Well, my gallbladder doesn't hurt anymore
Coincidentally or not, the week of the election my gallbladder started hurting more, and pretty much all the time. Then on Thursday morning I woke up very nauseated and couldn't keep anything down. I decided to give it a day, just to see if it was only a stomach bug or something. But when I felt no better Friday morning--worse, actually, because the only calories I'd had in 24 hours were the few ounces of 7 Up I'd managed not to vomit up--I took myself to the ER.
I actually saw my primary care physician there, because Friday is the day she has hospital rounds. They took some images and were like yeah, that's gotta go, and today, you're running the risk of sepsis.
I felt better the minute I came out of the anaesthesia. Like, the slices through my abdominal muscles hurt, of course, and still do; you don't realize how much you use your abdominal muscles to move around until you have abdominal surgery. But it was laparoscopic, so although there are 4 incisions, the largest is only about an inch. It's much easier to deal with than the gallbladder pain and nausea, and although I don't have much of an appetite, food is staying where I put it.
This is a pretty good example of how I prefer to ignore personal problems until they're literally killing me. Dog knows what it's going to cost; I'm sure I can get on a payment plan. It'll just be another chunk of money flying out of my bank account every month, making it impossible to save.
They actually let me go home the same day. They gave me some broth and juice, and I kept that down, so then they tried crackers and Jello. And when that stayed down and I said I felt okay enough, they discharged me. I didn't want to stay overnight, the room was stuffy because the a/c was ancient and sounded like it was going to shake itself apart, some piece of equipment was constantly beeping, and the sound on the TV sucked. If they'd insisted of course I wouldn't have argued, but I really wanted to end the day in my own bed.
Mom was there to take me home, the hospital said it would be fine to leave my car in the ER parking lot until I could come get it (David and I did that Saturday afternoon). I basically snuck out of the house to go to the ER, because Mom is like, the opposite of helpful when anyone is sick. I texted her more or less the same message I sent my boss, but of course she had to panic and make it all about her feelings and come to the hospital, Where all afternoon I had to listen to her complain about her knees, her back, how uncomfortable the chairs were, how hungry she was because she left before she could eat anything (which I did not ask her to do). Oh, and frequently tell her to shut up and let the nurses do their work, because every time one came in the room she would start boring them to death with some story about her parents, who volunteered at the hospital for years.
Encroaching senility is not improving Mom's narcissism.
I spent the weekend resting, sleeping a lot (it really is vital medicine) but making sure to get up every couple of hours so I don't get any blood clots. I started the 2nd season of Peaky Blinders--funnily enough, the first time I watched the show was when I was recovering from my hysterectomy--and read. I started Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall this week and wow, it's good.
I decided to take today off from work, that will be 3 full days of recovery, but I think I'll be okay to go back tomorrow. They gave me Oxycodone, but I've only been taking a couple a day and I can get through work hours with Advil.
I am now minus my gallbladder, uterus, both fallopian tubes, one ovary, and a molar. Heads, the next organ to fail is my appendix; tails, my tonsils.
I actually saw my primary care physician there, because Friday is the day she has hospital rounds. They took some images and were like yeah, that's gotta go, and today, you're running the risk of sepsis.
I felt better the minute I came out of the anaesthesia. Like, the slices through my abdominal muscles hurt, of course, and still do; you don't realize how much you use your abdominal muscles to move around until you have abdominal surgery. But it was laparoscopic, so although there are 4 incisions, the largest is only about an inch. It's much easier to deal with than the gallbladder pain and nausea, and although I don't have much of an appetite, food is staying where I put it.
This is a pretty good example of how I prefer to ignore personal problems until they're literally killing me. Dog knows what it's going to cost; I'm sure I can get on a payment plan. It'll just be another chunk of money flying out of my bank account every month, making it impossible to save.
They actually let me go home the same day. They gave me some broth and juice, and I kept that down, so then they tried crackers and Jello. And when that stayed down and I said I felt okay enough, they discharged me. I didn't want to stay overnight, the room was stuffy because the a/c was ancient and sounded like it was going to shake itself apart, some piece of equipment was constantly beeping, and the sound on the TV sucked. If they'd insisted of course I wouldn't have argued, but I really wanted to end the day in my own bed.
Mom was there to take me home, the hospital said it would be fine to leave my car in the ER parking lot until I could come get it (David and I did that Saturday afternoon). I basically snuck out of the house to go to the ER, because Mom is like, the opposite of helpful when anyone is sick. I texted her more or less the same message I sent my boss, but of course she had to panic and make it all about her feelings and come to the hospital, Where all afternoon I had to listen to her complain about her knees, her back, how uncomfortable the chairs were, how hungry she was because she left before she could eat anything (which I did not ask her to do). Oh, and frequently tell her to shut up and let the nurses do their work, because every time one came in the room she would start boring them to death with some story about her parents, who volunteered at the hospital for years.
Encroaching senility is not improving Mom's narcissism.
I spent the weekend resting, sleeping a lot (it really is vital medicine) but making sure to get up every couple of hours so I don't get any blood clots. I started the 2nd season of Peaky Blinders--funnily enough, the first time I watched the show was when I was recovering from my hysterectomy--and read. I started Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall this week and wow, it's good.
I decided to take today off from work, that will be 3 full days of recovery, but I think I'll be okay to go back tomorrow. They gave me Oxycodone, but I've only been taking a couple a day and I can get through work hours with Advil.
I am now minus my gallbladder, uterus, both fallopian tubes, one ovary, and a molar. Heads, the next organ to fail is my appendix; tails, my tonsils.