Atomic Bomb!

Monday January 21st around 8 PM I felt like I had an atomic bomb explode in my stomach. The pain was excruciating. I have never experienced anything to that caliber in my life and believe me I have experienced a lot of painful things. After suffering until about 10:45 PM I called my fabulous sister in law and had her take me to the ER here at Vancouver. She lovingly and kindly did so and we spent hours in the ER. The redid the ultra sound that I had done on Friday by my primary doctor on Friday and discovered that I had more than 4 gallstones and that my gallbladder wall was thicker than it should be. Dr. Slovic, whom I was going to be seeing January 30th, was called to do the surgery on me on Tuesday afternoon. My dear sweet friend Debra came to stay with me since my sister in law Kris and my sister Carri couldn’t come until later in the afternoon. Carri takes care of my mom and Kris has her family of 7 to take care of. This was inconvenient for all of us and I felt so bad. My body at times has a mind of its own and this was one of those times. I knew my gallbladder needed to be cared for and that is why I went and saw my primary a few days prior to this painful ordeal. Apparently, my body decided that she needed to have the procedure done earlier and so I did.

Tuesday afternoon my friend Debra, who runs Angel Wings Animal Shelter came down from Longview with her therapy dog Curly and sat with me until I was wheeled into the surgical room for my procedure. She got to meet my sister Carri and my sister in law Kris and keep them company while they waited four long hours for my procedure to be done. It was going to be done laproscopically, but it was done the old fashion way where they cut me open in six different spots. One just above my belly button, one to the side of my belly button and four new both of my breasts and I have sixteen staples to contend with. I hurt, but this pain is a lot better to deal with than the atomic pain of Monday night. Monday night’s pain could only be helped by Dilaudid and this pain I am experiencing now is being helped by the oxycodone that they prescribed me.

Despite hurting, I feel extremely blessed by the many supporters that I have in my life, both family and friends and even complete strangers.

I had three amazing surgeons Dr. Slovic, Dr. Adams, and Dr. Sunshine (yes Dr. Sunshine is his real last name). Dr. Sunshine and Dr. Adams both said to me when they asked what was up with my throat (they have never seen me before, only on the operating table so it was a valid question). When I said I have a subglottic stenosis due to an auto-immune disease. Dr. Sunshine said to me “you are one smart lady”. He seemed surprised and impressed with my knowledge of what my body is doing.

I am thankful to be home with my cat Nicholas and in my own bed tonight and even have my laptop and own things and not have to be poked every few hours for blood sugar testing, to get a Hepburn shot, or check any of my Vidal’s and after a while that gets annoying.

A new leg of my journey is starting. On February 7th I am going to be seeing a Dr. Coats, a Pulmonologist about getting my butt moving so I can build up my heart muscle. I believe I needed this surgery before I even consider doing such a thing. All the surgeons agreed that my gallbladder was very ill, those are the exact words they used.
One thing I am noticing that is a blessing is that my stomach shrank and I cannot eat as much as I used to. That is a good thing, especially since I want to lose weight and be healthier.
I am glad to be home. I am blessed and this experience has shown me all the supporters I have and how much I do inspire and who inspires me. What inspires you to be the best you can be even when you are in a ton of pain?