Well, it’s been a hellish week here at MHC which explains my rather prolonged (for me) absence. Sunday night I had an all night long bout with gastric problems and vomiting. I had had another experience like this when I was in Wisconsin, but this time it was worse. Monday we went to our local Urgent Care and the Physician’s Assistant strongly suspected gall stones (as had I.) But I didn’t get any better. I was very weak, had no appetite and by Wednesday night I was running a fever. Off we went to the ER where an ultra sound revealed that yes, I had gall stones but more problematic, I had a stone blocking my bile duct which was causing acute distress. Oh, and I was jaundiced. That had happened sometime that day. It’s a good thing I had no awareness of it. Don said he noticed it when we got to the hospital and wisely decided not to tell me. I was admitted and on Thursday I had a procedure in which I was knocked out and some wonderful tool was sent down to the bile duct via my throat and the stone was removed. Today, I came home. I am exhausted as I had very little to eat all week and had very little sleep. The doctor insists that my gall bladder will have to be removed but we are going to try some fairly radical diet changes in the meantime. I’d like to avoid surgery if at all possible.
The blockage explains a lot of annoying problems over the last year and the ER doctor said it probably had taken at least that long for it to get to the point it was on Wednesday night. And you know, I just didn’t feel very good most of the time I was in Wisconsin.
I haven’t been a hospital patient since I was 8 and had my tonsils removed.
I’ll probably not blog again until next week. I need to sleep and regain my strength.
