My Surgery

I know it has been a while since I posted and wanted to let you know the reason why I haven't posted. It's not because I've been super busy with the kids and trying to get my yard looking nice or getting my garden spot cleaned up so that I can plant it. Yes I have been doing all those things but the main reason I haven't written is because I had emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder and have been slowly recovering from that. Here's the story:

I woke up at 1am on a Tuesday morning (Apr 21) in the worst pain in the world and spent tons of time in the bathroom then went back to bed while I was still in a little bit of pain and woke up 2 hours later to repeat the situation again. I went back to bed only to wake up at 5 in even worse pain then the other 2 times. I swear if I was pregnant I'd have thought I was in labor it was that bad. No position helped me the pain was all across my stomach and hurt all the way across my lower back too. I tried using the bathroom (didn't have to this time) and went and lay back down when Matt came in to check on me because he saw me walking hunched over to the bathroom. I told him I hurt really bad and then barely made it to the bathroom before I started puking. Anyway I told him to go ahead and go to work and I'd call him if it came back again. I called him around 11 to come home I couldn't do it anymore. Anyway I made an appt with the dr for later that day and went there without pain but as I was in the examination room the pain came back - not as bad as before but it was bad. Anyway he thought it might be my gallbladder and sent me for bloodwork to be done and a gallbladder ultrasound. The u/s couldn't happen until Thurs but I went in to get the blood drawn and she stuck me 3 times and warmed up my hand before she got enough blood - I was dehydrated. Wed I felt great no pain and I took Reah for her Dr appt - she's 14lbs 1oz and 24.5in puts her at 75% for wt and 50% for ht. Anyway Thurs I went for my u/s then found out Thurs afternoon that I had gallstones and did I want to be referred to a surgeon because it would eventually need to come out. I told him that I wanted to wait a little while (who would watch my babies?) and he mentioned that it would still continue to give me grief until I had it out. He also told me not to eat any food too high in fat or really spicy because that would aggravate the gallbladder. Anyway Friday I felt great and we ordered pizza for dinner and at 10pm I was in huge pain. I tried to ride it out but finally at 11:30 we called his brother to see if we could drop the kids off while we went to the ER. I was in so much pain I couldn't get comfortable in the chair in the waiting room but right after taking me back to do the triage I started feeling less pain. They took me back into the ER to a room and drew more blood then had me give them a urine sample. The most frequent question I was asked was when was my last menstrual period. I told them it was over a year ago and I couldn't remember when it was. The ER Dr looked at me and said "Oh, menopause?" I know I have gray hair but I can't seriously look old enough to have hit menopause. I looked at him and I said, "No, I'm 4 months postpartum!" Sheesh! The nurse gave me a shot of Demoral and Phenergan and that took away the rest of the pain. I was so thirsty and the nurse said I couldn't have any just in case I went into surgery. At 3 they were going to let me go home but then my labs came back and said that one of the enzymes from the pancreas (Lipase) was over 4000 (extremely high) and I was admitted. Matt went home to sleep more comfortably in his own bed. I was way out of it but the nurse was going to see about maybe getting me a breast pump if they could. I can't remember the time but the nurse came back and told me that they couldn't get me the pump I'd have to have Matt bring mine from home. I finally called Matt to bring my pump before he went to work (he had to go). The next time I woke up there was the sack with my hand held pump (not the electric one). Anyway I was just really glad to have it I was leaking all over. I pumped and pumped and pumped - my hand was a little sore after I was done but I had 7.5 oz to save for my little girl. I think I fell asleep before I called the nurse to put it in the fridge but it was still within the time frame when it got into the fridge. I talked to the family Dr on call at the hospital and he explained to me what was going on inside with my gallbladder. Maybe an hour later (the time was non-existent to me that day) I saw the Surgeon and we decided to go ahead and have the surgery within the next few hours. Matt was with me then but left after that to spend some time with the kids I think. I called him and told him I was on my way to surgery around noon. I slept the rest of the day and vaguely remember tidbits of things like Matt was there sitting in the chair - a nurse putting oxygen on me because my Oxygen sats were lower than they should be. I forgot totally about pumping until I started leaking all over again. So I pumped and dumped it (Dr's orders). I fell asleep just after pumping the last side. I woke up enough to eat dinner (the first meal I'd had since the night before) and take a pain pills by mouth. I got to go home around 8:30 and the first thing I did was wake Reah up and nurse her when we went to pick up the kids - it was after the 6 hours after surgery order. Then we finally went home - put kids to bed to keep getting up with both of them all night long.

Reah survived her first night away from me by staying up for a few hours after struggling to eat formula (thanks so much for your help Priscilla). That didn't agree with her and I made Matt take what I had in the freezer for her. We finally decided to just keep her in bed with us the rest of the night after getting up with her for the 3rd time.

I'm feeling 100% better now and I had a few really bad days during the recovery but I made it - I still had to take care of my babies. Lots of tv time that first week but we are making up for it by playing outside.