Wednesday, June 10

A Lot More then Stress

I have suffered from a strange type of stomach ache for years. Out of the blue I will get these twisting, knotting, and cramping stomach aches on the the right side of my abdomen. I even asked my Doctor about them and we were able to link them to Stress. It seemed that before,or right after some stressful event in my life I would get these stomach aches. I got a stress stomach ache the day before I flew out to UT that had me lying on the couch with a heating pad while my dear friends helped me pack my kids for the harrowing trip. I got one the night before we headed out on our vacation to Kanab UT to see the Grand Canyon with the Craven Clan. Then the very next night while we were hanging out at the condo I felt another one coming on.

It hit like a thunderbolt and before I knew it I was vomiting in the toilet and crying like a baby as I clutched my gut in excruciating pain. I tell you I would have taken transitional labor over this pain any day. At Midnight, in the pouring rain, Burke and my Dad managed to find the Kane County Hospital ER. They gav eme an ultrasound clearly identified the culprit as Gall Stones.

I guess Babies are not the only side affect of being very fertile. Gall Stones are very common in fertile women and all those stress stomach aches I have experienced were more likely connected to my Gall Bladder then Stress. The Gall Bladder produces extra bile when you eat fatty foods. When I was stressed I ate fatty foods then my Gall Bladder started moving around those Gall Stones and Bam- stomach pain.

Fast forward two weeks later and five pounds lighter (even the thought of a french fry makes me sick to my stomach) to Dr. Greenwood's office where he confirmed my Gall stones and scheduled surgery to remove my entire Gall Bladder.

I went into Surgery on Friday June 5th. They blew my stomach up like a big balloon then inserted their tiny tools into four different holes. The carefully detached my gallbladder and sucked it out of the hole in my bellybutton. It took about and hour and I fortunately don't remember a thing. I got to go home that afternoon to sleep in my own bed where I will be recovering for the next couple of days. Fortunately the copious amounts of pain killers I am taking keep my aches to a minimum and Burke has managed to keep the kids noise to minimum as well.

4 comments:

Heidi Gail Richhart said...

wow! i really hope you feel better soon.

Cami said...

Oh my heck, I totally get gall stones whenever I'm not pregnant or nursing. I never made the connection between attacks and fertility until your post! I remember laying incapacitated on the cold bathroom tile at 3am until morning during one of the attacks. I'm glad you will never have another attack, because you're right, they hurt soooo soooo bad. Speedy recovery to you!

Missy said...

Oh, not fun! I'm so sorry!

Miriamgreen11 said...

oooh, that sounds so gross.... sucking your gall bladder out of you bellybuttom! But I guess they have to do what they have to do! I hope you are feeling much better now... will you be coming this Wednesday to YW's?