Gall Bladderous: a year later

It was a year ago that I was at work eating lunch with Patty and Valerie.  I was having chicken and dumpling soup.  The dumplings were a big soggy and I thought I was getting sick from them.   All of the sudden I felt like I was going to have a seizure and very sick.  The girls knew what was going on and took me to Valerie's office to sit down.  I was feeling no better.  They wanted me to go home.  I hated to leave because I feel guilty because I have to leave work for my mother-in-law a lot.  So I sucked it up. I went home at 4 and it got worse. Now the pain was between my shoulders, I was sure I was in trouble.

John took me to the ER where it was determined I needed my gall bladder out stat, but they sent me home.  I had never had gall bladder issues before and this shocked me.  I didn't know to demand it come out now and I was in such pain I just did what they said.

I went home.  My friends called a doctor and he was going to work me in the next day.  I had the ultrasound the next day then I went to see him.  He said it had to come out it was in terrible shape and I wasn't well.

On the way to surgery

6pm I am wheeled into surgery with a bad gall bladder and a liver infection.  The gall bladder came out a drain went in and while the pain from the gall bladder was gone the pain from the infection set in.

It was a rough week.  Luckily, I have great friends and a mom that cooked for me and brought be goodies and puzzle books.  I made it!!  I went back for my followup and was told how close to death I was.  That is some scary stuff.  I was also told if I had died that first night my husband could have sued because it was evident that the gall bladder was scrapping the liver raw giving me a bad infection.  It took a while for that infection to clear, the stones were so giant it rubbed the liver raw.  I had two big stones a 1 inch and a 1/2 inch.  I had asked for a souvenir since I was paying all that money for the surgery.  It took an extra incision but I got my souvenir.

the 1/2 souvenir

A year later, I am doing well. However, since I never had an symptoms until it went bad I'm not sure how I should feel.  I feel great though and lucky God spared me through the infection. And I would like to thank the lovely staff at Lourdes for treating me so well.  I would like not to thank the ER staff....who tried to kill me. 

After surgery