Down 54 pounds as of yesterday. It's probably more, but I forgot to weigh in today.
Starting back at my 3 month follow up appointment... Just about everything looked great. They're happy with my loss, and my nutrition numbers look good. However... (and isn't there always a "but"?) My bilirubin numbers were high, which made them want to look into my gall bladder function again. They checked pre-surgery for this same reason, but they were never able to document any problems, so they went ahead and left the gall bladder in. The first order of business was an ultrasound of the gall bladder, which got scheduled for early the next week.
It made me wonder. Because, I've known a lot of people who agonized for years with gall bladder issues, and it seems like they aren't really able to do anything about it until they catch it in the middle of acting up. I wondered how long I'd have to carry this issue around before we could do something about it. Then, Sunday night rolled around.
I was actually woken up by a nasty pain in my abdomen... right in the middle, where your ribs come together, and some off to the right. It was a nasty pain, and I remember having had it before, many times, prior to my bypass.
Eventually, it made me vomiting sick. The only trouble with that is that it had been hours since I'd eaten/drank anything, so there wasn't anything to come out. I spent hours that night dry-heaving. Dry heaving sucks ass when you don't have rearranged innards, but DAMN is it even worse when you do. Anyhow, I called the doctor's office because it concerned me, the idea that I may be damaging my stomach pouch with all this non-productive vomiting activity. They prescribed me anti-nausea medication and basically told me to take it easy for a few days. Likely, they said, I just had caught a stomach bug from someone. Well, the anti-nausea medication didn't work, and I had gone 3 days without eating, plus, it had taken 24 hours for me to drink a 20 oz container of gatorade. I then got paranoid about dehydration, which is a HUGE no-no after bariatric surgery. In a fit of pure paranoia, I had Michael take me to the Emergency Room.
They hooked me up to an IV for hydration and began poking my abdomen with their sharp little fingers. I guess I made this face because the physician's assistant said, "OMG... I'll bet it's your gall bladder." I told her I'd just had an ultrasound taken of it that day, so she got really excited and said she was going to go look at it. I'll bet they wished all their cases were so easy to diagnose. Knowing the potential issue, they gave me shots for pain and nausea through the IV. It was soooo nice to lie there for a few hours and not feel that nasty sickness or need to hurl up something that wasn't even there.
At that point, the doctor came in and told me that they were admitting me, doing a couple other tests, and likely removing my gall bladder while I was there.
And so it went.
My surgeon told me my gall bladder was in bad shape, and that, when he'd removed it, there were stones the size of olives in it. WOW. I guess I was lucky it decided to act up when it did because it sure looked like I was in for even more sickness and pain and waiting for who knows how long to be able to prove what was wrong? It also amazes me to think back and realize that, if these were the symptoms of a bad gall bladder, then I've had a bad gall bladder for years. Every so often, I'd get sick in this manner, but it always passed. I'd always chalked it up to a stomach bug or having eaten something "bad".
Some things feel much better already. This pain, however, doesn't seem to want to let go. I'm sure it's just because I've just had another major surgery not so very long ago. I know that kind of thing factors in. All this, though, I'm sure will be worth it when I finally feel back to 100%. And I know I'll get there.
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