Well, I’m still alive, and for the most part pretty much recovered from my gallbladder surgery on monday. All in all it was pretty much a piece of cake and wish I hadn’t waited so long to do it.
When it comes to surgery I’m pretty much an expert, I have had surgery on my legs and hands a billion times, but this was actually the first time I actually had full on knock your ass out surgery.
So far this year, 2012 has sucked ass. I had gallstones which were not fun, and was having the occasional attack. If you’ve never had an actual gallbladder attack, and I’m talking a REAL attack, not a stone that get kicked up, but a full on attack, that is hands down the worst feeling in the history of the world.
It is a pain level I can’t even describe. I’ve had a root canal where the Novocaine didn’t work. I broke 3 bones in my foot when I was out of town and just tied them up in a sneaker and walked on them for 3 days, which required having the shoe cut off. I have had a screw go through my MCL. I have torn my ACL and MCL, I’ve ripped the tendon off my patella, I’ve dislocated my patella. I have broken 9 finger, and 7 toes. My right pinky has no knuckle because it got crushed. I broke both ankles, twice. I have dislocated my right wrist, right shoulder, left knee. I broke my nose, 3 times. I had a fractured sinus cavity (which I still have)
All of those put together are nothing compared to an gallbladder attack. A couple months ago when I went to the doctors in the middle of an attack, I had actually passed out a couple times, and my blood pressure was 172 over 110. Yeah. I lost 9 pounds that day because I was sweating so bad because I was in so much pain.
And to make matter worse? When you are having an attack, NOTHING will stop it. Drugs won’t do anything. The only thing I could do to make me even marginally livable was to take a boiling hot shower. As long as I was in the shower I could breathe. Sort of.
About 6 weeks ago it was decided that the fucker needed to come out. But it was inflamed at the time, so the surgeon wanted to hold off a few weeks to let that go down. Doing it right then would have been the difference between an Open Surgery, and Laparoscopic (which would add another 4-6 weeks or recovery time)
As the days were counting down, I’m not going to lie, I started getting really nervous. this was the most invasive surgery I had ever had, and I was reading things online about people and the massive life sucking shit that went on after the surgery.
So by the time monday came around I was seriously thinking, hmm, actually, these attacks aren’t that bad, maybe I’ll just go home.
My surgery was at 10. I had to be to pre-op at 8:30. I got there at 8:15. I was into pre-op by 8:45, and was all ready to go by 9:00. So then I just sat in the bed watching the Today show. The doctors swung by to tell me what to expect.
Gotta say I think the big difference was having awesome Doctors, and mine were awesome.
At 9:50 they came and got me and wheeled me to the OR. As usual it was cold as a motherfucker in there.
they move me onto another bed, and the dude puts the mask on me. Tells me to take a deep breathe, count back from 100. I got to 97 and was passed the fuck out.
Next thing I know, I’m being wheeled down the hallway, everything was already done. They asked how I felt, and I shockingly felt really good, so the only thing that really concerned me was I wanted to know what time it was. It was only 10:55.
The whole thing had taken under an hour.
They got me into a recovery room, and went and got my mom (had to have a next of kin there or else they would have made me stay there for 3 days).
They asked me a bunch of questions, and how I felt, and I felt shockingly good. Grated, I have been in some fort of pain basically every day for years, so I’m pretty used to it. They asked if I needed anything and I told them I needed Water STAT, and to piss.
They gave me a jug to piss in, and I was like, umm, I can walk to the bathroom you know?
that sort of threw them off guard, and they were a little shocked, and didn’t really believe me. But I put my legs over the bed, stood up and walked myself and my IV to the bathroom to piss. The Doctors were sort of shocked I had enough energy to get up and walk around on my own less than 10 minutes after getting out of surgery.
Also they were going to give me pain meds, but I didn’t even need them. they kept asking to list my pain on a scale of 1-10 and I kept saying 1. I really felt fine. I had about the same amount of pain as I have any other random day.
The one difference was that my back didn’t hurt as bad as it usually does.
As it turns out there were 2 unforeseen things with the gallbladder. First, it was double the size it usually is in people. Because of that, the cut at my belly button where they pulled it out had to be made an extra 5mm. But the other thing was, it was in a weird spot, It was actually up behind my liver. Which explains why I have had such back problems. this worthless sack, filled with stones, had been sitting there pushing on my liver for who the hell knows how long.
By the rules, they can’t release a person for at least 4 hours after surgery. So for the next 4 hours I sat in Recovery, watching TV, drinking Apple Juice. Around 3:30pm a nurse came up and was like, I guess you can go home, we’re supposed to give you a wheel chair to go outside, but it looks like you don’t need it, so I’ll just walk with you.
So we walked out to my moms car, and I was home by 4:30.
The first night pain wise had some ups and downs. My belly was hella tender and getting in and out of bed/chair was sort of uncomfortable. But I found that if I put a pillow up against my belly when ever I was going to move I was ok. I actually carried a pillow around with me the first couple days, there is lots of burping, and it is a hell of a lot better to brace yourself.
If you ever have your gallbladder out and they do Laparo, there is something you should know about it. Luckily, again my Doctors were awesome and warned me about everything up front. The way they do it, they put 4 cuts in your abdomen. 2 of them are to clamp off and cut out the gallbladder. One of them is at the belly button 9they basically cut right down the middle of it) that is where they actually pull it out. then there is the 4th cut which is up on your chest. They use that cut to insert a tube which blows your chest up with gas during the surgery. they need to have the cavity expanded so they can see where they are working.
To do this they fill your chest up with a shit load of gas.
They are not going to be able to get all the gas out.
You’re going to have a bunch of gas that is still trapped in there. For the first couple days, that gas is going to move around. Generally it raises and goes into your shoulders.
This is not fun.
In fact, it’s rather excruciating. Luckily my Doctors told me when it flared up, to get up and walk around (which I didn’t have problems doing) and also tap on my chest like a baby to make myself burp. Thank Christ that worked. So each time I felt it coming on, I would get up, walk from my bedroom to the bathroom and up and down the hall, then tap my chest a few times, burp, then be good to go back to bed. Each one of the flare ups only lasted a couple minutes. But they were not enjoyable minutes. It feels like the gas bubbles are trying to cut their way out of your with a rusty dagger.
Luckily by Wednesday night the gas bubbles were gone. The first few days I was EXHAUSTED. I didn’t stay awake for more than like an hour at a time. I just sat in bed watching TV. But I would be up for a half hour, pass out for 2 hours, get up for a half hour and so on.
I haven’t even really been taking the pain meds they gave me cause I haven’t needed them. They gave me Tylenol 3 (yeah not very exciting). but then again I was never in serious pain, so no reason for shit like Oxy I wouldn’t want in the first place.
the only thing that sort of bugs me right now is the cuts, which is to be expected. they are healing really good, so they are a bit tender, and itchy. Other than that, just a little stiffness in my stomach when getting in and out of bed.
Today was the first day I would actually sit in a chair. The first few days it wasn’t happening because it bothered the cut site. But now that it’s starting to heal I’m much better.
I got another 11 day off from work, so by the time I’m ready to go back I should be 100%. And probably feel a shit load better than I have at any point in the last year or so.
