What's Happening
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FluffyKitten
Jumble Bunny
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ouma youv had a lot on your plate, i hope things gett beter for you soon.
Alane
very 'umble
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That wasn't the full message? Why do you post then take away what you said? You should think things through before you commit. It's not the first time you'vr done that.
Glad your feeling good though, hope it continues for you.
Fifty2One
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Trying to unring a bell? I never thought you were looking for sympathy, I was sure you just wanted to share.
Vassago
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So, about a year ago, I took a road trip to pick up a friend of mine and bring them back home. On the way, I started feeling a mild pain in my abdomen. Thinking it was only my acid reflux kicking in, I took some Zantac. After about 30 minutes, the pain began to grow. It was a sharp stabbing pain, starting from my right side, and pulsing to my back and up my right shoulder. It became very intense and soon I was having difficulty breathing normally. This pain, as intense as it was, lasted about 2 hours before it left as fast as it came. I had no idea what caused it, but vowed if it happened again, I would see a doctor.
It happened again in January of this year. I was awoken in the middle of the night by the same pain, but it was even stronger than the last time. I struggled to get into my car and start driving toward the Emergency Room. The strange thing was, by the time I got to the entrance to my community, it was gone. This "attack" lasted about 15 minutes max. I still had no idea what it was, but began to research online.
A month later, another attack woke me from dead sleep. This time the pain was so intense, I could hardly breathe at all. I called 911 and they rushed me to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctor seemed to ignore me completely. I explained the pain and he kept shrugging it off, insisting it was an ulcer. I explained that would be impossible, as I have acid reflux and use acid inhibitors on a daily basis, which is prescribed for ulcers as well to allow the stomach to heal. I had also seen people with ulcers, and they were in consistent but not severe pain for days, not minutes to hours at a time. He still shrugged me off and sent me home with recommendations to see a gastrologist. By this time, the pain was gone, so I left.
A month later, while coming back from Salt Lake City on a business trip, I had another attack. I went to the hospital immediately upon returning home and this time the doctor listened to me. He did an ultrasound and found gallstones in my gallbladder. They wanted to immediately admit me for the weekend and perform surgery to remove my gallbladder on Monday. The pain was gone, so I refused and said I would set up an appointment. I had never had surgery before, so wasn't about to rush into it without research and alternatives.
For educational purposes, the gallbladder is a small organ attached to the small intestine and liver. The liver creates bile from cholesterol and stores the bile in the gallbladder. Bile digests fats. When you eat fatty foods, the stomach sends a signal to the gallbladder to release more bile into the intestine to break down the fats. No one knows what causes gallstones, but they are formed by hardened cholesterol. When the gallbladder attempts to pump bile into the intestine and the bile duct is blocked by a gallstone, the gallbladder becomes inflamed, hence the intense pain radiating up the back and abdomen, and the inability to breathe due to the pressure on the lungs and pancreas. I've spoken to many women who have compared the pain from gallstones with natural childbirth without painkillers.
My case seemed relatively mild. I read about many people who had a case so severe that everytime they ate, it caused pain. Mine were months apart since I rarely ate fast food. I did notice that everytime I had an attack, it was from fast food, so I decided to try an alternative. I changed my diet completely. I have not touched fast food since March and don't intend to again. No french fries drenched in grease. No burgers soaking in fat. Nothing! I began to eat a lot of greens and fruits as well. I had NO attacks for months... until two weeks ago...
Two weeks ago, I cheated. I ate homemade alfredo. I couldn't resist. I knew it was fattening, but I had eaten plenty of fattening food before my diet changed and still rarely had an attack, so I figured, what could it hurt? It was a costly mistake. I ended up having a severe, 12 hour attack. When I got to the hospital, my blood pressure was 190/105 and pulse rate was around 120. I was shaking uncontrollably. They immediately admitted me into the ER to monitor me. My blood pressure soon dropped, but the pain was still unbearable. They couldn't give me drugs due to the MRI tests they had to do to make sure my pancreas was okay. When they took my blood, my sugar levels were dangerously far from normal due to my inflammed gallbladders pressure on my pancreas. When the pain stopped, they checked my blood continuously for two days until it was normal. During this period, I had no solid food, and only had a block of about an hour a day for a liquid diet. It was terrible. I knew it was time to have it removed.
They did the surgery laproscopically. They cut very small incisions on the abdomen, without cutting muscle, and fill you up with gas. They then use cameras and lasers to remove the gallbladder. Two hours later, they discharged me. I was in severe pain for two days, mainly due to the gas moving around in my body. You literally have to "walk it off" to have the gas naturally leave you body, you can imagine how much fun that was!
