And she's back - sans gallbladder!

Back in July I posted about how I had to go to Labor & Delivery due to some god awful stomach pains that were unbearable. The on-call OB said that it was probably gallbladder issues, to take some pepcid and avoid whoppers. So I did. The remaining 2 1/2 months of my pregnancy, I only had 1 more minor attack and then came Avery.

Since Avery was born 6 1/2 weeks ago, I have had gallbladder attacks at least once or twice a week. It became unbearable. It got to the point where I was hardly eating anything for fear of inducing another attack. After having an attack Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday in a row, I decided to bite the bullet and call the surgeon. I had a lot of fears that prevented me from calling earlier. I thought I'd have to leave Avery for 24 hours. But I couldn't go on any longer.

I got an appt for a week later with Dr. L. The appt was very short. It basically went like this.

Dr: "So tell me what made you think you had gallbladder issues"

I told him the symptoms I was experiencing and recounted my trip to L&D this summer

Dr: "well, you do have gallstones. So when do you want to have it removed?"

Me: "I'd rather not ever have another attack"

Dr: "see you friday at 7 am"

Alrighty then!

The surgery went well. I did have a number of gallstones and it was probably the best thing for me to get it removed. The staff at the Surgery Center was amazing! I feel a little guilty for poking fun of the nurse who donned a Winnie the Pooh pink scrub shirt, seeing as she was the wonderful woman who was able to get my IV into my very dehydrated veins. (Note to self - I need to drink more fluids!).

The pain afterwards was pretty intense. It was definitely way worse than my c-section recovery and I still can't seem to get this trapped air out of my shoulder. The doctor made three small-ish incisions in my abdomen. One of them is pretty gnarly looking. They are covered with this plastic sheath stuff and the top incision has some leaking blood (it's normal) but it looks really disgusting.

Avery has faired well with all of this. Because of the anesthesia and the crazy amount of pain meds they gave me (morphine, demoral and lortabs) I had to dump my milk for 24 hours and she ate bottled breast milk in the mean time. She definitely prefers the bottle for laziness reasons. She is able to get a lot of food quickly with the bottle and this little piglet loves it. We are re-learning how to breastfeed and she's not too keen on it. She's getting there. It will be easier when I am able to relax a little with her on my abdomen. Right now it's so tender having her there that I know I'm really tense. I am just extra grateful that she isn't a picky baby and adapts to situations well.

I ate real food this evening for the first time and so far so good. Many times a nasty side effect of gallbladder removal is that your body will go through a dumping syndrome where you'll literally have to use the restroom 20 minutes after you eat. I haven't had any tummy issues at all so I am hoping that it stays this way. Of course I will have to watch what I eat and can't eat tremendously fatty foods, which is really not an issue since we eat fairly healthfully most of the time.

So... 7 weeks and two surgeries... It's been quite eventful around these parts. Let's hope for an uneventful next couple of months :)