Funny Thing Happened.....

Dear Blogger Friends,

WARNING! Long post. I have lots of time on my hands.

No pictures to share because I am not at home. I'M IN THE HOSPITAL!! I am recovering from my third in 4 weeks attack of Gall Bladder Pancreatitis. It is not pretty.

First one was 4 weeks ago and lasted 10 minutes and was totally gone. It felt like a steel band around my chest and some pain coming through to my back. The next day we were due to close on the sale of our house so, I felt fine, so we closed then I decided to tell my doctor about it. That's when she put me on Plavix and Zocor. She did an EKG which was fine and scheduled a treadmill stress test which also went very well.

Three weeks after the first one (last Monday, the 15th) I had another. This was much nastier and lasted 2.5 hours all told. After only a few minutes of this one, Gooserock drove me to the doctor who again took an EKG and again it was fine so the doctor felt it was acid reflux again and gave me a gastric cocktail of lidocain and chalky white paste. Lovely! Everything went numb including my swallowing so each swallow of saliva was a real scary experience.

She thought I should have an upper GI done. My upper right abdomen just under the ribs was VERY tender to the touch. We were standing there talking and she said, looks like you don't feel very well. I said, "I don't". They asked me if they should call an ambulance. Now I ask you, why does a doctor ask a sick patient that question? How the heck do I know?

We decided that I should go to a large nearby hospital to their ER, tell them I was having chest pains. Duh! and they would take me in right away. Going to this hospital involved a ferry ride. We got front row seats, first on and first off. Gooserock was a champ! Sure enough at this ER, they took me right into a room.

Pause a moment. I was now about 2 hours into having a knife stuck into my chest at the sternum and reaching right through to my back. They always ask you in a hospital where you pain is on a scale of 1-10. Again, this was my first time ever in a hospital so how do I know how to compare pain. Now, looking back, it was about an eight.

The drew some blood, did another EKG and we waited. Almost immediately, the pain started easing and by the time they got the blood work back, I was fine again. No more chest pain, no more tender abdomen.

According to the blood work, my lipase was 12,042. So what? Well, normal is 13 - 40. My pancreas was very unhappy. My amilase was also elevated to the scary point. But, I now felt great! I'm learning a lot about being a patient in a hospital instead of a visitor and about enzymes and body parts in general.

They did a complete CT of my aorta because of how I described the pain....sternum straight through to the back, eight on a scale of ten. My aorta is excellent! An internist came to the ER and said I definitely have pancreatitis, now to find out what caused it because none of the multitute of causes applied to me: black scorpion bites, alcoholism, drug interactions, etc, etc. So he ordered an ultrasound of my pancreas/gall bladder/liver area for the next morning.

So they admitted me and I spent my first time ever night in a hospital. Not bad considering I'm 65. Oh, yes, I was also NPO (nothing by mouth). No food, no water, no nothing. And I feel great and I'm on an IV.

So Gooserock reluctantly left me there and went back home to take care of GMom and Toto2 who were back at our new house.

Tuesday, they did the ultra sound and found a whole bunch of stones in the gall bladder. Apparently what happened was one of the stones had moved and gotten stuck in the "common duct" which sends juices from the pancreas and the gall bladder into the intestine to digest food. This made the juices from the pancreas backup and literally irritated the heck out of the pancreas which made it scream at me.

They drew blood again at 5:30 on Tuesday morning (before the ultra sound). My lipase had gone from the amazing 12,042 somethings to 400 somethings. This is a good thing but still quite elevated. Still on IV and NPO and I had to stay another day and night. They said it was a very dangerous situation to have the pancreas so irritated. Tuesday night I was taken off the IV because my lipase was down to 65. Yippee! AND I was given jello and applesauce and some soda crackers. Thought I was in heaven!

Wed morning they sent me home with the admonition to get my gall bladder yanked within the next two weeks. They wouldn't do it right then and there because of scheduling the surgeon so I decided I wanted it done at my local hospital which involves no ferry ride and Gooserock and various friends are close by. They also said to stay on a low fat diet. Some of you may recall that two years ago Gooserock and I went on a Very Low Fat diet to combat my cholesterol. We don't eat anything with feet or anything that comes from critters with feet (this includes shellfish and crab) We do eat fin fish. Basically its a vegan plus fin fish diet. Soy is my friend.

So good! I go home. Monday the 22 is the day the movers come to pick up GMoms furniture and bring it to her two rooms in our new house. So we begin to work on getting her packed.

Friday, mid morning, I call Gooserock from GMom's apartment to tell him I don't feel quite right.....discomfort in my back. 10 minutes later I have GMom call him to come get us both and I need to go to ER. My instructions had been that if I have another attach before the g.b. can be yanked I'm to go directly to ER. We deposit GMom at new house to keep Toto2 company. We call 911. By now the pain is right up there. I'm willing to call it a 10. I get nauseous. The EMT's come, (of course everyone things "heart"), the ambulance arrives, we head for the local hospital about 25 minutes away with Gooserock hot on our heels in our car. It has now been about 1.5 hours. The EMT in the ambulance had just offered me some pain meds and the pain which had been easing, left entirely.....just like before.

To make a long story even longer, I spent last night here in the hospital, NPO again and on IV again dragging my IV stand with me when I want to visit the Little Girl's Room, and once again bored to tears because I feel fine. A GP came to check on me.

The surgeon came to visit and explained a lot about the upcoming surgery which will probably be on Tuesday. They want my pancreas to be completely rested and all the blood levels back to normal before doing it. They still hope to be able to do it laporoscopaly (tiny incision and cameras). They won't send me home because of this last week's experiences.

I finally asked the nurse if there were any laptops I could rent and she offered to bring me to a computer in the ICU waiting room. So you're getting the whole long, boring story, because I have nothing else to entertain myself with.

Oh yes, poor Gooserock is left with all the packing assistance for GMom and worrying about his buddy sitting bored in hospital. Movers come tomorrow. The local Good Will comes Tuesday to get the furniture that GMom can't bring into the new house for lack of room. He's a really busy guy, bless his heart. He'd rather be here with me, but I'm okay now and Gmom and aged Toto2 need him back there. So we talk on the phone a lot. I've had friends call too.

Everyone here at hospital is wonderful, friendly, caring and very helpful. ....and very smart. We feel real good about everything that is being done.

I think I'll stop for now and go back to my room and my IV.

I'll keep you posted.