Life Is Good (Part 2)

So on Tuesday at noon, my lovely antagonistic gallbladder was removed from my body. Full of stones and infected, the little bugger.

Guess I can now check “get stitches” off my bucket list.

I went straight from the doctors office to the same day surgery center at the hospital on Tuesday and thankfully, both the doctor office AND the same day surgery center have much more comfortable waiting rooms than the ER. And even more thankfully, I didn’t need to spend as much time in either one of them. I think the amount of time between being seen in the doctor’s office and coming out of surgery minus a gallbladder was about equal to the amount of time we spent in the ER on Sunday morning. I don’t care now though, I’m just glad I don’t hurt now like I was hurting on Sunday morning.

When I checked into same day surgery, they put me right in a room and prepped me for surgery (prepped as in: made me wear a terribly unfashionable yard of fabric with strings that let in WAYYY too much air in the back end, and gave me a nice IV which was probably one of the most painful parts of the whole thing…she was great at putting it in, but I just am not on friendly terms with things that poke me).

So I made sure that the anesthesiologist was aware that I’m a lightweight and my body might get too relaxed and want to stop breathing but I would very much like to make sure I wake up at the end of the surgery. He made a note and said not to worry, he’d make sure of it, and they really liked to have all of their patients wake up at the end. LOL. The note was probably just for my reassurance, but it worked. LOL.

It finally got to noon and they rolled me back. He said he was going to give me a little test shot of anesthesia in my IV while we were going down the hall. About 2 minutes later my blinks resembled something more like 30 second cat naps. Like I said, lightweight. I remember rolling into the OR and thinking…hmmm…this doesn’t really look like Grey’s Anatomy. LOL. Then they asked me to slide over onto the table and I bobbled my way over like a little drunk lady. They put my arm out to the side and then I was waking up in the recovery room. Only, I didn’t really know it was the recovery room and I wasn’t really awake. I was just rolling around in the bed trying to get away from this awful pain in my stomach. They got the pain under control and FINALLY I was able to get some ice chips for the awful dry mouth. Those were the best ice chips ever. Then they took me back to a room where I could get real clothes on again, and off I went.

Okay, it wasn’t that simple. I had to sign a bunch of papers, I had to move at the speed of molasses in Alaska to get dressed, and then I got a lovely wheelchair ride to the door.

But I finally got home. Everything was good…except for all the gas. HOLY cow! That part hurt almost as much as the gallstones.

But even that went away by today. Today was much better. Except for the part where I took a shower and almost passed out because I looked at my stitches. Wooh.

I’m slowly feeling better. I can’t wait for the soreness to go away so I can get back to doing stuff. Being sick is not for me. LOL. It has been SO nice how everyone has jumped in to take care of me though…I feel VERY loved. People have brought in food, treats, flowers, and dropped by to visit or stay with me. I’ve gotten a ton of texts and emails and facebook messages and phone calls…it’s been amazing. I’ve been told to enjoy the rest. I’m trying. It’s so hard when I’m so used to DOING. Being busy. Not sitting in a chair all day. LOL. So I’ve colored a few pages, slept a LOT, read a book brought to me by a lovely friend, nibbled at some food, and that’s pretty much it. Very UN-busy…but I’m still so tired.

But life is still good and it’s getting better. I’m just glad that little bugger is out and I’m on the recovery side. Whew. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and I think this is one that’s safe to go to…lol.