'Wolf visits the doctor ...

[Elspode]

Hopefully, once is all that will be required.

[jeni]

not eating normally by any means...

if i were you, i wouldn't worry about the cheetos. i would just lay off the burgers, fries, mcdonald's route. a lot of people get flare-ups for things like LETTUCE. you wouldn't think it, but everyone is different. it's pretty safe to say you can eat your cheetos. i ate pretty normally and didn't have any flare-ups for a whole 5 months. so it really depends on the person. anyway, i don't think cheetos will hurt you if you're craving them.

Wolf, just curious, why would a gallstone hurt sometimes and not all the time?

mine started in february of 2002, and continued every single week, sometimes every day, until june. then it stopped hurting at all until november. after 7 different opinions, an ultrasound, and almost a YEAR (11 months, actually, to the day that it started hurting), i got my surgery. it depends on the person, the size and number of the stones, and what you eat. i myself had many smaller stones.

one of mine got lodged in the duct that actually goes to the small intestine. that duct is also connected to the pancreas. at the worst of my pain (november), i was hurting for 4 days straight. this was absolute agony for me. i couldn't eat or drink anything because i would get nauseous, i couldn't stand up straight or lie down, or sit up straight...i begged to go to the hospital, because i knew something was wrong. long story short, i ended up being misdiagnosed and going to a different doctor, and she found out what was wrong.

if i had let it go, i could have developed pancreatitis and died. luckily, it didn't go that far. but it's not entirely uncommon.

she claimed it really wasn't all that bad.

it's really NOT all that bad. the first couple of days, you will be in moderate discomfort. they will PROBABLY give you morphine in the hospital, which helps a lot (you can't move in the bed and your back will get sore), and they will probably suggest a prescription for vicodin or some other equally effective drug. the worst part, i think, is the carbon dioxide they fill your abdomen with. it cannot be passed like intestinal gas, therefore you have to wait for your body to reabsorb it. taking deep breaths 5 to 10 times every hour helps with this more than you'd think, but you'll still feel like a balloon. the added pressure on your internal organs isn't pleasant, but as stated...is much more bearable than the pain of the gallstone itself (gut-wrenching. literally.)

I think that's what Jen had. They went in through her belly button! How weird!

it was weird, but i've got three little scars. laparoscopy is amazing. they do the stitches inside, too, so they just dissolve.

you'll have a pretty quick recovery. i was almost perfect within a week, but remember...even if you feel fine, don't overdo it. i turned onto my stomach in bed once after the first week, and i got shooting pain from one of my incision sites. it hurt for a couple of minutes. just don't stretch too much.

i don't know if you crack your back or not, but looking back, that was the worst for me. i crack and stretch constantly, and to be forbidden to do that for 2 weeks had my back in a bit of pain.

take it easy and don't worry about it. i'm sure they'll treat you really well, and i'm sure you'll be fine.

[jeni]

by the way...for those of you who don't know, you don't -need-your gall bladder. it just stores bile. so the only thing that will happen without it, and only to 1% of patients, is diarrhea.

Originally posted by jeni
diarrhea.

CHA CHA CHA!

[jeni]

diarrhea, diarrhea! rock me diarrhea!

uh...falco, amadeus...anyone?

[wolf]

... I got it, even without the explanation. VERY funny, IMHO.

[elSicomoro]

So what are you going to do for a night w/o your PS2 and computer? Perhaps you'll be too doped up to care.

[wolf]

It is going to be very difficult.

However, in addition to the good drugs, there's always my Game Boy. I have copies of Road Rash and Bust-A-Move 4 ready to roll.

Contingency plan in case I end up in there for more than just overnight will include packing the PSOne, cabling, and Syphon Filter 1 & 2 in an "emergency bag" that I will instruct my mother to bring to the hospital. I'll just unplug the telemetry equipment and respirator of the patient in the next bed if I have to to hook it up to the hospital room TV.

The hard part will be no online access. Hell, I even take a laptop to conferences and stuff with me and pay the damn phone surcharges at the hotel.

I have a friend who works at the hospital where I'm having my surgery. If necessary he'll hook me up. I'll see to it.

