Wow, I’m finally well enough to write this. I’ve been sick for what seems like months. My gallbladder apparently has been on the fritz for a while now. Do you know what a gallbladder does? If you do, you paid way more attention in all of the anatomy and upper level college biology classes than I did. According to the Mayo clinic, “Your gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped organ on the right side of your abdomen, just beneath your liver. The gallbladder holds a digestive fluid called bile that’s released into your small intestine.”
Turns out I have been having gallbladder attacks for the longest time and thought it was just random pain. Everything finally came to light when I went to the ER on January 14th (Monday) because I started inexplicably vomiting blood. The ER doctor said I probably had food poisoning or something but called for an ultrasound of my gallbladder just in case. That’s when they found that I had gall stones and have probably had them for years but now my gallbladder finally had enough. They released me and told me that they’d schedule an upper GI (procedure where they looked down my throat into my esophagus) to see if there was a cause for my vomiting blood and a Cholecystectomy to remove my gallbladder (turns out you may not need it). But, my body had other plans, and on that Friday (January 19th) I went back into the ER because I couldn’t stop vomiting. So they admitted me and moved my upper GI to Monday, January 22nd (I had a Mallory Weiss tear in my esophagus) and had my gallbladder removed the 23rd of January. Finally after a slew of tests I was allowed to go home on Thursday the 24th. Easy day, done……. Right?……… WRONG.
Sadly on Saturday, the 27th I was readmitted. I suddenly came down with a fever, chills, and an overall terrible feeling. Turns out, I had bile “sludge” (sounds great, right?) and gallstones in my liver that started a rather dangerous infection. One of my liver enzyme levels shot up from a normal 40 to a not normal 250! So, the doctors acted fast and put me on a long list of medication and ran more tests than I would like to remember. I had the gallstones and “sludge” (that’s literally what all of the doctors called it) removed from my liver Monday, the 29th of January. I didn’t tolerate solid foods for a while, so I was kept in the hospital until Thursday, the 1st of February.
On the plus side, since the 19th of January I’ve lost 16 lbs. Most of that was because I was on a clear liquid diet: Jello, chicken broth, ginger ale. I don’t recommend it. Right now I’m at home recuperating. I’m allowed to do some activities but no rock wall climbing until the docs clear it. If you’ve read this far, thank you! It was a lot. 🙂
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