As you may know, I had my gallbladder removed in February and I thought once things settled down I would be able to eat normally and live a more normal life. I had a hard time for a couple of weeks after the surgery, but I was feeling better than I had in many months up until this past Sunday.
Sunday morning when I woke up, I just felt off. I thought that I might have picked up a bug from a friend who visited us Saturday. His daughter works in a hospital and I thought she might have carried something home to him. After I was up awhile I felt a bit better and fixed sandwiches for hubby and I for lunch. After a couple of bites, I became so nauseated I had to stop eating. I had pains in my upper abdomen and upper back that felt just as bad if not worse than a gallbladder attack. I told hubby to take me to the ER.
We got to the hospital and they took me straight back to a room. They took some blood and urine to do tests, put an IV in and gave me Phenergan for the nausea .I went to sleep for awhile until the doctor came in with my test results. He said my liver enzymes were very high and I had to have an abdominal CT scan to see what was going on.I had to drink two bottles of contrast, not too bad but hard to drink 32 ounces at one time when you feel bloated. I drank it pretty fast since I just wanted them to find out what was wrong quickly. Once I finished the drinks, they took me to nuclear med. They put contrast in my vein, too, and sent me in and out of the machine a few times and kept telling me to hold my breath and then to breathe. Then I was taken back to the ER cubicle to wait for the results.
The doctor finally came back after an hour or so and said that I am most likely having spasms where the bile duct goes into my intestine. I will have to see a Gastroenterologist and may need a sphincterotomy to stop the bile from backing up. They gave me a paper explaining their findings and told me to give it to my doctor so she could refer me to the Gastroenterologist. I told them I had an appointment with her on Tuesday and they said I should be okay until then.
Monday morning I felt a little better. I went with hubby to his doctor appointments. He had one with his primary doctor at 9:45am and another at the wound care clinic at 1:30pm. While we were waiting in the lobby at his primary doctor, a woman came by with a hospitality cart and offered hubby and I drinks and cookies. I took a Sprite Zero and a pack of Lorna Doones which I didn’t eat. I drank some of the Sprite and started having those horrible pains in my abdomen again. Once hubby was seen by his doctor we left and went to pay some bills before going to his second appointment.
I usually go in with him but he knew I was feeling awful so I stayed in the car. Even though it was only noon and his appointment wasn’t until 1:30 he went in to the office to wait. I went to sleep almost as soon as he got out of the car. I woke up once and checked the time. It was 1:00pm. The next time I awoke was when hubby came out. It was almost 2pm. He asked if I saw the ambulance. I said no. I had slept nearly the whole time he was in the clinic. He told me that a woman had fallen and busted her head open in the hallway and the paramedics had to be called to take her to the hospital. I was so out of it, I didn’t hear anything.
I asked hubby what the doctor told him and he said the clinic had made him an appointment to see the surgeon who did his bypass surgery next Monday. The doctor at the wound clinic keeps insisting that the abscess is related to the heart surgery. Because the abscess is still bleeding, they want the surgeon to open the abscess more so a wound vacuum can be used. However, there is no way that is possible since the abscess is right over bone. Hubby was on the wound vac last year and the wound has to be a certain depth for the vac to be used. All of this is ridiculous crap!
Tuesday, I went for my doctor appointment. It was my first with my new provider. She isn’t a doctor but an FNP but she seems very capable. She advised me to eat a low-fat diet and did a lot of lab work to see how my liver enzymes are looking now. She will be setting up an appointment for me to see a Gastroenterologist. I told her that my throat was sore so she did a swab and it was strep. She gave me a script for a Z-pak and told me to take Miralax to help with constipation that I have had since my gallbladder was removed.
Sometimes, I wonder if we will ever have even one week without one or the other of us having a medical appointment. Wound care is three times a week. On Mondays, he sees the wound care doctor and on Wednesdays and Fridays, he has to go to have the packing changed. Tomorrow, he has an appointment with his diabetes counselor. Next week, he has the heart surgeon appointment and another appointment with a nutritionist. The following week both of us have pain management plus wound care until his abscess heals and we never know when another appointment will crop up.
As always we struggle financially to get to all of these appointments. Luckily, most of these upcoming appointments are local except the heart surgeon.
I am not begging for donations but if you are looking to buy a gift please consider hubby’s pens.
Thanks for reading and I hope everyone is having a great day!
www.hubbyshandcraftedinkpens.yolasite.com
Blade
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