Not how I expected to spend my Saturday...
So... Friday night, I ordered pizza, as a treat for having lost 22 pounds.
Saturday morning, I had a couple of slices of leftover pizza for breakfast.
By about 2 pm, I was in a crazy amount of pain, which I started off blaming on indigestion (not far wrong, as it turned out to be gallbladder). But it didn't go away, and I couldn't find any way to get comfortable... couldn't sleep... couldn't concentrate enough to read. My brain finally started running the loop of "But they say women's heart attack symptoms can mimic indigestion" and in order not to add a panic attack to whatever else was going on, I headed for the hospital. I was actually on my way to Community North in Indy, but realized, once I was driving, that the pain was making me a less-than-safe driver, so I opted for Community in Anderson instead.
Now, I'll admit that I'm generally skeptical of things in Anderson, because it's got that kind of shabby run-down look of a rust-belt town after most of the industry moved out. However, it turned out that Community in Anderson is really nice. Fairly new facility, all the latest tech, and really nice staff in the ER.
By the time I got to the hospital, I'd been in pain for about four hours. Since I invoked the magic words "chest pain" (as in, "I started out thinking this was just indigestion, but now I'm wondering if it's actually chest pain"), I got seen immediately. The downside was that they had to wait on EKG, cardiac bloodwork, etc., before they could rule out heart problems and actually treat the pain. Once they pronounced my EKG "wholly unremarkable" and my bloodwork normal, they ran some dilaudid into my IV and I became a very happy Debbie. The nurse had hardly finished emptying the syringe when the pain stopped. I looked at her and said "Was that completely wishful thinking, or do the drugs really work that fast?" She agreed that they could, in fact, work that fast, and then I settled in for several hours of blissfully painfree time spent alternating between napping and doing Facebook and Twitter on the iPhone. Smartphones = Best... Invention... Evar when you're stuck in the emergency room. I was able to keep myself occupied (and therefore sane) until they finally pronounced me safe to go home. Elapsed time since onset of pain... about 10 hours. Elapsed time in the ER... a little less than six hours.
So now I have an appointment to go have a gallbladder ultrasound on Thursday, after which I'll know whether I have to have it out.
Everybody has been saying "Just yank it out! You'll feel much better!" and I'm all for that if it stops this particular pain from happening again. My question, though, for those of you who've been through it, is this... how long were you off work when you had yours out? I'm hearing three days from some people, then others are saying that they were still sore and miserable and wouldn't have wanted to go back to work that fast and that they took a full week off.
If I get to pick when to do it (and if I can put it off that long), I may shoot for early in the week of Thanksgiving. I'm not planning to go anywhere for the weekend, and it would give me a full week off while only using three PTO (paid time off) days.
So... what's the concensus, LJ-land? Gallbladder surgery = no big deal? Or plan for a week off? Something in between?
Saturday morning, I had a couple of slices of leftover pizza for breakfast.
By about 2 pm, I was in a crazy amount of pain, which I started off blaming on indigestion (not far wrong, as it turned out to be gallbladder). But it didn't go away, and I couldn't find any way to get comfortable... couldn't sleep... couldn't concentrate enough to read. My brain finally started running the loop of "But they say women's heart attack symptoms can mimic indigestion" and in order not to add a panic attack to whatever else was going on, I headed for the hospital. I was actually on my way to Community North in Indy, but realized, once I was driving, that the pain was making me a less-than-safe driver, so I opted for Community in Anderson instead.
Now, I'll admit that I'm generally skeptical of things in Anderson, because it's got that kind of shabby run-down look of a rust-belt town after most of the industry moved out. However, it turned out that Community in Anderson is really nice. Fairly new facility, all the latest tech, and really nice staff in the ER.
By the time I got to the hospital, I'd been in pain for about four hours. Since I invoked the magic words "chest pain" (as in, "I started out thinking this was just indigestion, but now I'm wondering if it's actually chest pain"), I got seen immediately. The downside was that they had to wait on EKG, cardiac bloodwork, etc., before they could rule out heart problems and actually treat the pain. Once they pronounced my EKG "wholly unremarkable" and my bloodwork normal, they ran some dilaudid into my IV and I became a very happy Debbie. The nurse had hardly finished emptying the syringe when the pain stopped. I looked at her and said "Was that completely wishful thinking, or do the drugs really work that fast?" She agreed that they could, in fact, work that fast, and then I settled in for several hours of blissfully painfree time spent alternating between napping and doing Facebook and Twitter on the iPhone. Smartphones = Best... Invention... Evar when you're stuck in the emergency room. I was able to keep myself occupied (and therefore sane) until they finally pronounced me safe to go home. Elapsed time since onset of pain... about 10 hours. Elapsed time in the ER... a little less than six hours.
So now I have an appointment to go have a gallbladder ultrasound on Thursday, after which I'll know whether I have to have it out.
Everybody has been saying "Just yank it out! You'll feel much better!" and I'm all for that if it stops this particular pain from happening again. My question, though, for those of you who've been through it, is this... how long were you off work when you had yours out? I'm hearing three days from some people, then others are saying that they were still sore and miserable and wouldn't have wanted to go back to work that fast and that they took a full week off.
If I get to pick when to do it (and if I can put it off that long), I may shoot for early in the week of Thanksgiving. I'm not planning to go anywhere for the weekend, and it would give me a full week off while only using three PTO (paid time off) days.
So... what's the concensus, LJ-land? Gallbladder surgery = no big deal? Or plan for a week off? Something in between?