I know how to throw in a monkey wrench!

John and I had planned to rip out the old flooring and install the wood floor ourselves, but I really threw in a monkey wrench into our plans!

May 13, 2008

I had sudden severe back and upper front abdominal pains with severe nausea on Sunday late afternoon. Rewind to 4 weeks ago. I had this in the middle of the night about 4 weeks ago. It was awful. I didn't bother to take an Aleve because the last couple of times I had an achy back in the middle of the night, it just didn't touch it. (This achy feeling has been about once every 4 -6 weeks since Kendall turned 1. I couldn't figure out why Aleeve wouldn't touch it. I didn't think it was that painful...I've been through much more painful experiences. It kind of reminded me of Back Labor when nothing would help, not even a massage). This time it was worse because I had nausea too. I eventually lost my cookies that night and started to feel better. The achy back lasted about 4 hours...John was downstairs surfing the Internet to diagnose me. He came up with his findings and told me it was my gallbladder. Thanks Doctor. I fell asleep around 4 a.m. and then called the Dr. on our card that morning (never visited her before) and waited for them to call back. I missed the call. I didn't worry about it because I felt fine.

Fast Forward to Mother's Day...Sitting in the "Study/Library" with John and felt that achy back come on suddenly. I didn't bother to tell him until about 10 minutes into the "attack". It was painful, sore, etc....nausea too. Yuck. Since he was home, I thought it would be a great time to figure out what was really going on. I pulled my self off of the floor (curled in pain) and got into the car and we headed to the ER. Signed in, sat down and felt MUCH better! That only lasted 45 minutes (much better than 4 hours). We decided to stay and see what the Dr. would find.

The nurse and the guy taking my blood immediately said Gallbladder when they asked me my history and symptoms. Great, oh joy. Ultrasound confirmed it. I saw my family doctor yesterday (had to switch again because the one on our card is out on Maternity Leave and wasn't taking new patients until August. Can't wait that long). Not much I can do other than take it out.

Today I go see the surgeon and we will go from there...

Well, I felt crummy all day. I chalked it up to being a busy mom. The surgeon took one look at me and sent me straight to the hospital. I was jaundice and had developed severe pancreatitis. The blood counts on the high end are 250. I was 13,000. They weren't letting me go anywhere. I was in the hospital 4 days. My gall bladder was removed. It was packed with stones, many the size of marbles. In the process, the doctor found a tumor on my liver. Things happen for a reason!

I have a 6 week lifting restriction. So, I can't help John with our home improvement project. We did find a great guy to install our floors. They look gorgeous!

Here are the pictures of my gall bladder with the mass to the left, stones and tumor (you don't have to look!)

June 5, 2008

I had my follow up. The dr said that I was pretty sick when he last saw me.

He was amazed that I didn't take any pain meds (except for Advil).

I am still tender in one area up by my ribs (it hurts to laugh, cough and sneeze; I have to grab my rib when that happens). He checked it out. He said that I had a lot of trauma in that area due to getting the biopsy from the mass on my liver (requiring a couple of more incisions/poke holes). My muscle needs to still mend and I might still be bleeding out at times in that area (why I might feel the lump there I do in the evenings on some days). He said that I should be better by mid July. It isn't bad, just not normal for me. I am still on a 20 lb lifting restriction. I figure after 4 weeks more weeks I can go right back to my normal 150 lb bench pressing ;o)

I figure I will have to take it slow with heavy lifting since my muscle is still recovering. That's just my gut feeling (no pun intended!). I'm doing better every day. Most people didn't even know I had surgery, I'm not in pain (just tender when I laugh, cough or sneeze).

So. . . I'm on the mend!

FYI: The tumor has been diagnosed as Focal Nodular Hyperplasia. It is nothing to be concerned about unless I plan on having another baby (which will NOT happen...Kendall's pregnancy almost pushed me off the planet!). He said that mine is very vascular. It can bleed quickly (thus the fear of pregnancy with it). Just for size reference, he said that my mass was 2 cm. I need to be aware of tenderness of the stomach, lightheadedness. That could indicate that it ruptured and I need to get to the ER ASAP...no messing around since it bleeds so quickly. Once again, he said the likelihood of that is not very likely.