Two Days in Hospital

Following my marathon sleeping day on Sunday when I spent 17 hours in bed nursing my latest attack of stomach pain, fever and chills, we contacted my GI physician who suggested I check in immediately to the hospital - which I did.

We sat for over three hours in the Emergency waiting room performing paperwork and waiting for a room assignment. I finally got all settled in my room by midnight. Josie went home and I tried to get some sleep. Everybody knows that the first night in any hospital is written off as a result of nurses, doctors and CNA's coming in and out taking blood and vital statistics. I had an unusual time - although not for me - giving all the blood samples they needed as my veins are always difficult to locate. It took three nurses, 5 attempts, to eventually get all the blood work they needed during the night and to set up an IV for the procedure that I was scheduled for on Tuesday. I looked like a drug addict by morning with all the holes in my arm, not to mention the soreness.

It was a mostly boring day on Tuesday as my procedure - ECRP - was not scheduled until 2:30 PM. Josie took the day off and stayed with me the whole day - bless her. This is the scene as it played out on Tuesday:

The procedure was successful and my doctor extracted two stones after only seeing one on the MRI from last Thursday. When he attempted to inject dye into the gallbladder, it would not go. That indicated to the doctor that there was most likely another stone that was blocking the duct to the gallbladder and he recommended an immediate (Wednesday) operation - to remove the gallbladder. That was scheduled for yesterday at 11 AM, so I was set to stay at least one more day. I was in favor of anything that needed to be done to eliminate the problem. Fortunately, the MRI showed that my liver, kidney, pancreas and lungs were all clear and healthy, so the chances were very good that the problem was about to be eliminated.

Everything went as planned and there were no complications during the gallbladder removal and I recovered fast enough to be released from the hospital yesterday. Believe me, within an hour of the operation I was feeling better than I had felt in all of the last month.

This is what a "selfie" taken this morning shows as the result of the operation - actually a Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy:

I am very sore from the incisions and expect to be for the next several days. I was given a prescription for pain and will be taking those pills over the next several days as needed.

It's all over, and we are now putting ourselves into the mode of getting ready for our trip to Jackson which begins on Sunday. It was a close call for having to change plans for our trip...