Surgery

April 17, 2009

Today is the day my gallbladder is to come out. I've had some serious attacks where it hurts to breathe, stand up straight, move, you name it, it hurt. There were no particular triggers either, so I was never sure what foods to avoid.

I'm nervous because I've never had surgery before (I don't count wisdom teeth). I am more anxious because instead of getting it over with at my original 8 AM start time, the surgery got moved to noon. UGH.

So I get to the facility and get all the pre-op stuff done. I am overwhelmed with emotion and while I'm sitting there waiting for the nurse, I started to cry. Justin wasn't in the room with me yet, but I made sure they brought him over as soon as it was possible. I think my nerves and everything that I had been worried about during the week caught up with me.

Not to mention that the waiting was the worst. I also had to have another blood draw done while I waited because for some reason the lab had missed doing this one test when they did all the other ones. I have never been the most patient person and they didn't come to take me for surgery until 1:00, partly due to waiting for said lab work results and partly because they got out of the surgery before me late.

Once I was brought into the room, I felt myself get tense and upset all over again but the doctors were very nice and made me feel more at ease (not to mention the relaxing drugs they gave me)! It was over so quickly. In and out in about 45 minutes.

The pain was pretty bad, but if I didn't move to much, it wasn't too bad. I was made to stay over night and getting out of bed to use the ladies room was not fun. There was no easy way to get out of the bed and even though Justin helped me, it was difficult.

I was discharged on Saturday and every bump and jiggle of the car caused me pain but I was so happy to be home. I had 4 incisions put in my stomach. Two very small incisions on my side, a larger one, right above my belly button, and the fourth one just under rib cage to the right.

The upside to all of this, is I do not have to worry about my kids while I recover. My parents are watching them and keeping them busy. I don't worry about them when they are up there for a visit.