Update

So after waking up at 1am Monday morning with pains, I felt sick on and off all day Monday & Tuesday. I called the surgeon who wanted me to come in to see him a day earlier than I was supposed to. While we were getting ready to leave they called back and sent me to a nearby lab for blood work to be done. Once they finally got the results back around 1pm, the nurse called back and said that some of my levels (she wasn't specific) were elevated and they wanted me to come in right away. She also told me to pack a bag b/c the surgeon may want to put me in the hospital over night to be monitored. Sure enough, my surgeon told me that my liver levels were elevated and he wanted me in the hospital to have an MRI done and be monitored. Yikes! Bad thing was Jared was in California for work and Jared's aunt and uncle were out of town so my mom literally had to drop me off to be admitted and then went home with Jayne. It was so hard for her, she cried! She was so torn between wanting to be with me and taking care of Jayne. I seriously was fine and once admitted they started my IV and gave me Demoral. (Ahh, Demoral I love you!!!) I was dehydrated as well and all my veins had collapsed so it was hard for the nurse to get the IV in, which is never fun! I wasn't having a ton of pain but they gave me Demoral to relax me for my MRI since I had to go into the tight little tube. Eeek, not so fun for someone who gets claustrophobic!

I was hopeful after the MRI I would get sent home, but it was late and there wasn't anyone to read the scans well so they had to wait until morning. And they wanted to check my liver levels again anyways. But no food or water, not even ice chips for me for 24hrs. Yuck! I forgot how the nurses have to come in every two hours to check vitals. The hospital is not the best place for rest! And they came in at 1am to take my blood! I mean seriously, 1am? Again, love the Demoral buzz and the ease at which I can relax and sleep with it!

The next day I was hoping to get discharged. They started giving me real (ie. bland disgusting hospital food) to see if I could keep it down without any pain. My girlfriend, Lisa, came over to watch Jayne all day so my mom could be with me, but around 3pm we knew she had to get home to relieve Lisa. My MRI results showed that my Bile duct was swollen which could mean either I passed a stone and that was what all the pain was from or that I have a small stone stuck that couldn't be seen on the MRI. I was a little shocked when around 6pm they came in and told me I was staying another night. The drs wanted to check my liver levels again to make sure they were going down. Long story short, I was in the hospital for three days, had six bags of IV fluid, no pain, was able to keep food down and my liver levels showed that they were going back to normal so the drs are assuming I passed a stone. I did have a horrific headache in the hospital that not even Tylenol or Motrin would help. It was bad but it could have been due to the darkness of the room or the dryness of the air, or even the Demoral b/c it went away yesterday thank goodness!

So unless I have pain or cant keep food down, I go back to the surgeon this week and then see the gastro. specialist next week and go from there. Today however I felt really bad this morning (not pain, just cramping) and ended up throwing up my breakfast which was just cereal. I'm hoping that this was an isolated event as I was able to keep a sandwich down this afternoon.So please be praying things are okay. I'm still trying to stay on a very bland diet and hoping my body gets used to working without a gallbladder soon! I hate that my mom left today and I only really had two days with her. I was sick or sleeping most of the time, but I know she was here to help with Jayne and stuff so it was so appreciated. We laughed about how I thought my MIL would have the bum end of the deal since we thought after four days I would be feeling better. But again I am so grateful for the two of them to be able to be with us and help us through this time. They both gave up a lot to come down on such short notice. We feel so blessed!

- T -