The Undiscovered Country

I Had Hoped . . .

To go through the rest of my life with all of my parts.

Alas, this was not to be.

About nine months ago, I experienced pain on the top of my stomach. It only happened at night, and lasted about four-to-five hours. After some research, I discovered that I had classic symptoms for gall stones.

Knowing this, I wasn't too concerned. It only happened once every six weeks or so. Even so, I did tire of it. Literally, because those nights I got very little sleep. I finally decided to go to the doctor.

Turns out I was right. I had at least one gall stone, one as large as a marble. The next step was to remove said gall bladder via laparoscopic surgery.

This morning, that's exactly what happened. So now, I am sans gall bladder. The surgery went well. From the time I entered the clinic to when they sent me home was 3-1/2 hours. The worst part for me was processing the anesthesia. My body don't like it, not one bit. I ended up getting sick on the way home, but that might have also been a combination of the drugs and the fact I only ate a few crackers before they gave me a painkiller in pill form.

I immediately went to bed and slept for about four hours.

The only pain so far is the carbon dioxide in my system. To anyone who's never had a laparoscopy to remove something from the body, they fill the body with carbon dioxide to better see the organs. They remove as much as they can, but never all of it. It causes pain in the shoulders and neck that no painkiller can touch. It's something a person simply has to endure. It's not too bad, and I have been burping a lot. I tell you, my burps have never felt so good.

The surgeon recommended I take a week off from work, three days at least depending on how I feel. I plan to do a lot of writing and reading, but we'll see. I tend to go a little stir-crazy stuck in the same place for more than two days.

In fact, after I gave birth to Tom, I was supposed to stay in the hospital for three days. After twenty four hours, I begged every nurse and doctor I saw to let me go home early. After another day, they finally decided to let me go. I think they tired of me asking. Squeaky wheel and all that.

My new hope is that no more parts need to be removed from my person. Enduring the removal of one is enough, thank you very much.