Friday, September 10, 2010

Gallbladder Drama

  Alrighty, I am now officially 18 weeks along in my pregnancy. I was hoping by now my morning sickness would be gone or only on occasion, but I haven't been able to tell with my other side effects. About two weeks ago I started having some gas problems, i chalked it up to not having regular bowl movements for most of this pregnancy. I was awaken the first time at about 2 in the morning with such intense pain under my rib cage that i woke up BJ and begged him to go to the store and get gas-x or some type of gas relief medicine. Poor BJ, off he went at three in the morning to walmart to buy me gas meds. the pain eventually subsided and I fell back to sleep an hour or so later.
Over the next couple of days I didn't have any problems except during the night. I thought it was gas so I would take an anti-acid and "tough it out", till last Friday night. The pain started at about 11:00 pm and i took my gas-x and braced myself to tough it out for the night. BJ turned off the light at about 12:15 am and fell asleep. I steadied my breathing and waited for the pain to subside. About an hour later the pain had not subsided but my tolerance had completely gone out the window, I was now whimpering and breathing a little harder but still trying to keep it down and not wake up BJ. But BJ finally woke up and asked if he could help, and that is such a tough question cause really there isn't anything he can do... but take a pillow and put me out of my misery. I just started to cry harder and said no. I decided to go out on the couch because by then my self wallow mode was on full throttle and I was now crying about everything bad thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life and I was sure God was punishing me. The pain wasn't so bad when i was crying that hard. but when i stopped to breath it would all come back ten fold. that pathetic scene lasted for about a half hour till BJ came out and laid on the couch with me and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, which only made me cry harder?? don't ask why? I said no, I didn't want to go to the ER only to be told its just gas, I feel like I've already had so many other things go wrong with this pregnancy I didn't want to look like a big baby. So BJ went back into the room and started to look what it might be online. We read a couple things and decided to take Tylenol, but the more we read, the more I cried. BJ finally said he was taking me to the ER. He started dressing me haha cause he was so tired of listening to me cry about my pain.
  
  The drive to the Hospital took forever!!!! when we finally got there they signed us in and started to do test on me. They did all the normal test and asked what was wrong. I told them all my symptoms and that I was pregnant. They lead me to a room and told me they were going to take blood, hook an iv and check my baby's heart rate, then send me over to get an ultra sound on my abdomen. The nurse came in and was really nice. I know she was only being nice and making small talk, but she walked in and asked me if I had ever had an IV before... my first thought was.. nope.. never...but when your in a lot of pain sarcasm isn't first on hand.. so I nicely replied yes, I've had many especially over the last three months. Pick a vain any vain, they are all marked out. After they took the blood and hooked up the IV, another nurse came in to hear the heart beat. She globbed so much of the ultra sound goo on me it still makes me giggle thinking about it, when she found the heart beat it had dropped a little from the last time... so for any of you that believe boys have low heart rates.. my baby's heart rate was 140. :) But we'll find that out next week.
     Next they wheeled me into the ultra sound room where they had warm blankets and socks! The Lady wasn't super talkative, but then again it was about 4 in the morning by then. She took a look around and took pictures for about a half hour and then sent me back to my room. BJ and I waited about an hour till the doctor came back in and said I had two gallstones. lovely. I was almost relieved that it was something so BJ didn't thing I was making the pain up, but then I realized that I was stuck with the pain. He then went over how someone gets stones and the next course of action. He referred us to a surgeon at Alta View in sandy and gave me a few prescriptions.  By the time BJ and I left it was 5:30. Poor BJ had to be to work in less then two hours. We went home and I slept Most of the rest of the day. 

                                                     
   BJ got me an appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday. He went over all the pros and cons of having the surgery and what life will be like after the surgery if I go ahead with it. now I know your saying whats the problem here... well I'm pregnant remember..  I asked what the risks entailed and he said that the risks were actually higher for me not to have the surgery. In the first trimester they would have been concerned about the fetus growth and if the medications to put me under could/would effect the baby's health, and in the third trimester the risks are really high because if I have an attack it could possibly send me into labor causing a premature birth for my baby and all the side effects that go along with that. In the 2nd trimester I'm just growing the baby. So yes it is risky, any surgery is, Its will just be less of a risk for the baby at this point in the pregnancy. The doctor scheduled me for surgery this up coming Monday at 6:30 am. I'm very nervous but I am hoping that with this surgery I'll be able to start feeling a little better.

These are what the scars will look like :(  Wish me luck?