wednesday morning I thought I was definitely getting better because I felt pretty normal but still had a few twinges of that pain here and there. It was noon and I was skyping with my sister and I had to cut it short because all of a sudden the pain was back full-force and I was absolutely miserable. I was hurting so bad, and I put up with it until about 9 before I finally gave into the torturous pain and Kasey's "begging" to go to the doctor before I drove myself to the emergency room. It literally felt like I was in labor again...



I felt a little silly walking in because the pain seemed to subside a little again, but I decided to just go anyway. They took blood and started an IV because I was pretty dehydrated - getting the IV in was quite the ordeal, they poked and wiggled the needle around in both hands and finally got one in on the third try in the middle of my left forearm (not a very fun procedure to begin with, 3 times?! Ouch!) I layed there in the ER for 3 hours before the doctor came in and said that he wanted to ADMIT me! He said that he was worried about my labs because it looked like I had gallbladder disease caused by gallstones that were blocking the common bile duct and it was poisoning my liver and they were going to have to take it out. I didn't have an infection which was pretty much the only thing going for me, and the doctor was surprised because the risk of it happening increases substantially 6 hours after the onset of symptoms and I was going on 3 days. I was halfway expecting (or maybe hoping...) them to tell me to go home and quit being a baby, but SURGERY?!

Here I am - scared... exhausted... in a new hospital... in a new town... all by myself... and I was going to have surgery in the morning... with a surgeon I had never met... 4 incisions... organ removal... in a tiny little town... and so on... Have I made my point? I was TERRIFIED! I called Kasey, my mom, and texted Kasey's mom (she told me to text her as soon as I knew anything). I couldn't sleep hardly at all, and neither could Kasey; we talked on the phone until about 3:30 in the morning. After that, my brother called and talked to him for about an hour. I fell asleep due to pure exhaustion and was awoke by another needle. Anyway, Thursday Kasey and the girls came to see me and my mom cancelled all of her appointments to drive down to help us out with the kiddos which was so nice. I had an ultrasound, 10 hours worth of phone conversations, turned yellow from jaundice, and had my 2 1/2-hour surgery at about 3 in the afternoon. I briefly saw the girlies afterwards and my mom took them home while Kasey stayed in the hospital with me, but I was pretty out of it until about 9 or so. More bloodwork, painkillers, bandage removal, and finally I was able to go home at about 7 in the evening on Friday.



What a week, huh? My AST and ALT (liver enzymes) levels at 6:30 in the morning on Thursday were 700 when normal is 30-40!! There were some more elevated numbers, but that one was the one that really stood out. I learned that I had 2 gallstones the size of marbles and about a half a dozen smaller ones that I have probably had for quite some time but they just decided to act up, my gallbladder was inflamed so they had to make a larger incision to get it out, I have a blood vessel that is in a unique place (that they weren't expecting to be there, and made surgery a little tricky... Yikes.) and I saw a picture of it, and my liver enzyme levels were at 400 when they said I could go home. Still very high, but going down. Follow-up appointment in 2 weeks. Ugh!