Returning to the Fold

The Thermals – Returning to the Fold

*blows dust off keyboard* Hello there, patient readers. I’m at home recovering from surgery. Fun times! August was a blur of either days off with my kids during their summer vacations or frantic work days trying to get done all the work I needed to before having my gallbladder removed. Each day gets a little better but having never had any surgery before, I underestimated what having a piece of your body cut out would do to you.

I won’t go into any gory details but I’ll just say that this is one part of getting older that no one told me about. Yet it’s funny how once you tell people, “I have to have my gallbladder out” it seems like every fifth person has had theirs out too. The world is full of surgical secrets that people only reveal once you break the code of silence.

School has started back up and you’d think that would mean I could rest up but for whatever weird twist of climate fate, now is when we are finally having the hot, sticky summer weather we should have had in August. I’ve also discovered that my neighborhood is far from quiet during the day. It’s a constant flow of trucks making deliveries, lawn machines buzzing, home improvements out of sight but not out of ear shot. Who knew?

Hopefully I’ll be back in the groove here soon. I’m calling the last week a loss and if you posted something you really thought I’d like, please do point it out, but for the most part I’ve missed a lot and that’s just kind of my tough luck.

4 comments

  1. I have known quite a few people who have had this surgery because you’re right, it’s quite common. Do you mind me asking when you knew you had to have the surgery and how long you were symptomatic before it was removed? I guess I’m part of the “Please give me gory details” camp. 😉
    Keep working on the convalescing!

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    1. I’d had some pain that felt like acid reflux or something a couple of times but I’d managed to deal with it with Tums or Pepto Bismol. One night at the beginning of August it was really bad though and none of the stuff we had in the house was working so I went to the urgent care place. They ran tests and said they thought it was my gallbladder and treated me for that but had me follow up with an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed the duct was blocked by a gallstone and I was referred to a surgeon to go over my options. The surgeon said it needed to come out, the sooner the better before it became inflamed. My brother had just had his removed in an emergency surgery while traveling abroad so I was easily convinced to take care of it as soon as the schedule allowed. They gave me two options, one the following day, which was too soon for me, and one two weeks later, which I took. So, from the time I was made aware of the problem to removal was only three weeks. It really hadn’t bothered me much beforehand, a few times in retrospect, but when it was bad it was really painful.

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    1. Thanks, Linda! The doctors said everything looks good but it will take a couple of weeks for it all to start feeling normal. A new, gallbladder-less normal.

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