Friday – The Gall Bladder Rebellion

My surgery is scheduled for Thursday.  That is, unless I have another attack.  Then it’s another trip to the ER.  I’m not worried about it, but I do feel a certain type of anxiousness.  Is that weird?  Perhaps I’m just looking forward to the time off.  And the drugs.  I’ve been promised narcotics and, dammit, I won’t leave until I get some.

I’m taking four days off of work with a weekend sandwiched in-between.  I think that should be sufficient.  My surgeon states “a week or two” to recover, but my experience with her is that she is overly cautious.  Everyone I’ve talked with says I’ll be fine in three days.  I did, however, bow out on a charity bowling event for Husband’s work.  I promised to be there to cheer him on but lofting a large, heavy object is out of the question for at least a month or two.

I managed to find a video of the surgery on-line.  That was cool.  It seems like a very easy procedure.  I also read a paper on a lawsuit that described one of the few complications that can happen during the surgery (accidentally damaging the common bile duct that leads to the bowel from the liver).  It is painful, but not life threatening and easily fixable.  So as long as I wake up, I’m good.  (Another weird thing, I kind of like that loopy time-shifty feeling of coming in and out of anesthesia. I’m looking forward to all the napping that comes with it, too.)

One thing the on-line video did was alert me to the fact that I needed to think about what I would be wearing during my recovery.  Because of my body shape (large and round, but also tall) and my denial of those last 30 or so pounds, all of my pants fit just a little (lot) tight around the middle.  Which means most of them have a metal fastener digging into my belly button all day.  This will not really work for post-op lounging as they plan to shove a tube in through said belly button creating a hole that will require stitches.  (The other three holes are small enough that they just bandage them up.)  Since I had just received another forty-percent coupon from one of my stock stores, I decided it was a sign from god that I needed shopping therapy.  I’m now the proud owner of one of those velour jogging suits that are all the rage.  (Shuddap!  It’s comfy and non-binding.)

So, there you have it.  If all goes well, I should be sitting here one week from today completely unburdened by my rebellious gall bladder.  I’m sure this is not the last you’ll hear from me on this subject, but wish me luck and send good thoughts on that day.