Get That "Gall" Darn Thing Out of Me!

gall
[gawl]
–verb (used with object)
1. to make sore by rubbing; chafe severely: The saddle galled the horse's back.
2. to vex or irritate greatly: His arrogant manner galls me.

Definition #2...YES! Since December, my gallbladder has vexed and irritated me greatly. No wonder it is called a "gall"bladder. Annoying little thing! As you know from previous blog posts, I luckily only had to suffer through two gallbladder attacks before being diagnosed with gallstones and starting the process of getting it removed. Those two attacks were enough to know that that little bad boy had to go! Worst. Pain. Ever. Plus the fact that I had to worry every single time I ate if the food was going to set off my gallbladder was not fun!

On Thursday, June 9, I finally had surgery to have it removed. I say finally because it seems like it was the longest process ever to actually get to that day. When I would tell doctors and nurses that my symptoms started in December, they would about die of shock that I had been dealing with it for that long. It really wasn't so bad. The way to avoid attacks is to eat healthy and avoid fatty, greasy food. I do that already! Hurray! My surgeon said that it was totally up to me to get it removed or not. I wouldn't die if I left it in there, but I would have to closely watch what I eat for the rest of my life. No thank you! I want to eat a hamburger every now and then, so the decision to have it removed was a fairly easy one.
For those of you who have no idea what a gallbladder does (I sure didn't), here is a little background:
The gallbladder is a small sac located under the liver that stores and secretes bile, which is a digestive fluid used to break down fats. Luckily, the liver also produces enough bile to break down fats, hence, you can live without a gallbladder. It is not totally clear why or how gallstones form. Some doctors think is it hereditary (my dad had his gallbladder out a few years ago), some think it is from a high cholesterol, fatty diet (I don't feel like this was ever the case for me really, even before I lost weight), and some think it can happen when you go on a low fat diet and lose weight quickly (like your gallbladder forgets how to work since it's not breaking down fats regularly, that could be the case for me I guess). My surgeon said that the ultrasound showed I had tons of gallstones and that they had probably been forming for years now. So who knows?!
So there is a little background. Because my dad and Kara (my sis-in-law) had recently had the same surgery, I knew it was fairly routine and not a huge deal so I wasn't very nervous. It is all done laparoscopically now, so it involves only four small incisions in the abdomen, and the recovery should be fairly quick and easy. So that gets us all up to speed on what I was in for.

Wednesday, June 8 - I went to work. Normal day. I had a pre-op appointment where they finally weighed me. That little piece of info had been in a mystery for years now. I weighed about what I expected. I finally now know that I lost 80-90lbs last year. Yahoo! I probably could stand to lose another 20 lbs. We'll see if I get the motivation to do that. I ran some errands. I went to a fireside. I went to institute (I'm not normally this righteous, but they all sort of happened on the same day). I talked to my sister to make final plans for my recovery time at her house. I talked to my mom. She suggested I get a priesthood blessing. I had thought about that previously, but I didn't really know who to ask. I just moved to my family ward, so I don't have home teachers yet. My bros and bro-in-law don't really live the closest. I have a few guy friends, but I thought it might be sort of awkward to ask them. It is times like these that you need a husband or a dad around! Geez! I finally texted my friend Brian, and he found another friend to come over and give me a blessing after institute. So on the way home from institute, I just start bawling. I don't even know why. I wasn't really scared about the surgery, but it was by far the most serious medical procedure I have ever had in my life. Something about being knocked out and naked on an operating table while some stranger rifles around in my abdomen with medical instruments while removing an organ that I've had my whole life was a little crazy to think about. But I really wasn't too nervous about that. I think I sort of just felt alone in the whole thing. My mom and dad were far away. My siblings all have lives and families and responsibilities to deal with. My friends (well, all but one thankfully!) all have lives and full time jobs (not that the one doesn't have a life, but it just so happened she was off track for school and could pause her life to take care of me for a day! Millions of blessings in heaven for Olivia!!). So basically I was having a pity party! Olivia nailed it the next morning on the way to the hospital. She said...it's times like these that you just need a spouse! Amen!
When I got home from institute, my friend, Brett, was waiting there to assist Brian in giving me a blessing. We all chatted for a while, Brett shared a little message about the need to have faith, and Brian gave me a beautiful blessing. I particularly member him saying to allow the Atonement to heal me physically and emotionally and that I was loved by so many people especially my family. That blessing was exactly what I needed. I had a great night's sleep and was ready and rarin' to go in the morning. I'm so grateful for righteous friends who can give me priesthood blessings when I need them!

Thursday June 9 – I was told to be at the hospital at 9am, so Olivia picked me up at 8:30am and we were on our way. I got all checked in and changed into my purple paper hospital gown. I love purple, but I don’t love being naked wrapped in paper! I had my own hospital room, which was nice. My nurse, Leanna, came in and immediately turned off my TV and said that we needed to bond. Excuse me? No, we do not need to bond, Leanna. I am watching the Today Show right now! She wasn’t the most amiable of people. She left and said that I should be heading down to surgery around 10am. I waited and waited and waited anxious just to get this thing done. Around 10:20am she came in and said the surgery before me had been more complicated than expected and that now I wasn’t going to go to surgery until noon. I was starving, thirsty, and a little grumpy by this point. But I just kept watching trashy daytime TV while Olivia graded her student’s autobiographies. It was such a blessing to have Olivia there. I told her originally that she could totally just drop me off at the hospital and that I would call her when I was ready to be picked up, but she said she would hang with me, and boy am I grateful for that!
Here is me watching ESPN in my purple paper garb.

