Monday, September 7, 2009

Gallstones

This past friday I woke up with a pain like no other. I went to work thinking it would go away but it never did. I have experienced this pain twice before, once in august 07 and once in august 08. Both times I have gone to the ER and been given pain medicine and sent home with no real diagnosis. This time, being pregnant, I thought I better go to the ER and find out once and for all what was going on in my belly. I arrived at the ER at 9 a.m. I was immediately sent to the Labor and Delivery unit b/c I am 25 weeks pregnant. They put me in a room and monitored the baby for about an hour with no pain relief. I threw up three times while in L & D due to pain. They found that everything was fine with the baby so they sent me back down to the ER. At this point it is about 10:30 and I still have no pain relief. I was put in a room very quickly and I was there for a while when a student came in and asked me a series of questions, which I have already answered about three times already for different people, again! Then a nurse comes in and gives me a "GI Concoction", Mallox and Lidocaine, this was meant to numb the pain but did nothing but numb my tongue. Finally a DR. came in and decided he could give me some Dilaudid and that they would be doing an EKG, drawing some blood and getting an ultrasound of my gallbladder. Finally about 12:30ish I had some pain relief. They did all the above tests that were normal except for the ultrasound. I had Gallstones, and lots of them apparently. The good news was that there was no infection and no obstruction. Dr. Taylor my OB Dr. decided they should admit me for pain control and a surgical consult. So about 5 pm after a day in the ER and minimal pain relief I am moved to L&D again to stay the night. I was going to be put on a PCA pain pump and they were going to monitor the baby for the evening. After three hours of being in the room with no pain relief again, I finally got that pain pump. Needless to say, I awoke to no pain and to a surgeon saying I would need to wait until after Baby Brogan is born to have my gallbladder removed. I was released on a no spicy/no fried food diet, which is probably a good thing. I am much better and am hoping that I don't have another episode before I can get this thing removed. On another note, Brogan is great...she is kicking and moving more than ever and I love that!!! We also got her fabric in and are getting ready to pick out the paint and get started on her room. This, I can't wait for! It is going to be precious!!!