Sunday, August 12, 2007

you guys. :-)

Thanks again to everyone for your support and kindness. I'm starting to feel more like me today [finally!] but am still taking it easy, no worries. Maybe a movie today and some knitting.

Here's the short recap for those who like to play House.

- I've known I had gall stones for a while, but they were small and I wasn't having any symptoms, so the doc said we should just let it be for now.

- Monday, I went to bed feeling mostly fine, and woke up with a horrible backache and pain in my tum area that got worse moment by moment. Pretty hard to describe, but I knew something was wrong.

- Made poor hub drive me to emerg at 3am, despite the Telehealth Ontario nurse's recommendation to take an ambulance [she was right. see next point.]

- Sat in agony for more than 3 hours while people on ambulance stretchers were seen ahead of me. Shocking how there is absolutely no communication until you're actually being treated, and how upsetting it is not to know when you might have a hope of being seen by a doctor until it's actually happening.

- Then it all got better: got into emerg, saw the same [nice] doc that treated hub when he scratched his cornea several months ago, got a near-instant diagnosis of gall bladder attack and first dose of morphine/gravol all within an hour.

- Surprisingly, the morphine only dulled the pain, but it was still better than before. I slept.

- Then there was a day of waiting to see if fasting would stop the gall bladder attack [it did] and if they could get me into a bed on the surgery wing [they did].

- After that, things slowed down. I wasn't in much pain and just had to wait for the surgery. People were mostly very nice to me, especially my day nurse.

- The best gift you can give someone who is stuck in hospital is a fully loaded iPod. Hub brought mine and it kept me sane and allowed me to sleep at all hours, no matter what gross hospital-type noises were going on around me. And it likely prevented me from having a panic attack more than once.

- Also, a hospital bed is a very cool thing when bending at the waist is the last thing you want to do. I love my bed at home, but that bed was really an amazing help.

So that's all. The surgery went according to plan and everyone in the waiting room with hub, waiting on news of their own loved ones, only got good news that day. Rock.

Okay, typing this is the most effort I've expended in a week. I need to lie down now.
Happy Sunday, everyone!

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