Crazy Month

The last month since I posted last has been absolutely insane. One week, we participated in the 5K that I already told you about. The very next week on a Thursday night, I ended up in the ER with a gallstone attack. At the time, I didn't know that's what it was, I thought my band had slipped or something. I was in the ER for 12 hours, not fun. They got the pain under control (it was BAD) and ran tests until they figured out that it was my gallbladder. Apparently, gallstones are common in people who have WLS, they tend to happen when people lose weight quickly. Of course there are other ways to get stones, but my doctors are pretty sure this was the case for me. I went home and it still took about 4 days before all the pain and soreness was gone, so by Monday I was okay.

A few days later, on Friday (May 7 for a timeframe), I woke up and felt a little soreness in the middle of my chest and back - the exact place I felt it during the first attack. I had a feeling what was coming, so I told my husband to keep his phone handy. I went to work and the pain increased during the day until I finally called and got an appointment with my band surgeon, who I was told to see for my gallbladder follow-up anyway. I left work at 3 PM, sat crying in pain in my doctor's waiting room for an hour, and after just a few minutes of talking to me, he told me he was admitting me to the hospital and they would take out the gallbladder. By 5 PM was sitting in the admitting waiting room, and I still didn't get any pain meds until 7 PM. I haven't been told all the results of the tests they ran, but from what I put together, the gallstones caused an infection in my gallbladder, which is why the pain came back so soon when I didn't eat anything that could really cause an attack. The ER just treated the symptoms but didn't catch the full cause.

Since my surgeon wasn't on call that weekend, the surgery had to wait until Monday. I sat in the hospital all weekend, mostly by myself since my husband could only come for a few hours Friday and Sunday. The pain was gone/under control by late Friday night, but then I was just uncomfortable from the stupid bed and having to sleep on my back, which causes a lot of pain for me.

They took my gallbladder out Monday afternoon, and originally my doctor said I might even be able to go home later that night, yeah right. I woke up with a drain in my stomach, I never ever want to go through that again. The stitches and incisions and pain were nothing compared to the discomfort that drain caused.

I was finally released Wednesday and stayed home from work Thursday and Friday. It still took a few more days for my digestion tract to settle down, the lingering discomfort to go away, and to just feel good enough to be up and about.

In a nutshell: Those two weeks of my life SUCKED. I also just got promoted at work a few days before I ended up in the hospital. It took weeks to get everything at home caught back up and back on track. It threw everything out of whack.

My weight fluctuated like crazy through all of this since I wasn't eating for a large chunk of those two weeks. The lowest I got down to was 363, and I was so happy about that (-81 pounds). The last time I weighed myself was at my doctor's office for a follow-up two weeks ago, I was 377 on their scale, but I had heavy clothes on, I hadn't went to the bathroom, and I was just unprepared to be weighed, so I don't know how accurate that was. I'm sure I gained weight since then as well, because I started pigging out like crazy, mostly because I was due for my birth control shot as well, which messes up my appetite. I also just went on a soda binge and drank quite a few 2 liters.

I'm going to try to weigh myself properly tomorrow morning, but today I'm already getting back on track with my diet. My snacking and bad habits HAVE to stop before I end up right back where I was before. I'm getting nervous that I might need another fill, because my insurance won't cover it. I might be on my own for awhile.