Around 11:45am, the official gurney transport guys came to take me down to the pre-op room. A nurse hooked me up to an IV (on her second try, lovely), and the anesthesiologist came in to explain what was going to go down. This was the first I had heard of having a breathing tube in while I was under anesthesia and that it could possibly cause dental damage. Well, this was great news! I’ve seen them insert breathing tubes on ER and it is not good! Don’t worry…no dental damage occurred, but I do think it was the worst part of my recovery. It was like I had a sore throat, but it wasn’t sore. It felt like I needed to clear my throat, but it hurt to cough. No fun! My surgeon, Dr. Lloyd, also came in to say hi. She is great! Then I was all ready to go! Olivia headed to the waiting room, and I headed to the operating room.
Here is me in the pre-op room.

I don’t remember a ton from the OR, just moving to the operating table, nurses covering me in stifling warm blankets, and the anesthesiologist starting the anesthesia. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the post-op area. I was so thirsty! I was fairly out of it, so I probably told the nurse there that I needed a drink like 25 times. They brought me ice chips. Once I came to a little more, they wheeled me back up to my hospital room. Olivia came back. I slept for a while with occasional visits from Leanna. I was so determined to not be nauseous and be perfectly fine so that I could go home as soon as possible. I really did feel good. Then they let me change out of the purple paper outfit and into my own clothes. That’s when the nausea hit. I almost lost my lunch. Oh wait, I hadn’t eaten anything in ages! I sat down and felt better. There were a few more visits from random nurses and people taking my vitals (including the most annoying person on earth, Kari, who was way excited that we had the same name just spelled differently). She’s probably a nice woman, but she just said way too many words in a short amount of time for my brain and patience to handle at that moment. Shut your face and let me leave! Some dude with crazy eyes wheeled me down to the front curb, and Olivia went and got her car. I sat down in the car, calmly removed all my belongings out of the plastic bag they had given me and hurled everything out of my body into the bag. Vomiting with a recently operated on stomach…not pleasant! That was the only time I vomited though! I tried to again when I got to Amy’s, but there was just nothing left in me. Olivia drove me to Amy’s and then that gem of friend went down and got my prescription filled for me. Words will never be enough to say how grateful I am for Olivia taking care of me that day! What a true friend! Here is a pic of us at Amy’s. I look a little rough, but it’s ok. :)

I just chilled that night and watched the NBA playoffs with Dan and Amy. I slept way better than I thought I would. I felt great on Friday morning. I ran some errands with Amy and the kids. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and to Café Rio for dinner. I got a salad, of course! Healthy, right? I was still supposed to be eating a low fat diet for a few days while my body adjusted to working without a gallbladder. I had two visitors that night with the biggest balloon ever created, another bunch of balloons, and flowers! Such great friends!

On Saturday, I stopped taking the pain killers and still felt great. I just had a little soreness around the incisions. Here is a pic of me in my recuperating spot on Amy’s couch (WARNING: You will see my ghostly white and flabby midsection in this photo. Not for the faint of heart! Please close your eyes and quickly scroll ahead if this concerns you!).

And why wouldn’t I recover quickly with these two faces by my side every step of the way? I would have my gall removed all over again if it meant spending two whole days with two and Amy again!

Amy took me home that day. I hung out with friends and then slept at home in my own awesome bed. I went to church the next day, and then to my friend Tricia’s parent’s house for dinner. I worked a half day from home on Monday (definitely felt good enough to work a full day, but why would I want to do that?!). I spent the rest of the day with Amy and kids and celebrated Dan’s birthday that evening. On Tuesday, it was back to the normal routine…riding my bike and a full day of work. I was told to plan on taking at least a week off of work. Or just 2.5 days for me. Ya, baby! I came home from work on Tuesday to a bouquet of flower sent by my friend Adam. That made my day! It is always nice to feel the love from people when you go through something like this! I got so many texts, calls, and well wishes from friends, family, and coworkers. I am a very blessed girl!
On Wednesday, I had my post-op appointment, and Dr. Lloyd said that it looked like I had my surgery a month ago. That’s how quickly I had healed. She cleared me to start running again and to start eating whatever I want. The whole not being able to exercise thing was by far my biggest worry in this whole ordeal. I need to exercise and run and can't afford to just be dormant for longer periods of time! I’m training for a half marathon here people! I’m strapping on my running shoes for the first time in two weeks tomorrow morning. We’ll see how it goes! Luckily I’ve still been able to ride my bike to keep my cardio up.
So I’m still supposed to eat healthy (shouldn’t be a big problem since I try to do that anyway). Fatty and greasy food can cause me to have stomach cramps and diarrhea, but my doctor said to experiment and see what affects me. Other than that, I am totally back to normal. Yesterday was the first day that I felt zero pain around the incisions. So from gallstones to feeling completely normal all in a matter of a week (or 7 months depending on how you look at it!). I feel extremely blessed to have a healthy body that has healed so quickly! Now on with life! So happy to have that gall darn thing out of me!
Here is one last pic of my incisions (insert ghostly white flabby midsection WARNING again here). The incision at the top is really just the small horizontal 1 inch thing, the rest is just dried blood. The steri strips are just now starting to peel off. You can barely even see the incisions. Modern medicine is amazing! Thanks again to everyone who took care of me (Olivia and Amy) and called, texted, prayed, thought about, etc. me during this ordeal!
Sorry this is the longest post ever known to man, but I wanted to remember all the details!