Gallbladder Surgery

I’m still alive. I promise.

I’m sorry for the two weeks of silence. It was recently decided by my doctors that my gallbladder needed to be removed. I had quite a few gallstones due to my weight loss and I was having mild attacks multiple times a week. Technically, the surgery was elective as I wasn’t having the extremely painful attacks that are signs of gallbladder malfunction or blocked ducts. That was something I wished to avoid. I’m a stay at home mom of three kids. My husband works two hours away. If my gallbladder attacked while I was home alone with the kids, I would have to call an ambulance, and they couldn’t take all three kids with us. It was a recurring nightmare and major source of anxiety. Not that surgery wasn’t a major source of anxiety. I had never had major surgery before, and let me tell you, I was scared.  

I met with a surgeon on the 4th to discuss the possibility of surgery, and he agreed that living in fear of the big attack was not any way of living. Since I was presenting symptoms of attacks, and we knew I had gallstones from an ultrasound taken back in September, so surgery was the obvious next step. Unfortunately, that surgeon was booked until December. Fortunately, another surgeon was available for Tuesday.

The (very few) days leading up to the surgery, I was a mess. What if things went wrong? What if I have an attack before the surgery? What if I died? I have three kids and a loving husband who rely upon me being there. Should I really be putting my life in the hands of a stranger? Well, while I theoretically had a choice because my gallbladder wasn’t killing me yet, I didn’t really. Because it needed to come out. It could be on a random day where I might not have childcare, or it could be Tuesday.

Turns out, everything would go according to plan. I had to arrive at 6:50, so I said goodbye to my munchkins around 6ish. My mom took the day off to stay home with them so JimBob could be with me at the hospital. After the hurry up and wait of signing in, they finally got me in the back around 8. Around noon I was on my way home with 4 gashes in my belly and feeling rather weak. They sent me home with a prescription of meds that haven’t done much for my pain, and certainly didn’t last long enough. I ran out just 3 days after surgery.

Here I am, 5 days post operation. I’m mostly better now but every time I take a deep breath, yawn, or sigh, I feel like I’ve been kicked in the ribs. The doctors say it can take up to two weeks before I will be back to normal. Here’s hoping all will back to normal soon.

I’ll start posting meals soon. Until then, om nom on people!