How to Survive Gallbladder Attacks

Since dedicating myself to writing this blog with the intention of keeping my loved ones in Texas caught up on my life in St. Louis, I understood that I would need to write about the ups and the downs that we experience here.  As a general rule, I do not like to write about the "downs," simply because usually being negative does nothing but bring others around you down.  In this case, however, I aim to fulfill a better purpose: to inform.

On February 2, 2014, Peyton Manning's Broncos lost to the Seattle Seahawks and my gallbladder decided to attack me.  Yes, you read that correctly.  This has only happened to me once before when I was about 20 years old and on vacation in San Antonio with my family.  At around 10pm, I awoke to excruciating pain that nothing, and I mean nothing, could dampen. I tried Pepto Bismol, a hot bath, Advil, a back rub, etc to no avail.  This lasted on into the morning for a total of about 6.5 hours.  To describe the pain, the best version I've come up with is it felt like my stomach was literally on fire, burning from the inside out and radiating into my back.  I even called a 24 hour nurse hotline and she didn't have any advice.  The only reason I didn't go to the ER was the fact that it happened to me once before and only time took the pain away, and I am very frugal and didn't want to pay $100 for someone to tell me that time is all it would take.

After the initial attack, I convinced myself that I had a stomach ulcer. I put myself on the BRAT diet  and went to my primary care physician who recommended a gallbladder ultrasound and an appointment with a GI physician.  I ended up postponing the gallbladder ultrasound on the fact that I truly believed it was an ulcer.  When I went to the GI doc, he rescheduled my ultrasound and also scheduled me for an upper endoscopy.

Within a week of seeing the doctor, but prior to having any tests done, I had another attack.  After eating a peanut butter sandwich (only peanut butter on wheat toast), I threw everything up for 24 hours. The next day got even worse.  Every few minutes I would get a stabbing, sharp pain in the middle of my stomach (above my belly button but below my rib cage) that lasted around 15-20 seconds.  This happened all day, and it took everything in me to continue to maintain professionalism with patients and physicians at work.  I even had a friend run and get me water in the middle of an implant because I felt so lightheaded and about to faint. On top of the pain and nausea, I also ran a low grade fever for days.

I called my GI doc who encouraged me to get the tests done (scheduled for 2 days later) or go to the ER if I couldn't stand the pain... so I waited it out until I got to my ultrasound.  Within that appointment, I knew it was my gallbladder.  It was a shocking diagnosis to be honest.  I clearly did not expect it to be my gallbladder.

My GI doc called to confirm and told me that he felt I needed to have it removed as soon as possible.  So, I was referred to a fantastic surgeon who ended up taking out my gallbladder this past Monday evening.  I have four incisions, one at my bellybutton, two more toward the right of my bellybutton, and one in the center just under my ribcage.  They are healing well and basically just feel sore more than anything else. 

Me pre-surgery. That gown was made of paper and could blow air of any temp through it... it was pretty sweet, especially when I vaso-vagaled during my IV placement :/

A pic of me post-surgery that I don't really remember taking haha

Since then, my recovery has been a little rough.  Two days ago, I had a severe reaction to my nausea medicine: prochlorperazine.  Apparently this is a drug that is used less often for nausea due to its known (but not to me) side effect of dystonia.  For me, this meant I rolled my eyes to the back of my head and stretched my neck as far back as it could go.  I truly looked demon-possessed and scared the living daylights out of Darren, Carissa, and Brian who all went to the ER with me.  Fortunately, IV Benadryl fixed the issue... but I really wish someone had mentioned this crazy potential side effect to keep us from getting so scared.

Me in the ER ~1 am AFTER the IV Benadryl

Since then, things have been much better. I am blessed by the outpouring of love shown by my friends from church, friends and coworkers from work, and family members.  Hopefully this is all a solution to the problem and will be a thing of the past very soon.

So, I write to inform you.  Inform you of what to look for in gallbladder attacks, what to expect if you need to have yours out, and which medicine to avoid afterward!

Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers. I hope very soon that I can eat normally again!

Visiting the Capitol in the Capital

Darren and I have made it a goal to visit all 50 state capitals throughout our lifetime.  So far, I believe that we've only been to Austin, Oklahoma City, and Springfield (IL) together... so we have a long way to go. For Valentine's Day weekend, we felt like exploring something new.  What better than to take the short 2 hour drive over to Jefferson City, MO and cross another capital off our list?

To be completely honest, when I answered the usual "What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" question asked by my coworkers with "Exploring Jefferson City," I was met with some interesting looks.  Apparently, nobody goes there unless they have to.  But, if you know Darren and me, you know that we can take any small town and turn it into an adventure to remember.

So, Saturday morning we set out for mid-Missouri's forgotten city.  We have a few road trip traditions, including purchasing scratch off lottery tickets (our overall winnings are about even with the cost of the tickets, so it's just a fun game to play on our rare road trips).  We've also made a habit of listening to NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me along some portion of the drive (I love the Limerick game!). It was nice to leave the city behind, just to take a step away from our usual sights and go somewhere new.

Upon entering Jeff City, we were immediately greeted with a view of the Capitol building, which lives up to your usual expectations of ornate architecture with a domed roof.

Prior to exploring the building, we decided to get brunch at the Downtown Diner.  The food was cheap but delicious, and we explored a few of the little shops along the main street downtown. They even gave us free chocolate covered strawberries to celebrate Valentine's Day!

After that, it was time for the main attraction: the Capitol!  Inside it's as beautiful as you would imagine.  Intricate details on the ceilings, ornate light fixtures, echo-y hallways... there were a few museums of Missouri state history and Missouri's involvement in the Civil War.  Both of those were really fun to explore, especially since Darren and I grew up learning Texas history.  It wasn't all new to us, but learning about the different cultures that occupied Missouri over the course of history was neat.

Walking up to the building

Inside the dome

The MO state seal

One of the museums

Another view of the dome

One of the many skylights

Darren and Jefferson

Darren's favorite portion was an area put together by World War Veterans from Missouri that included this replica of the USS Missouri.

Up on the higher floors, we snuck peaks inside the rooms where the Senate and Legislature meet.

Another cool spot was the Hall of Busts, which housed busts of famous people either from Missouri or who became famous in Missouri.  We had fun posing with the busts and learning about people who we didn't realize had ties to MO!

Some of the many famous people from MO

Lewis and Clark

As always, we found a couple of cannons to pose with, and were tempted to buy these "Cannon Crew" t-shirts for future use... maybe we will still make our own.

Cannon #1

Cannon #2

The awesome T-shirt

After exploring the Capitol for about 3 hours (now that's what I call free entertainment!), we decided to check into our hotel across town.  To be honest, there wasn't much to the rest of the city (your usual chain restaurants and shopping spots).  Fortunately, we had planned to just relax and didn't need any more attractions.

We selected a local Italian restaurant, Domenico's, for dinner that evening.  It had the quaint atmosphere of a family business and delicious toasted ravioli (we had to!).  We split a yummy grilled chicken dish with sides of pasta and salad.  It was just enough food to be full, and we were pleased with our experience.

Can you spot our after dinner mints in our cheeks?

Sunday morning we made one stop at the infamous Ozarkland after having seen signs for it over the past few years.  It is a novelty store with aisles upon aisles of interesting treasures.  We didn't buy anything or even sample the fudge, but could see how it would be fun to stop there with a bus group.

As a whole, we enjoyed our mini getaway to the MO state capital and are glad to have one more down, 47 to go!