Ouch.

Lest life should get boring, I ate a Big Mac on Tuesday night and ended up in the hospital. Turns out I have gallbladder disease. Stones and sludge in the gallbladder and elevated liver enzymes and white blood cells in the blood. I stayed in the hospital over night and they treated me with antibiotics and morphine and on Wednesday the surgeon recommended we have the gallbladder removed. Initially I agreed because I wanted to nip this in the bud and get back to taking care of my baby, but at the last minute I changed my mind.

I was down in the OR getting preped when the anesthesiologist explained that having surgery at 5 weeks postpartum is just as dangerous as having surgery during pregnancy because the pregnancy hormones are still present, causing the sphincter at the bottom of the esophagus to be relaxed and increasing the risk of aspirating into the lungs. She explained that if I can wait until 12 weeks PP then the risk of aspiration will be down to normal. Even if I can only make it to 8 weeks that would be better than doing it at 5 weeks.

So the plan is to get a referel from my doctor for a surgeon (since the hospital's surgeon is only covered by my insurance for in-patient procedures...and he was kinda a jerk) and schedule the procedure for 12 weeks out. Until then I need to be very careful about what I eat and Mom is coming out to help out the first week.

I was not really surprised that this happened since my mom and sister went through the same thing after their first child. But I can't say I was prepared for the pain. The consensus seems to be that labor is the most painful thing you can experience...well, maybe it was my imagination, or maybe I'm already forgetting what labor felt like, but this seemed a hell of a lot worse to me. I don't think I'll ever feel the same about my old friend the Big Mac.