Chest pains, Hospitals and Gallbladders

Flashback to Friday night.  Sam and I are walking through Academy, trying to find shoes for me.  My chest starts hurting (below my breasts) and I'm feeling somewhat short of breath.  I begin to think that maybe my bra is too tight.  I pull my bra out from my chest and then ask Sam to loosen it for me.  This does not do the trick.  The pain begins to move to my upper abdomen, both sides.  The pain is stabbing and constant, there doesn't seem to be any relief.  We decide to forego the next place we plan to stop and head home.  I take my bra off at the car, which also does not make it any better.  I try laying the seat back in the car, sitting up straight, putting my hands on my head and drinking a diet soda in the hopes that maybe I just need a really good burp.

This pain is something that I have never experienced (so I think, but more on that later),which really scares me.  After asking me several times if I want to go to the ER, Sam begins driving towards North Austin Medical Center.  I ask him to pull over so I can check the hours on the urgent care center.  I didn't want to go to the ER if it was just gas pain or something silly like that.  Unfortunately (turns out to be pretty fortunate) the urgent care center closed only minutes before so Sam continued to drive to the ER.  Once we got inside, I started feeling better (anxiety?) and decided that I wanted to just sit in the waiting room for a minute so I didn't waste any one's time.  After sitting, the pain began to intensify so I got checked in.

A round of blood work, 1 blown vein, an IV and an ultrasound later it is determined that I have gallstones and lots of them.  My assumption is that gallstones can be shrunk or dissolved with medication and I can pass them and everything would be fine.  Unfortunately, gallstones are not kidney stones.  If passed, they can cause a huge infection and even death.  That's not something you want to hear.  The ER doc decided that he wanted to speak with the surgeon, and even if they didn't remove my gallbladder, I was going to be admitted to the hospital for observation.

My reaction? I began crying uncontrollably.  I've never been admitted to the hospital, I've never had surgery and other than back pain, I've never had anything wrong with me.  To make matters worse, my mom is out of town and Sam's catching a plan to Vegas tomorrow for a friend's wedding.  Thank goodness this happened while Sam was still in town.  My anxiety was through the roof.  They offered pain medication but my pain had pretty much subsided so I declined.

I was finally admitted to my room, 402 at midnight.  I was told that I couldn't eat or drink anything since most likely I was going to have surgery tomorrow.  I tried to sleep, but it's pretty difficult with an IV hanging out of your arm.  At 4:00 am the fun began.  Vital signs and more blood work.  This phlebotomist blew yet another vein but finally got enough blood for the tests.  The surgeon arrived before 8:00 am to discuss my options.  We decided on surgery and was scheduled for noon.

The anesthesiologist arrived around 8:45am and we went over all of the concerns that I had as well as the details of the surgery and the anesthesia.  I was scared mostly about the tube going down my throat and fear of feeling it.  I thought my fears were allayed until he mentioned that they would be coming to get me for surgery in a few minutes.  What happened to noon?  There was a cancellation and my surgery was scheduled for 9:30.  There was no time to panic.  I was taken down to the OR and given anxiety medications.  The last thing I remember was taking a few deep breaths into an oxygen mask and then waking up in recovery.

I thought that I had only been out for about 30 seconds, but instead it had been almost an hour and the surgery was complete, which I was made painfully aware of.  My belly was killing me.  They got me to my room before noon where Sam and my dad were waiting.  Got lots of pain meds, took a short nap and then just waited.  I successfully managed to do okay with both the clear and liquid diet and was moved to regular food by dinner.

I cannot say how appreciate I have been of all the well wishes and all the people who care about me and prayed for me.  I posted many updates on facebook and got more comments than I ever have.  Shelly, Joe and Shayna came to visit me, which was awesome.  Sam has been the best through all of this.  He has slept in a recliner for two nights in a row and has taken care of my every need.

I should see the surgeon soon and should hopefully be discharged later this afternoon.  My mom is on a flight from Dallas and should be here soon.  I know it has been hard for her not to be with me.  The nursing staff has been amazing, making sure that I am out of pain.  I cannot tell you how painful this has been.  Getting up out of bed has been awful.  I feel like my abdominal muscles are being completely ripped out.  Thank goodness that I have lost 90 pounds or I don't know how I would've gotten through this.

Now onto recovery.  I'm a little scared to be at home, worried that something might happen and the hospital staff won't be around.  I have no idea when I'll get to return to work, hopefully by next week.  We're supposed to go to NYC next Wednesday for a wedding, but I don't know if we'll be able to unless I'm completely healed.  I've heard mixed results on when I'll be recovered - anywhere from 1-6 weeks.  

So I'm officially down one body part.  I got through my first surgery and hospitalization with flying colors.  I look forward to getting out of the hospital.  This past week was one of the most stressful of my life, so a hospitalization was just the icing on the cake, the most horrible cap to an awful week.  The timing is awful, I have so much work to do next week and hate missing out on my patients.

The ironic part of this whole thing is that I was at this hospital on Friday seeing a patient and spent about 4 1/2 hours with his family.  I left here at 6:00 pm and returned at 8:00 pm to be admitted myself.  My patient is still here so maybe I'll visit him before my discharge, but probably not.

As much as I don't update this blog very often, I thought it would be smart to record this for posterity.  I can't thank my friends and family enough and I want to thank the nursing staff - Jen in the ER, Lissy, April and Susan.  I only post their names so I don't forget when I'm writing a thank you note once I'm home.  I'll keep everyone posted on my recovery.