Two weeks later, I'm gallbladderless. I am relatively pain free. I still plan on keeping my low fat diet, mainly because I just feel healthier. It is a relief to know I'll never feel gallstone pain again. (although on very rare occasions they can form in the liver and still get stuck in the bile duct)
That is "what's happening" with me. I guess it's all a part of getting older, your body starts telling you to treat yourself better. I don't want to lose any more organs.
It happened again in January of this year. I was awoken in the middle of the night by the same pain, but it was even stronger than the last time. I struggled to get into my car and start driving toward the Emergency Room. The strange thing was, by the time I got to the entrance to my community, it was gone. This "attack" lasted about 15 minutes max. I still had no idea what it was, but began to research online.
A month later, another attack woke me from dead sleep. This time the pain was so intense, I could hardly breathe at all. I called 911 and they rushed me to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctor seemed to ignore me completely. I explained the pain and he kept shrugging it off, insisting it was an ulcer. I explained that would be impossible, as I have acid reflux and use acid inhibitors on a daily basis, which is prescribed for ulcers as well to allow the stomach to heal. I had also seen people with ulcers, and they were in consistent but not severe pain for days, not minutes to hours at a time. He still shrugged me off and sent me home with recommendations to see a gastrologist. By this time, the pain was gone, so I left.
A month later, while coming back from Salt Lake City on a business trip, I had another attack. I went to the hospital immediately upon returning home and this time the doctor listened to me. He did an ultrasound and found gallstones in my gallbladder. They wanted to immediately admit me for the weekend and perform surgery to remove my gallbladder on Monday. The pain was gone, so I refused and said I would set up an appointment. I had never had surgery before, so wasn't about to rush into it without research and alternatives.
For educational purposes, the gallbladder is a small organ attached to the small intestine and liver. The liver creates bile from cholesterol and stores the bile in the gallbladder. Bile digests fats. When you eat fatty foods, the stomach sends a signal to the gallbladder to release more bile into the intestine to break down the fats. No one knows what causes gallstones, but they are formed by hardened cholesterol. When the gallbladder attempts to pump bile into the intestine and the bile duct is blocked by a gallstone, the gallbladder becomes inflamed, hence the intense pain radiating up the back and abdomen, and the inability to breathe due to the pressure on the lungs and pancreas. I've spoken to many women who have compared the pain from gallstones with natural childbirth without painkillers.
My case seemed relatively mild. I read about many people who had a case so severe that everytime they ate, it caused pain. Mine were months apart since I rarely ate fast food. I did notice that everytime I had an attack, it was from fast food, so I decided to try an alternative. I changed my diet completely. I have not touched fast food since March and don't intend to again. No french fries drenched in grease. No burgers soaking in fat. Nothing! I began to eat a lot of greens and fruits as well. I had NO attacks for months... until two weeks ago...
Two weeks ago, I cheated. I ate homemade alfredo. I couldn't resist. I knew it was fattening, but I had eaten plenty of fattening food before my diet changed and still rarely had an attack, so I figured, what could it hurt? It was a costly mistake. I ended up having a severe, 12 hour attack. When I got to the hospital, my blood pressure was 190/105 and pulse rate was around 120. I was shaking uncontrollably. They immediately admitted me into the ER to monitor me. My blood pressure soon dropped, but the pain was still unbearable. They couldn't give me drugs due to the MRI tests they had to do to make sure my pancreas was okay. When they took my blood, my sugar levels were dangerously far from normal due to my inflammed gallbladders pressure on my pancreas. When the pain stopped, they checked my blood continuously for two days until it was normal. During this period, I had no solid food, and only had a block of about an hour a day for a liquid diet. It was terrible. I knew it was time to have it removed.
They did the surgery laproscopically. They cut very small incisions on the abdomen, without cutting muscle, and fill you up with gas. They then use cameras and lasers to remove the gallbladder. Two hours later, they discharged me. I was in severe pain for two days, mainly due to the gas moving around in my body. You literally have to "walk it off" to have the gas naturally leave you body, you can imagine how much fun that was!
