I know it has been a while since I posted anything so I figured I start with the big "news." (Is it news if it happened 2 months ago?)
I had to have my gallbladder taken out. We tried to take a weekend trip to Wenatchee, WA which is on the other side of the cascades. Trips seem to be a bad thing for me. In the past 7 months, I've taken 3 overnight trips. Two have ended up involving an ER visit. Looked at another way, in the past 7 months I've had 3 ER visits, 2 of which involved an over night trip. I don't really see why sleeping somewhere else should be too much stress for my body to take, but apparently I am just that fragile.
Anyway, gallbladder issues are common with rapid weight loss. I was on some medication to lower my risk, but my risk was probably a bit higher than even the average weight loss surgery patient because of all the food issues I've had. So, while we were in Wenatchee I had a gallbladder attack and we decided to rush back to Seattle (~3 hr drive). We didn't know what was going on but figured it would be best to be seen in the hospital that knew the most about me. Michael dropped me off at the hospital before taking puppy home. I actually lucked out in that the surgeon on call does gastric bypasses so he was very familiar with my situation and now I no longer have a gallbladder. This isn't really a big deal. It means I won't digest fat as well which can lead to diarrhea, but with the issues I have already it is sort of a drop in the ocean.
I did have a few surgery side effects. First of all - apparently they were worried I had hepatitis. I'm not sure who heard what, so I just wanted to go on record as saying that my liver is fine. It was just mad because it got banged around during the surgery. (The gallbladder sits right up against the liver.) There is no damage. The other issue is this weird pain that I had. There was this line going from my belly button (where they pulled the gallbladder out) diagonally down to the front of my left hip. There was this divot in my skin that looked like it had been pulled too tight and along the line the skin was numb. At either end of the line - there was pain. It was actually more painful than any of the incisions. Everyone was confused by this on two counts. (I used to enjoy thinking of myself as unusual and interesting, but it gets old when you are unusual and interesting medically.) First of all - the gallbladder is in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen and the pain was on the exact opposite side of where they were working. Secondly - what I just described (numbness combined with pain and a seizing up a tissue) sounds a lot like nerve issues. But, in that part of your body, nerves don't run diagonally. So, for about a month it hurt to do just about anything including just having something touch my belly there. I went around all the time in sweatpants that were 5 sizes too big. Then all of a sudden - the pain was gone. Not coincidentally (I think) a month out from surgery is about when you would expect the dissoluble sutures to let go. My theory is that something got pulled too tight when they sewed me up. None of the doctors (including Michael) put much stock in this theory, but I like it.
Well, that concludes the story of the ill-fated gallbladder. I have more posts planned and hopefully it won't take another three months for me to get around to them. But, now I'm on my way to meet my GI doc to see what he has to say about my other issues.
