Gallbladder Update

Since I've reported the two big incidents thus far of 2009 now I'll give you updates on some various things. Today's update in on my gallbladder. I had mentioned in yesterday's post that I was having surgery. I hadn't gotten around to detailing that on the blog yet, but I am having my gallbladder removed on the 21st. I'm pretty excited about it.

Just a little background on my gallbladder.....I had an attack when I was pregnant with Cade 7 years ago. At the time I didn't realize that's what it was I just thought my back was out of place. Then after I had him I had another bad one in the middle of the night. Again I thought it was my back. A couple of days later I had another one while on my way to work. That one was by far the worst one I had experienced. I think if you were to ask Sandra her favorite memory of me she would mention this day. I rolled around on the conference room floor for a couple of hours that morning. Seven years later we still laugh about it.

After the last attack I started having stomach "issues". My stomach hurt almost every day. Two years later (2004) I had another major attack, which included vomiting and running a fever. I went to the doctor and he had a test ran to see if my gallbladder was diseased, which of course it wasn't at that time. I resigned myself to thinking the pain in my stomach was something I had to live with. I've been diagnosed with everything from Lactose Intolerance to IBS. I thought it was something I just needed to deal with 3-4 days a week.

My Urologist is the one who told me I had to have my gallbladder out. He explained how serious the stones were. I went to my regular doctor and he didn't think it was that serious. He referred back to the test in 2004 and said it was functioning at 85% then which was good. He didn't think I needed to have it removed. He agreed to send me to a surgeon to have a 2nd opinion.

My regular doctor made me feel like a hypochondriac. I was pretty confused after my meeting with him so I started researching a little more about the gallbladder. I found out that the time I vomited and ran a fever was actually a sign of one of the stones becoming stuck. I'm lucky that it resolved on its own.

Let me say I'm so glad that I met with the surgeon. His theory, which was the same as the Urologist, is that the stones are time bombs. I need to have it out before it becomes serious. Also, when I described the pain I had been experiencing for the last 7 years he said it was more than likely the gallbladder. He said he has patients all the time who have been diagnosed with IBS and once they have their gallbladders removed it goes away.

I have to admit - I'm pretty excited about having this procedure. I'm hoping this will make me feel a lot better because when my tummy hurts it tends to make me pretty cranky. I think Jay may even be more excited than I am.