On Christmas day, I awoke surrounded by the aftermath that was glyphmas, and treated myself to a sammich. A few hours later, my stomach began to ache in a way that i could only describe as the worst pain i have ever experienced. I've broken my wrist, nose and ankle, sliced my arm to the bone and suffered from debilitative migraines... so allow me to take the liberty of having a slight frame of reference.
So, there I was, Christmas day, in pain, and no one to complain to. I had already decided that I wasn't about to drive to the other side of town just to sit in a waiting room for five hours for a tummy ache. So, i toughed it out, and the pains subsided in a few hours and i congratulated myself on avoiding a $500 ER bill (high-five!)
All was well for the next few months... until last night.
Around eleven or so, my stomach began to ache in the same way it did back in December... only this time, i was prepared. Prilosec and Tums. "Acid reflux be dammed!" I snickered.
An hour went by, then another, then another. The pain was unrelenting. I tried to empty my stomach of the food i had eaten earlier, no improvement. It felt as if someone had placed a puffer fish inside my stomach and was forcibly inflating it. Damning the fish and my abdomen to the same fate.
I tried everything i could think of to ease the pain: warm bath, sit-ups, massaging my tummy, heating pad and finally pacing around my living room. I figured if i could just wait it out for a few hours i'd fall asleep and wake up right as rain.
This didn't happen.
5am, 6am, I see the sun come up. I figure I could go to the urgent care center at 8 and get myself checked out, but there was no way in hell I could drive. I decided to call Dianya and get a ride. She had a meeting and remote until 11. Okay, i thought... i've made it this far i can handle a few more hours.
After visiting the urgent care center and being told "Go to the ER... NOW", Dianya helps me check in at North Florida. I sit and wait for about an hour before I get a room and another 2 before they finally give me something for the pain. Fourteen hours from when it started, my sleep deprived and sightly delusional body is released into a blissful high.
By this time Lily has arrived, and is comforting me in my now loopy state.
They've decided on an ultrasound and an abdominal CT scan. The tests are completed and i'm told by the ultrasound doc that i have gall stones. About 20 of em. And this is the cause of the pain in my stomach.
Just as a fyi: The Gallbladder hangs out right next to the liver holding bile and concentrating it. Bile helps break down fats in the duodenum. The gallbladder isn't really a necessary organ, and usually ends up being more trouble than it's worth.
I've been told there are really 2 courses of action. 1) change my diet in the hopes that i don't produce any more gallstones. This in no way guarantees that i wont have a flareup and have to go through this whole thing again. 2) remove the little sucker completely, and be done with any chance of this occurring again. Option 2 in a small way involves option 1, meaning that i need to watch what i eat, watch what i drink and loose a bit more weight.
Of course i find it humorous that all this happens to me on the celebration of my first week of sobriety, third day of vegetarianism, and my loss of 3 pounds.
Anyway, I'll be calling the surgeon tomorrow and scheduling an appointment to have a piece of my body removed.
