Wednesday, March 22, 2017

"You made STONES?"

"Gallbladder's Last Day" comic by The Awkward Yeti, used with permission.
Who knew there were comics about the gallbladder??

Certainly not me, until half of my FB feed was filled with this cute little guy after folks found out that I had to have my gallbladder removed.

So, I had to banish the little fellow and his stones.

I'm now 48 hours after a bunch of exuberant surgeons, fellows, and residents spent the better part of 90 minutes mucking about in my insides.

I am no stranger to surgery - aside from a c-section and an emergency appendectomy, I've also had a ton of orthopedic procedures. Let me say, general anesthesia never gets easier to recuperate from. I have about a 2 hour window to do anything before I need to take a nap.

Which makes the dogs ecstatic.

It's amazing to me that human bodies heal after that kind of planned damage and that we can live well minus what seems like pretty essential components in our meat-suits.

So, there you have it. It's been several weeks of intermittent 'oh, G-d I want to die' kind of pain and now it's just a bit of a tugging sensation in my flank when I change positions. And that post-surgical pain will fade quickly.

My husband remarked that my color was better - my face is back to its usual rosy pink from the slightly gray tinge. I suspect I'd been dealing with a barely functioning gallbladder for some time before the stones got large enough to cause an acute problem.

I am grateful for surgical advances that let them do this operation laproscopically - making several small holes  and working with tiny cameras to guide the work rather than have to have a large abdominal procedure.

Now it's time for another dose of motrin and a nap.




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