Two weeks later, I'm gallbladderless. I am relatively pain free. I still plan on keeping my low fat diet, mainly because I just feel healthier. It is a relief to know I'll never feel gallstone pain again. (although on very rare occasions they can form in the liver and still get stuck in the bile duct)
That is "what's happening" with me. I guess it's all a part of getting older, your body starts telling you to treat yourself better. I don't want to lose any more organs.
oumahexi
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Oh Vassago, my heart goes out to you. Operations can appear barbaric! You've been through the mill! I hope you are feeling better now.
Presumably the gall blader is something you don't particularly need? Are you ok without it? Do you still get reflux, or was that all part and parcel?
And don't worry about the old age thing, the beauty of it all is, I am told, you become so forgetful you forget all the nasties
OK, here's my horror story. They thought I had this thing called temporal artritis the only way to prove it was to biopsy the temple and even this was no guarantee because in 50% cases it gives a false negative, but it was the best they could offer. The biopsy consisted of removing the end of the temporal artery (the temple, next to the eye). No problem, until you find that they give you a local anasthetic for it! Not only that, they have a student performing the op and I had to lay there and listen to the professor talk him through the procedure!
Oh, and the result was negative but they treated me for it anyway!
Presumably the gall blader is something you don't particularly need? Are you ok without it? Do you still get reflux, or was that all part and parcel?
And don't worry about the old age thing, the beauty of it all is, I am told, you become so forgetful you forget all the nasties
OK, here's my horror story. They thought I had this thing called temporal artritis the only way to prove it was to biopsy the temple and even this was no guarantee because in 50% cases it gives a false negative, but it was the best they could offer. The biopsy consisted of removing the end of the temporal artery (the temple, next to the eye). No problem, until you find that they give you a local anasthetic for it! Not only that, they have a student performing the op and I had to lay there and listen to the professor talk him through the procedure!
Oh, and the result was negative but they treated me for it anyway!Vassago
Former Staff Turned AWF Retiree
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Oh Vassago, my heart goes out to you. Operations can appear barbaric! You've been through the mill! I hope you are feeling better now.
Presumably the gall blader is something you don't particularly need? Are you ok without it? Do you still get reflux, or was that all part and parcel?
And don't worry about the old age thing, the beauty of it all is, I am told, you become so forgetful you forget all the nasties
OK, here's my horror story. They thought I had this thing called temporal artritis the only way to prove it was to biopsy the temple and even this was no guarantee because in 50% cases it gives a false negative, but it was the best they could offer. The biopsy consisted of removing the end of the temporal artery (the temple, next to the eye). No problem, until you find that they give you a local anasthetic for it! Not only that, they have a student performing the op and I had to lay there and listen to the professor talk him through the procedure!
The gallbladder is something you can live without. I do still have acid reflux issues, but they seem to be slightly improved at least.
A biopsy of the temple!? That sounds scary enough without knowing who was doing it to you. What were the treatments? I hope they weren't too invasive.
oumahexi
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I don't know why they put these things into the human body that we can live without
I'm glad you're doing ok without it though.The treatments were masses, and I mean masses, of steroids and pain killers. I didn't know what planet I was on half the time which was good, because looking at our Christmas photos, it looks like I was a planet lol! But, hay, I'm fine now, all the other ops were, also exploratory and I at least got to sleep through them
Vassago
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I don't know why they put these things into the human body that we can live without
The treatments were masses, and I mean masses, of steroids and pain killers. I didn't know what planet I was on half the time which was good, because looking at our Christmas photos, it looks like I was a planet lol! But, hay, I'm fine now, all the other ops were, also exploratory and I at least got to sleep through them
That was such a strange feeling, being put under. I've never had that done before. I expected to wake up and not know where I was, but surprisingly, I was fully aware of where I was and what had just happened. I was in severe pain though, and very thankful for morphine.
Hayley Baxter
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Hey Vass,
Sorry to hear that you have been unwell of late and glad that you are finally on the mend. Sounds like you've had a real time of it. You need to look after yourself now
I actually have a metal rod in my spine, had the op when I was around 12. Basically I had a curve in my spine and if I didn't have the op I would have had no quality of life.The hospital staff used to joke saying they hope I don't set any shop or airport alarms off lol...well it's never happened to me yet so I think I'm safe enough! Other than that I'm glad to say I've always been pretty healthy and managed to steer clear of hospitals so can't complain really
Get well soon Vas
Hay
Sorry to hear that you have been unwell of late and glad that you are finally on the mend. Sounds like you've had a real time of it. You need to look after yourself now
I actually have a metal rod in my spine, had the op when I was around 12. Basically I had a curve in my spine and if I didn't have the op I would have had no quality of life.The hospital staff used to joke saying they hope I don't set any shop or airport alarms off lol...well it's never happened to me yet so I think I'm safe enough! Other than that I'm glad to say I've always been pretty healthy and managed to steer clear of hospitals so can't complain really
Get well soon Vas
Hay
ColinEssex
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Hi Vass,
How much did all that cost? Also, what would have happened if you hadn't been insured? (I'm guessing you are)
Glad your on the mend mate.
