Surprise Surgery #2 update!

Thought it was all over didn't you? So did I! Wrong!! The two days after my gall bladder removal surgery were fine, I felt better, and I thought everything was finally on the way to being normal again. Thursday I started feeling more pain, and Friday it was so bad that I called the doctor. I spoke to his nurse and she said the pain I was feeling was most likely from the CO2 that they pump into your abdomen when they do the surgery. I said okay...went all weekend and I was back to taking vicodin every 3 hours or so. I had gone through 2 whole bottles of it in ONE week. My post-op appt was supposed to be tuesday but I was in so much pain that I called monday and had it rescheduled for that day.

We went into the office and I was in so much pain that they let me lie down in one of the rooms while I waited on the doctor. He ended up having to go over the hospital to do an emergency surgery or something so I waited there for an hour. I was sobbing and ended up throwing up from the pain. He finally came in and checked me and ordered some tests for the next day to figure out why I was still hurting so badly. He sent me home and told me I couldn't have any pain meds after midnight because they would affect the tests the next day which were scheduled to start at 7:30am. I made it to about 5am before I couldn't take it anymore and ended up in the ER.

We got there and the pain was soooo bad. I was crying and couldn't breathe, swallow, or move. I begged the ER doctor for some pain meds and he told me I could have a small amount of Demerol. It took the edge off for a little while and I went for the first test, which took an hour and half. I had to lay on this table and they took pictures of my abdomen every 5 to 10 minutes. The first hour was ok but by the end I was crying in pain again. My nurse from the ER came to give me some more Demerol when the first test was done and the stupid guy in Nuclear Medicine wouldn't let me have it. I yelled at him that I HAD to have SOMETHING and he still sent her away. So I ended up crying and throwing up AGAIN...and then I was off to ultrasound. That took about 30 more minutes. After that they took me back to my room in the ER and told me I had to drink this contrast stuff so I could have a CT scan, THEN I could finally get some pain meds. I took one look at that stuff and told my nurse I could NOT do it. I was sobbing and couldn't breathe let alone swallow two huge bottles of contrast. She said to "try" and left me there. My mom and Mitch kept telling me to just drink it and I kept crying and yelling at them that I just could not do it. My mom was so upset at one point that she had to leave the room. I seriously was in so much pain that I don't really remember a lot of what happened but I know I was yelling at them telling them that I could not take it anymore. Anyway, I got about half of one bottle down and it came right back up. The radiologist came back and told me not to worry about trying to drink anymore and she took me to get my CT scan done. That took about 10 minutes thank God, then I had to go back to Nuclear Medicine and have one more picture taken. FINALLY I got back to my room and got some Demerol. It did NOTHING for the pain. The nurse came back and had to give me some Dilauded which is pretty much the strongest thing she could give me. I could still feel pain but at least it was tolerable.

So finally the doctor says that he could basically tell nothing from all the tests. Great. So he sent me up to the GI lab and they put me to sleep and put a scope down my throat to find out what was going on. Well it ended up that I had a leftover gall stone stuck in one of my bile ducts blocking anything from flowing through it. They took out the stone and opened up the duct with a balloon. FINALLY. RELIEF!!!

I woke up in the recovery room and asked my nurse what happened. She explained it all to me and I cried and kept saying over and over that I was SO glad it was finally all over and I could take care of my baby now. I was in and out of sleep for the next few minutes and finally I ended up in a room. The doctor asked if I wanted to go home or stay and I chose to stay just in case. I'm glad I did because I couldn't hold ANYTHING down...not even ice...for the rest of the night. If I wasn't there getting fluids I would've been dehydrated.

But anyway...I am still recovering. My liver was not working right because of the gall stone, so I ended up getting jaundiced which causes my whole body to itch and feels like I have a sunburn everywhere. I have gashes and scratches all over from scratching. I am sooo tired but sooo glad not to be in any more pain!!!! I really hope this is all over with. It was worse than labor. Seriously.

Ok well I am going rest. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers AGAIN!