Adventures in Gall Stones

I have had so much fun over the past few days I don't know what to do with myself. For those of you who don't know, I have spent the last day an a half at Troy Beaumont hospital. (For those of you who do know, you can skip this part and move on to the next part...although I don't know what that is yet, since I have not yet written it) Why was I in the hospital, you ask? Well....it all started Tuesday afternoon. I got home from a lovely Target outing - I went for a bottle brush, and the movie "SnowBuddies" for Emily, and came home with over $100 worth of stuff, and no bottle brush. I was making Paige's bottles when I started to have this pain. I thought it was from not going to the bathroom for a while, so I finished the bottles, and went. Didn't help. Then I thought it may be indigestion, so I drank a diet Coke and had some Tums. Lots of burping ensued, but still not better. In fact, it was getting worse. I thought I was having a heart attack, but Eric said I would have other symptoms and other pains, and I wasn't having any of that. After about 5 hours of this excruciating pain, I came to the realization that it must be my gallbladder. Eric did some quick internet research on it, and by golly, I was right. So at 10:30pm, in the middle of a snowstorm, we set off for the hospital.

I was in the ER for the rest of the night. Eric left at 4am to go and get some sleep. They were taking forever with my ultrasound results - but they did give me some lovely medication for pain. I was unfortunate enough to get to listen to a real live "code" in the ER - and the man that they were working on died at 6:14am. It was awful - I was praying for him the whole time, although he was pretty much gone when he arrived. Shortly after that, they moved me to another area. The hospital was packed and there were no rooms to be had. At 8:00 am, I was informed that I would be having a ERAC procedure at 10am. This is where they put a scope down your throat and look at your gall bladder from the outside. They do this so that they can remove any stone that have ventured outside the bladder, and also open up the pathway between the gall bladder and the digestive system so that it can drain out a little better - preventing further attacks until the gall bladder can be removed. It was a pretty painless procedure - I was out for the whole thing. My throat hurt a little afterwards, but only for about 30 minutes. Not too bad. At about 3:30pm, I was moved into a regular room - a private one with a view of the blizzard that was happening outside. They still didn't have a time booked for my gall bladder removal, and it wasn't looking like it was going to happen that day...or even the next. But, in any case, I was on a no drink, no food diet just in case. Later in the evening, they decided that surgery wasn't going to happen that night, so I was given juice and broth for dinner. It was the best thing I have ever eaten.

So, are you wondering why I am already home? Well, they are so packed, they sent me home this afternoon, and my gall baldder removal - I am sure that there is some fancy name for it, but I don't know what it is - is scheduled for Monday at 11am. I am on a restricted diet of low fat, low cholesteral, so as not to anger the gall stones and send me back to the ER. It's not fun, but neither is that pain, or the ER, so I will take it.

My Mom and Eric did a great job of taking care of the girls while I was gone. I missed them terribly. Emily came with her Daddy to pick me up today - a very nice surprise. I gave them both about 1,000 hugs and kisses so far today, and I think I will give them both at least two times that before they go to bed. It stinks being sick, and it doubly stinks being sick in the hospital. Fortunately, I did have great doctors and nurses taking care of me. Even met a nurse tech from Coral Springs, Florida!! Small world.

So, I am home now, with hopefully no pain. Back to the grind. Here's a couple photos from the past two days. I would have some of the snow, but I haven't had time yet today. Will do that later today, and post them tomorrow. Have a GREAT Thursday!! Oh, and sory abut eany typoes - spellchecjk is not wroking....... :)

Emily with her beloved movie - I bought it for her as babysitting compensation. She has watched it about 20 times already.

Paige and Grandma yesterday while I was in the hospital.