About a year ago...

What a difference a year makes!! A year ago I was in the worst pain I had ever felt in my whole life. I basically felt as though I were having a heart attack 24/7. Nothing I did could alleviate the pain... no amount of painkillers, etc. would even touch it. I slept lying straight on my back with a heating pad which most nights actually did allow me to sleep. A co-worker of mine suggested that my symptoms sounded exactly like what she went through when she needed to have her gallbladder out. Knowing how difficult gallbladder problems are to diagnose, I demanded that my doctor check me for this and surprisingly enough my demands were met. I was sent to the hospital for a GB ultrasound. I had to be there super early on a Friday morning, 6am to be precise. The ultrasound tech did her job, then told me that she wasn't supposed to say anything but that I could expect to be having surgery very soon as I definitely had stones. I then had to start stalking my doctor's office for the results of the ultrasound because my pain was not only not going away, but it was intensifying. I finally went back to the urgent care part of my doctor's office on Saturday and they called in to consult with a surgeon who said I should be given a pretty good painkiller and if that didn't take care of the problem, I was to page the surgeon and they would admit me directly to the hospital for emergency surgery. So the doctor at the urgent care put me on Vicodin and that did the trick, I felt pain-free for the first time in about 2 weeks.

Now did I mention that I was a teacher at the time, and had a class of 26 5th grade students that I was teaching while feeling like I was having a heart attack 24/7?? That was no fun. Then I was teaching while on this super painkiller. Quick emergency surgery over the weekend would not have been a good idea as I had no sub plans written, and no way to let a sub know how my classroom discipline plan worked, who the trustworthy students were, etc. I ended up at the surgeon's office on Monday afternoon and they said yep, you're having surgery and the sooner the better (ummm.. no duh, I had that figured out already!). I was home about 30 - 45 minutes when the scheduling desk from the surgeon's office called to tell me that Thursday, Jan. 11th was the day. So I went into school the next day (Tuesday, Jan. 9th) to let my AP know I needed time off and start preparing sub plans for about 2 weeks. I was given a wonderful sub, she was a retired teacher who was always around our school so she came to see me after school that day and we talked awhile, then she came back Wednesday afternoon and I introduced her to the kids, telling them I was going to be out for a little while due to a medical procedure. What shocked faces!! The sub stuck around with me after school and took the Social Studies materials from me, telling me she would take care of that, I just needed to let her know what to do for the other subjects.

The surgery was fine but lasted longer than expected as it turned out that my gallbladder was way more infected than expected. They came very close to completely opening me up but thank God my surgeon was able to complete the procedure laparoscopically (I think I spelled that right!). But I woke up with a drainage tube and a little bottle due to the infection in my liver and had to stay in the hospital for 2 nights. No fun!!

But it's been a year now and I am so thankful that is all behind me. The only lingering side effect I have is that after I went back to work last year, I suffered a gallbladder attack, even though I didn't have one, as a result of eating a very healthy salad for lunch (I didn't know my body couldn't handle the roughage yet). That attack, and the resulting sickness, was almost worse than what I had gone through before the surgery. So the lingering side effect is I still cannot eat a salad... even looking at lettuce makes me think of how sick I got and I start to feel sick. I can eat veggies and I can cook with them, just can't put it all together in a salad yet. I am hoping that goes away soon because salads are sooo good!!!

I know this post is totally nonrelated to the topic of my blog, but there is simply nothing new to report on that front. I still cannot even begin the process.