i'm back and alive..minus my gallbladder

so this week has been a rollercoaster. saturday night, after alisha's b-day dinner, i started to feel a little sick. my acid-reflux had come back to haunt me and it didn't go away. by tuesday it was really starting to hurt so i went to see my dr. and he did some blood tests and ordered an ultrasound for me on thursday. by wednesday morning i couldn't keep anything down even my anti-nausea and pain killer meds and was writhing in pain, so lorin called the dr. again and he told me to come in. he gave me a shot of morphine, an anti-nausea pill that dissolved in my mouth, some more labs and sent me to the hospital for an emergency ultrasound. well, his diagnosis was right. i had gall stones and my gall bladder would have to be removed. i was admitted to the hospital on wednesday and hoped my surgery would be on thursday. but my lipase levels were at 23,000 when they should normally be at 200-300. by thurs it went down to 22,000. this is when the dr bore me the bad news.: i would prob have to stay in the hospital 5-7 more days because i had pancreatitis and they could not operate with an inflammed pancreas. i cried because i didn't want to be in the hospital for that long and i was so hungry. the last time i ate was on monday because i started puking on tuesday.... so with pancreatitis, gall stones, hunger pains, plus the pains of my tender stomach and liver, i was a wreck on a lot of medications. everything seemed to be going wrong: my potassium levels were super low as well as magnesium, calcium, glucose, etc. i had morphine injected into my iv every 3 hours as well as anti-nausea medication. the iv fluids were the only things that were allowed to enter into my body. i could not have anything, not even an ice chip until saturday morning, when i was released from the hospital. it was such a horrible experience, especially because i was away from my baby for so long. luckily and miraculously, on friday morning my lipase levels went down to 500. my family came to visit me and then the drs. walked in to tell me they had to get me ready for surgery. i didn't even know i was going to have surgery that day! i frantically called lorin to tell him they were taking me in and he was able to be there for when i woke up. i had a nice chat with one of my surgeons wearing a utes cap and i told him that i hoped he wouldn't hold it against me if i was a cougars fan since i was in a vulnerable position. he laughed. all went well with the surgery except my throat really hurts from the tube being stuck down my throat, my vein is all swollen from the iv they took out because it was blocked, my other vein hurts from the new iv they put in and my incisions hurt pretty badly. but a few percocets and i'm feeling ok. my mom is afraid i'm going to be a percocet addict. oh yeah, luckily enough my mom had already planned a trip out here with my brother for a college tour. so thankfully my mom has been able to take care of ashton while lorin went to work and help us out while i am recovering. some of you may remember the pains i had during my pregnancy- well i'm pretty sure those pains were caused by the gallbladder starting to dysfunction.

oh well. c'est la vie.