After more than 2 years of fighting with my gallbladder, I said "sayonara" to it yesterday afternoon. I even have a lovely pair of non-slip hospital socks:
The doctor was convinced that my surgery would be completely straightforward. In fact, he scheduled it for an hour, when he would normally schedule 90 minutes for gallbladder removal. While I'm not sure exactly how things went down, I do know these things: My surgery was more than 2 hours. At least one gallstone was the size of a golf ball. I went under at 3:00, and did not wake up until 7:00. I don't know why, but I had an incredibly hard time coming out from under anesthesia. In fact, the nurses nearly admitted me to the hospital for overnight observation. When I heard that, I did everything I could to get HOME!!
I am still bloated from the carbon dioxide gas, and the skin around the 4 incisions is bruising beautifully. My best friends right now are ice packs for my abdomen, a hot pack for my shoulder (common pain from carbon dioxide gas), and Vicodin. I am lucky Erich was able to take 2 days off. His mom is here for several days, and my mom has been in and out several times already.Thank the Lord for so much help around the house.
While I have been on a restricted diet for more than 2 years, I'm content to stay low-fat until my body becomes accustomed to digesting food without the aid of my gallbladder. Did I ever mention how much pain I had whenever I tried to exercise? I look forward to getting back up on the treadmill once I've healed!
I still can't get over how surreal it was to walk myself into the operating room. I was nervous before, but my anxiety went through the roof when they asked me to get up on the operating table! Let's hope I don't have to do that again. Like, EVER.
Now that I have some down time on my hands, I'll try to catch up on some autumn blog entries.