Not the movie. That’s how many stones (at least) were in my gallbladder and it was the most my surgeon had seen in anyone. There are _some_ things I don’t need to be an over achiever on, ya know?

Because of this, the surgery took a bit longer than intended, but in the end it was okay. Apparently there was a bit of distress in the beginning with the application of the anesthesia but they were able to stabilize me and continue. Dr L, Friday morning, even said the stones spilled out of the sack onto the OR floor. Can you just imagine? It’s kinda funny, but laughing hurts so I try not to think about it, too much.

Honestly, though, the pain when I awoke was the worst pain I have ever felt. I mean, I was in a haze when I came-to, but I remember wanting to crawl away from the pain. Of course that makes no sense in the light of reason, but that’s all I could think of at the moment. I also remember the recovery room nurse saying she’d already given me twice the medication (dilaudid) she normally gave anyone else. Whatever, it hurt! And then they expect me to crawl from the gurney to my hospital bed? Were they crazy?

And then there’s the shoulder pain. They kept saying it was gas but I didn’t believe them, it felt more like someone had wrenched my right shoulder out of socket. Turns out the CO2 they put in the abdominal cavity irritates the diaphragm and there’s a nerve that runs up from there to the shoulder. Which explains why taking anything more than a shallow breath hurt like the dickens.

I was on morphine until about 3am Friday and then we went to Percoset. Advantage, of course, was the lack of burning in the IV port (morphine stings!) but otherwise it all seemed to do about the same (not much). I have this funny little breathing “game” I get to do every couple hours when I’m awake to make sure fluid doesn’t settle in my lungs (started running a low-grade fever Thursday night, so watching out for pneumonia). I was finally able to shower today but I think it’ll be another day or two before I’m able to shave my legs, lol.

Food-wise I’m being very careful. I had a horrible tummy-ache after some noodles and carrots in my soup last night, so have stuck to jell-o, juice, crackers and biscuits so far today. Spectrum is taking very good care of me, lots of fetch and carry (poor guy) and the rain outside is contributing to the sleepies.

Tags: gallbladderremoval, gall stones, hospital stay, medication