Col
How much did all that cost? Also, what would have happened if you hadn't been insured? (I'm guessing you are)
Glad your on the mend mate.
Col
glad everyone is ok and just getting older -
personally - just had surgery to sort my teeth out -doesn't sound like much I know but 8 operations - inner top left outer top left - inner top right -outer top right ..etc - i wish they would of done it all in one go- a small bone graft
each session lasted about 2-3 hours (except the last one - 4 hours- )basically upside down on a local .... then the stichies - in and out - pain killers - side effect lumps on my neck that had to be check out ...
all clear now - thank god for the NHS - spoke to a dentist and they said the work i had done would of been £10k +-- ok so it was a student doctor -she was very attractive -otherwise i don't think i would of gone through with it..)
now it doesn't hurt when i eat... (there was nothing wrong with the teeth - it was the bones - holding them in that need sorting ..
butt his is pretty mild compared to you guys ..
anyway my daughter is being a minx (aged 3.5 going on 13)
she has me wrapped round her little finger
personally - just had surgery to sort my teeth out -doesn't sound like much I know but 8 operations - inner top left outer top left - inner top right -outer top right ..etc - i wish they would of done it all in one go- a small bone graft
each session lasted about 2-3 hours (except the last one - 4 hours- )basically upside down on a local .... then the stichies - in and out - pain killers - side effect lumps on my neck that had to be check out ...
all clear now - thank god for the NHS - spoke to a dentist and they said the work i had done would of been £10k +-- ok so it was a student doctor -she was very attractive -otherwise i don't think i would of gone through with it..)
now it doesn't hurt when i eat... (there was nothing wrong with the teeth - it was the bones - holding them in that need sorting ..
butt his is pretty mild compared to you guys ..
anyway my daughter is being a minx (aged 3.5 going on 13)
she has me wrapped round her little finger
oumahexi
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Now I remember why I posted my original post! Puts it all into perspective when you realise you're not the only one in the world who's had it rough. Not that I'm happy about anyone else's suffering, honest
Don't know about that, most people hate the dentist and it could have lead to much worse if it hadn't been fixed. I'm glad you're on the mend.
yeah, wait till it hits you lol.
Don't know about that, most people hate the dentist and it could have lead to much worse if it hadn't been fixed. I'm glad you're on the mend.
Don't expect that to change anytime. My daughter is 30 now and still has her dad wrapped around her finger, it's just me she hates
Rich
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You have some bloody gall posting that!Wow, didn't realize I typed all of that! Sorry guys...
Get well soon old man
Rich
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Bloody kids! Why do we have em?My daughter is 30 now and still has her dad wrapped around her finger, it's just me she hates
oumahexi
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Bloody kids! Why do we have em?
All I can say is thank God I'm a crack shot with a rifle, I got that bloody stork first time
Vassago
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Hey Vass,
Sorry to hear that you have been unwell of late and glad that you are finally on the mend. Sounds like you've had a real time of it. You need to look after yourself now
I actually have a metal rod in my spine, had the op when I was around 12. Basically I had a curve in my spine and if I didn't have the op I would have had no quality of life.The hospital staff used to joke saying they hope I don't set any shop or airport alarms off lol...well it's never happened to me yet so I think I'm safe enough! Other than that I'm glad to say I've always been pretty healthy and managed to steer clear of hospitals so can't complain really
Get well soon Vas
Hay
Wow, that sounds far more serious of a surgery than mine. Glad to hear it's worked out good for you.
Thanks for the "get well" wishes.Vassago
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I'm not sure how much it will cost me or my insurance company yet. It's only been a couple weeks now, so I guess I'll have to wait and see.
If I wasn't insured, they still would have had to do the procedure. It can quickly escalate to a life threatening position and I was nearly there. One of my friends wasn't so lucky with the same issue and his liver ended up going into failure. He went jaundice pretty quickly. The last I heard he was doing better and his liver was recovering, but I haven't spoken to him lately.
Vassago
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You have some bloody gall posting that!
Get well soon old man
Not anymore!
Thank you, young lad!
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