Most people watch fireworks and picnic on the 4th. Some people watch baseball games. Josh and I decided to do something a little different this year. But first a little back story....
So, during my pregnancy I would sometimes get intense pains in the middle of my upper back (between my shoulder blades) and/or across the top of my rib cage mainly on the right side. Now when I say intense I mean that it hurt to sit, stand or lay down and it hurt to breathe. The pain would last anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours and made it impossible to function. These "episodes" sometimes occurred at work but usually hit later at night once I was home. One episode started while I was driving to my grad school class final. I finished the test in record time (do they keep records like that?) due to the fact that I couldn't focus and it hurt to sit there. Josh and I often debated whether or not I should go to the emergency room during these bouts of pain. Josh represented the "let's go" side and I camped out on the "I can get through this without the emergency room" side of the fence. I was resistant to going to the emergency room because I thought the pain was caused by gas and it is embarrassing to go to the ER because you have gas.
Eventually I described these pains to my doctor and she thought that I might have stones in my gall bladder. She told me that she could run some blood tests and that if I needed to that I could have surgery to remove my gall bladder. She assurred me that gall bladder surgery while pregnant was totally safe. I explained to her that between work, grad school, job and house hunting that I didn't have time to have surgery whether I was pregnant or not.
I'm sure by now you are starting to wonder what this has to do with Independence Day.
Wednesday my mom came over to help me pack some boxes. Wednesday at 3am after I fed Noah I noticed that my back was starting to hurt again. An "episode" was coming on so I took some advil and went back to sleep. The pain persisted when I woke up. And persisted. And persisted. My mom finally convinced me that maybe I should go to the ER around 4pm because I was hurting so badly that I couldn't function which included being totally unable to take care of Noah. I would describe the pain of these episodes as worse then my labor experience. So, I gave in and up to the ER we went.
At the ER they did some blood work and a sonogram of my gall bladder. I not only had gall stones but some of the stones were stuck in the ducts connecting my liver and some other organs. This was causing all sorts of havoc on my system. The ER doc asked if I'd had pains like this in the past. I explained that I had them throughout my pregnancy as well as 3 other "episodes" in the past week. She then admitted me to the hospital for a procedure to remove the stones in the ducts and a surgery to remove my gall bladder. I asked if they could do both at once but I was told that wasn't possible.
So, we spent Wednesday night at the hospital. Thursday was spent in misery because my procedure was at 3:30 and I couldn't have anything to eat or drink after 7am. Due to the fact that the stones were causing blockages my bilirubin count had gone pretty high and I was totally jaundiced. We should've taken a picture to commemorate how yellow I was.... Anyway, I got to have full anestesia and go to sleep while they removed the stones from my ducts. Afterwards I was starving but was on a "clear liquid diet" due to the surgery I was having the next day. At this point it has been about 36 hours since I had eaten anything solid.
Friday morning at 6:30am another anestesiologist woke me up to have me sign consent forms for my surgery. They rolled me down at 7am and I had surgery to remove my gall bladder. Happy Birthday America!! I have four small incisions in my abdomen that they actually put back together with glue instead of stitches. I was ready for a chipotle burrito, pepperoni pizza and a cheeseburger at this point but they insisted I start slowly with more clear liquids and eventually a turkey sandwich. They sent me home Friday night around 7pm. My mom made chicken, rice and salad and I promptly ate everything in sight. We just watched fireworks on TV since I wasn't in much of a mood to get out and about at that point.
It was definitely a 4th of July that I won't forget for quite a while.
I'm a little sore still today. I would describe the pain as kind of like having a stitch in your side after you've been running. I have great pain meds though! :) And of course I now get to play the "I had surgery" card in order to avoid all things move related!!
Hope your 4th was hospital free!!!
