Appendix-ectomy

Tuesday night (Aug 2) we had dinner, did baths and, while Ben read to Elizabeth, I fed James and laid him down.  I came out from laying him down and felt super uncomfortable pain in my stomach.  I thought it was gas pains so I went to the bathroom to try to see if that helped but it just got worse and worse.  The uncomfortable pain in my stomach quickly turned into a desperately tight pain in my chest.  It felt like someone had a rope around my ribs and was yanking it tight; I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t talk, my heart was racing and I was in a full blown panic attack.  Ben kept asking me what was wrong and I couldn’t even respond or put it into words.  The pain started going up my neck and my jaw muscles clenched. My mind was going 100x a minute; am I having a heart attack? Is this intense heart burn (which I heard can feel like a heart attack)? I laid on my back. I laid on my side. I sat. I stood. Nothing helped the pain. (Although laying down and focusing on breathing helped me stop panicking as much.)

I then got in a super-hot bath; this is something that I would never have imagined doing before having children but I have learnt that a bath completely soothes any tense muscles (it is my go-to for back pain).  I laid in the water until the pain was manageable and tried to get out- nope, there it was again.  I got back in the bathtub in pain and tried to calm my body down.  Next thing I know I am sputtering awake (yikes- don’t sleep in the bathtub), I guess the pain left and I was so exhausted from the ‘ordeal’ that I just fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning feeling sore but okay and decided to go to the chiropractor.  While there I asked to talk to their doctor to get his opinion.  He checked me out, asked a couple questions and then said that he thought it was my gallbladder and that if anything else like this happened that I should go to my doctor or the urgent care.  So… we went swimming and to the store and went on with our normal day, except as the day progressed I again started to feel more and more pain. 

Ben came home from work to me laying on the couch in pain (nowhere near the pain of the night before) and so we decided it was a good chick-fil-a night.  I went with the family but ended up staying in the car because I was so uncomfortable. Driving home we decided that I needed to see someone and Ben dropped me off at the Emergency Room.  My parents came up and my Mom came to help me at the hospital while Dad watched the kids (Ben had to go to a study group).

At the hospital they hooked me up to some pretty heavy pain medication.  It is always funny how they give you the medication and let it take effect and then come as ask you the question; so what’s your pain scale? Umm… now or before you gave me these super awesome drugs?  After the pain was gone I was feeling a bit silly about the pain and told Mom that I must have overreacted and should just go home. HA- that wasn’t happening.  After some blood work and an ultrasound the surgeon came in and told me that they saw a gallstone and I needed to have my gallbladder taken out.  Then came the big BUT there was a man who was brought into the ER who had head trauma and needed immediate surgery so I would have to wait until the morning.

I was moved into the Joint and Bone Wing because they had extra room until my surgery the next morning.  It was super comfy and nice and my bed actually adjusted (with air) to my every move. Ben came up to say goodnight and, did I forget to mention, “Happy Anniversary.” Yes, 9 years and in the hospital. I had a painless but fitful night (nurse checks, ect) and woke up to find that my surgery would be at 10. I got to facetime “Good Morning” to the kids and then just had to wait (I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything).  They came and got me, took me to surgical prep and got me all prepared and I was scared. I was nervous and I was alone and I was having to be an adult about it and it was hard.  I talked non-stop (wonder where Elizabeth gets it?) to the nurses, who just smiled and nodded because they probably knew that I was talking because I was nervous.  And then…. I woke up. 

I don’t remember them giving me anything. They never had me count down from 100.  They just put me to sleep and I didn’t even know it was coming.  I had jaw surgery in 2004 and had a horrible nightmarish time waking up and that is one of the reasons I was so nervous for surgery.  However this time I woke up I was in a recovery room and my Mom was there next to me.  I remember seeing her and then going back to sleep. It was really REALLY hard for me to wake all the way up; I was still a little out of it when they moved me out of the surgical center to my recovery room.  Before moving me out of the surgical center they made me go to the bathroom.  I was unhooked and helped to the bathroom.  I remember drearily sitting down to pee and thinking, “What? How am I peeing upwards?” I looked down to see, not pee, but blood pooling in my lap.  With no real reaction or urgency (yeah, I was still pretty out of it), I wiped, stood up, pulled up my panties and went to the door.  As I exited the bathroom, I looked at Mom and the Nurse and said, “I’m bleeding.” Once they saw the blood on my gown they quickly lifted it to find that one of my incisions had popped open and was bleeding.  It was the one in my belly button and so they just stuffed it was gauze and called it good.

