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!