Surgery

I lay on the couch, staring at my wilting plants, trying to will myself to have the energy to get up and water them. I whispered a prayer, “God, this shouldn’t be so hard. Please help me to know what’s wrong with me.”

Within that very week of my prayer, I had a physio appointment. My physiotherapist was teaching me this new exercise which involved me sitting in a chair, then bending over to grab the legs of the chair. I knew immediately that this was going to trigger a full blown spasm from my right rib/stomach area if I tried to do this exercise. Just before it went into a full blown spasm, the point of no return, where the whole right side of my stomach goes rock hard and there is this round, protruding bulge near the bottom of my right rib. I explained what has happened numerous times to my physiotherapist and he asked if I had it checked over by my doctor. I had assumed it was all part of the other spasm issues throughout my body and never got it checked out.

Thankfully, I had already an appointment booked with my doctor within that same week, about a different matter, and was able to bring the issue up to her. I explained the issue and the reoccurring spasms and she said, “Oh that would likely happen if you had a gallstone or something.” “I do have a gallstone.” I explained.“What, you do? How come I didn’t know about it?” I’m pretty sure she did know about it, but I think it got lost in my complicated medical journey.

When I reported this back to my physiotherapist he said the same thing. And then explained that the gallstone could be the big piece to some of my pain. “We’ve been working and working at your shoulder and upper back pain and it hasn’t been getting better. Did you know that gallstones can cause issues there?” So, back home I went, going back through research of gallstones and gallbladder issues.

This one night I was in a lot of pain and so I got out of bed and ate a handful of almonds ( to have something in my stomach in order to take my pain medication). About thirty minutes later, I was up in bed with a crazy panic/anxiety attack feeling and the light bulb went on - that this feeling that I’ve experienced many, many times was my gallbladder. I decided to pay more and more attention to different foods that I ate and how I felt and it became clear that I needed to talk to a specialist. I made an appointment with my doctor and told her my symptoms and she said she would put me through to a surgeon that she’d personally trust for herself and the wait was on!

It was about eight months until I received a phone consult from the surgeon and he asked me some questions about what was going on. Leading up to this appointment, I had done so much research and honestly really wanted to keep my gallbladder. I tried natural concoctions and prayed really hard about my consult that whatever the surgeon’s recommendation would be, that I would have complete peace with. In our conversation, he was very thorough and honest, and because of covid there was a long wait for surgery. He explained that with my symptoms, I’ve been having daily gallbladder attacks for quite sometime and it needed to come out. When our conversation was over, I felt at complete peace and knew what needed to be done and had to be patient. It was hard because now knowing I was having daily gallbladder attacks, I would have to knowingly suffer and wait until I could get in, was difficult.

Fast forward to a year later, yes a year! My surgery date was set and I was counting down and more then ready to get this painful thing out of me. I had recently lost my massage therapist due to her moving away and was trying out a new one. This new one was a dictionary of information but also very opinionated. So much so, that she phoned me on a Sunday ( days before my surgery) telling me that I shouldn’t have my gallbladder surgery. On top of this, my pharmacist that I highly respect, also called me up and was leary of me getting my gallbladder removed as he currently had a client having a nightmare of a time with his removal aftermath. I immediately felt scared and thought, “Is this God’s divine intervention telling me to not go ahead with this?” Brandon had to bring me back to my original prayer, about my consult, to the peace I felt, to each step that lead me to this very moment and I needed to just stay the course and do this. And so I did.

When I was gowning up in the change room at the hospital minutes from my surgery, another spasm hit….ugh, so painful and I remember being so grateful that this would be the last time I would go through that again. The surgeon was friendly and kind. The team was great and we cracked some jokes while they were getting me all prepped.

I woke up groggy and disoriented, in a dream state, blinking and remembering that I just had surgery. And then the excruciating back pain that I’ve experienced throughout my whole accident time period was non stop hitting. I was trying to bring my balled up fist to my back to put pressure on my pain and move my back side to side. I managed to tell the nurse that I was in so much pain and they ordered more medication. I asked them why I was in so much pain in my back and they explained that there is a nerve connected to the gallbladder and the mid back and sometimes (rarely) with removal surgery, it can cause referred pain. After some time, the medication was still not touching the pain and I was told that after a couple of days, if it didn’t settle, they would have to go back in and do another surgical procedure. It was interesting to me as this exact pain is what I experienced right at the very beginning of my accident. Within the past year or so a practitioner had mentioned possible seat belt syndrome, from my car accident causing the issue with my gallbladder and I had heard of stories from others in accidents having this very thing happen.