By that afternoon I was drinking clear liquids and eating toast.  To leave the hospital I had to have my oxygen to a certain number but I kept coming short, so my nurse would have me take a couple deep breathes before checking to get me up to the number so I would go home.  I got home around 6 in the evening and got to see the kids (who had played with Rachel all day).  I was on a lot of pain medication, I was exhausted, sore and I still wasn’t eating a ton but I was home.

Friday went by pretty smoothly with me sleeping the majority of the day. On Saturday I tried to do a little more but my back started to hurt- ugh, lying in bed all day.  I also started getting super nauseated and was unable to keep anything down.

By Sunday morning I was miserable, nauseated and in pain (while on intense pain medication). Ben went to church with the kids, leaving me alone and I thought I was going to die.  I thought my pain medication was causing my nausea, so I decided to stop taking it and just take some Tylenol instead.  It was at the point that I realized how much my medication was actually doing for me, which was a lot, and the nausea still was not gone.  I called the on-call doctor and he prescribed an antinausea medicine.  Ben left church to go get it for me and arrived home to see me in a horrible state. I thought my back was out and I was in so much pain that I could not get comfortable anywhere.  I just sobbed and sobbed to Ben and finally, after the nausea stopped and medication got into my system, I slept. 

The next day I went to the chiropractor again.  Afraid that he would open my incisions they did some stimulation and pressure on my back instead of adjusting it.  Rachel saw me that afternoon and was shocked at how jaundice I was.  Then my Mom saw me and she was also surprised at the yellow of my eyes.  After talking to an on-call nurse we decided that I should go to Urgent Care to make sure that I was okay. (Again, Mom came with me and Dad stayed with Ben and the kids).

We arrived at Urgent Care with the normal expectations; waiting room full of people and an expected long wait.  However, our wait was relatively short.  Once they saw that I was jaundice they took me back pretty quickly and immediately took my blood.  Then we waited, as I got fluids through an IV, for the Doctor to come in.  He finally came in and without even sitting down said, “Your numbers are too high, we are sending you to the hospital this minute. Do not tarry.” (The average blood test-I can’t remember for what- is around 50 and mine was over 720- yikes)

So, we arrived back at the hospital, were given a room (and another hospital robe- blah) and just had to wait. A Dr came in to explain what was happening.  Sometimes if a gallstone is released before the gallbladder is removed, you can have another “attack” as your body tries to pass it (hence my horrible sick Sunday).  If the gallstone gets stuck in a tube the bile from the liver will back up (causing the jaundice).  The worry is that the gallstone will go into the kidney and cause infection, so they have to remove it (through a tube through the mouth).  He also told us that back pain is a symptom of gallstones (so I have been passing them for a year!!) and it was interesting because Mom said that the first thing I said when I woke up from my surgery was, “My back hurts.” So the stone was probably in there and we didn’t know.

 They told me they would monitor me and watch over night and look at it again in the morning. In the morning (after another night of no food or water- just in case I had to have surgery), they took me in to have a CT Scan and found that I was alright.  The stone had passed on its own and there were no blockages. I had to stay the day to be monitored and wait until my blood work came back semi normal and then I was able to go home. 

I am so grateful for everyone was helped feed and watch my kids while I was in and out of the hospital and during my two-week recovery (of not lifting anything over 20 lbs).  I am grateful for my parents and for my Mom who was with me the entire time.  I am so grateful for Rachel and her constant help and coordination.  I could not have done it without so much help and I am grateful. 

At two-Weeks I went in for my check up and was told I could start lifting (a little) and slowly get back to a more active existence (and a less bland diet) but to be very careful.  I took this as- yahoo you are better!!  I told the doctor that I was signed up to run a race that Saturday and he looked at me skeptically and told me he did not think I should be running/jogging but walking would be fine. I kind of listened to his advice. 

Saturday August 20, Jaime and I ran the Color Run in Denver.  It is a 5k race where, at certain points, they through chalk at you.  Yes, I know it sounds weird but it was cool.  We walked most of it and jogged the small stations where the chalk was being thrown.  Then at the end they have a big mosh pit of people and an explosion of color. You end up being filthy and it was so fun!!

 

So, that is not where I pushed myself too hard but in my eating that day.  I had a donut right after running (yikes) and then a bagel sandwich about an hour later.  Then we had pizza for lunch and hamburgers for dinner.  I was seriously suffering.  Without a gallbladder to help regulate my bile my body cannot take as much fat, so I should monitor it buuuuttt… ouch.  A sad lesson learnt.

The next week was packing, cleaning, moving week and I had done NOTHING.  Stay tuned for that craziness (especially because I still wasn’t supposed to lift anything).