Life As We Know It: Lap chole

Last spring I woke up early in the morning one morning in TONS of pain! The only thing I could think of that was causing the pain was a build up of gas. The pain was so intense and was the first time I had ever experienced anything like it. I woke Dave up and made him go get me some Gas-X from the store before he headed off to work. I was so hopeful it would take away the pain, but it didn't and the pain lasted a few more hours. When Oliver woke up I was able to get him to his swing, but then I spent the rest of the time crawling around on the floor. It was intense!

Last fall I experienced that same pain again. It felt like someone stabbed me in the right upper abdomen. The pain lasted for about three hours and was again the worst pain I had ever experienced!

The next "attack" came at the end of January. I ended up having two attacks in a 24 hour period. That was enough for me to call my doctor the next morning. They got me in right away. My blood pressure was super high even though I wasn't currently experiencing pain. My doctor suggested that I have an ultrasound to check out my gallbladder. Dave had thought it might be my gallbladder, but I was convinced it was gas pains. I had an ultrasound later that day. He also had me do a stool study which was negative. When my doctor called me with the results of the ultrasound he said there were stones and some sludge (which eventually turns to stones) in my gallbladder, but it wasn't bad enough to warrant surgery at that point. He told me to just keep him posted with how things were going. I had a followup appointment with him on Friday, February 27th. I told him that I was doing well. I had felt like that pain was starting a couple of times over that month, but after I took some Tums nothing ever came of it so at this point I was convinced it was a stomach issue and that I had it under control.

By that next Tuesday (March 3rd) I was in severe pain again. This time I had three attacks in a 24 hour period! Dave called my doctor and they had me come in on Wednesday. Overnight I almost went to the ER because I was in so much pain, but I didn't want to have to go alone but also didn't want to wake the boys up so we could all go so I suffered through. Along with the pain I started having vomiting spells. I haven't vomited in probably 14 years so I wasn't excited about this new symptom at all!

At my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, March 4th, he suggested that I get in right away with a surgeon. I was sent directly from his office to the surgeon's office. The surgeon looked at my ultrasound, talked to me for about 10 minutes about my symptoms, and then suggested surgery...in two days (March 6th)! He said that I had a gallstone right at the opening leading in to the common bile duct. He was worried about it moving in to the common bile duct and worried about the fact that I was having multiple attacks per day so he thought surgery was needed ASAP.

Dave was able to get work off on such short notice and my sister-in-law, Tonya, was able to come down for the day (she lives about two hours north of us) to watch the boys. I was super nervous about having my first surgery, but was a little relieved that it was going to be done laparoscopically which has less recovery time. My doctor told me that I shouldn't lift anything over 20 pounds for 6 weeks, but when I mentioned that Oliver was about 25 pounds he said that I should be fine to lift him as long as I try to keep it to a minimum. It would've been a long six weeks if I wasn't allowed to lift him at all. Glad that didn't happen!

All went well with my surgery. The surgeon did tell Dave that a stone got away from them during the process of removing my gallbladder, but they were able to retrieve it. Dave had asked him for a video and/or pictures so he gave Dave some pictures. He told him to Google a laparoscopic cholecystectomy to see a video.

I had some problems post surgery with vomiting. It runs in my family so I should've expected it. I was super sleepy and felt like I was in a fog for a very long time. The requirement for me to go home was to get up and walk, to urinate, to have my pain controlled, and to not be nauseated. After a few hours I wasn't sure I was going to be able to accomplish all of that any time soon. After puking up my heavy duty pain pill, the nurse decided to give me an IV anti-inflammatory med instead. It wasn't long before I started feeling MUCH better and was able to take a walk around the day surgery center and urinated. My nausea and pain pretty much went away. She told me that I might be one of those people that ibuprofen works better on post surgery than the prescription pain meds. I took both for a few days post surgery, but ended up taking ibuprofen the longest because it helped more and didn't make me so drowsy.

I slept pretty much straight through the next three days only waking to eat a little something and take more meds. After watching me for 24 hours (suggested by the surgery center), Dave took the boys up to Tremonton to visit family and attend Lily's birthday party. It was so nice to have a quiet house to relax and recover in. Dave didn't come home with the boys until Monday afternoon. He then went back to work Tuesday, but I quickly realized that I wasn't able to take care of the boys alone quite yet and asked for him to come home. He worked things out with the school so that he could be home half days the rest of that week and the first part of the next week. He was around to get Miles to and from preschool and that was a HUGE help! It was so nice to have him around so much. He was a huge help and had a huge responsibility taking care of the three of us. He's an amazing man!

A week after my surgery I was able to fulfill a volunteer responsibility I had previously agreed to at the United Way and attended a benefit auction for the Women's Leadership Council (the group I used to work with). I helped with the check-in and check-out process. I was sore, but made it through the evening. A week and a half after my surgery I had my followup appointment with the surgeon. I was feeling great by then. He took off my steri-strips and said everything looked good. It took about ten days to feel back to normal. That's a pretty fast recovery! Overall my recovery went smooth. I occasionally had sharp pains in various parts of my abdomen, my incision sites (there are four small incisions) were sore for several days, and I had trouble sleeping because I'm a side sleeper and it hurt to sleep on my side, but other than that I did well.

I'm glad it's all over and hope and pray I never have to experience pain like those "attacks" ever again!