[jeni]

Originally posted by wolf
It is going to be very difficult.

However, in addition to the good drugs, there's always my Game Boy. I have copies of Road Rash and Bust-A-Move 4 ready to roll.

i took my gameboy advance. dave and jenno were nice enough to send me 2 games, and i had one already. i also had the tv, and my dad...but i mostly slept.

have you ever been anesthetized?

i barely even remember the day of my surgery. i was out for 2 hours for the actual operation, and the rest of the day was spent sleeping and having my blood pressure taken, etc. i didn't even want to do anything besides sleep.

and i was released before 1 PM the next day.

[wolf]

I believe that I have been anesthetized twice.

Once was for reduction of a closed compound fracture of right radius and ulna and dislocated shoulder.

That was in first grade. I fell off a piece of playground equipment during my second day of school.

(the one thing that made an extreme impression on me was that the kid in the bed next to me was a burn victim of some kind ... she screamed a lot, especially during dressing changes. This may relate to my fear/extreme respect for fire that I have to this day.)

Interesting aside. I still have a stuffed Steiff tiger that my dad gave me when I was in the hospital then.

The only other time was for extraction of wisdom teeth (I had five, btw) which was done at the short procedure unit of a hospital. I awakened earlier than expected, scaring the heck out of a couple cute little german nuns. "Ach, you should be sleeping yet."

That was, damn, in the early 80s when I was in college. 20 years ago.

I don't get sick much.

I was under when they sewed my eyeball back up. I woke up with the sorest goddamn throat I've ever had.

All I wanted to do for the entire WEEK I was in the hospital was sleep.

Man, hospitals suck.

[Elspode]

Originally posted by dave
Man, hospitals suck.

That doesn't begin to describe it. *If* you are able to sleep (I wasn't able to sleep during the week following my bypass surgery - couldn't breathe if I was lying down), they wake you up every three hours for a BP, or, in my case, every *other* three hours to stick a needle into me and try to suck blood out of my already abused and uncooperative veins.

I looked like a road atlas when I finally got out the last time. Between myself, my wife, my son and my mother, I have spent countless hours in hospitals, talked to innumerable doctors, nurses, techs and housekeepers and generally grown to loathe and fear those places above all else.

I always tell my family members that, if they want a demonstration of the fact that I truly care for them in a deep and meaningful way, they need look no further than their bedsides when they are hospitalized...because I fear the place so much.

[Pie]

Gall bladders suck. I had mine out last July -- lap choly. Textbook case, according to the doc.

I had started with attacks in February. I got an ultrasound in early June, then (finally!) scheduled an appointment with a local surgeon in early July. I was thinking, okay, I'll have it done sometime in the Fall... Then the guy says, "You free next Wednesday?"

It worked out for the best, tho. The proceedure was relatively uncomplicated and I was back to work in a week.

Just one hint -- you may not get proper signals from your bladder after they pump your belly full of CO2. They're also using plenty of IV fluids on you... Go to the bathroom every two-three hours while in the hospital even if you don't think you need to.

- Pie

[elSicomoro]

Rho was hospitalized about a dozen times between June 2001 and March 2002. She hasn't been back since though. However, I suspect this is part of the reason why she is hesitant about getting on the UNOS list.

I don't know how your hospital is, Wolf, but you better bring your checkbook. They were charging Rho $6.50 a day at Torresdale for the TV. $4.50 at Bucks County. $5.25 at Temple. I never heard of charging for TV until I moved here...what the fuck? They'll nickel and dime the shit out of you on everything these days.

[wolf]

I'm only supposed to be in overnight ...

Paying for hospital TV is something that's pretty common around here ... I remember the $3/day fee charged by this same hospital when I was in there as a kid (this was in the mid 70s) for a batch of tests. (The big excitement for me at the time was that my cousin worked in the hospital and they picked her to be the spokesmodel on the welcome video, so I was able to watch her.)

I did encounter one REALLY strange charge recently, though. A friend of mine had been admitted to an "extended care facility," i.e., nursing home, for step-down care and physical rehab following a bout of phlebitis. She did not have a phone in her room. Most health care facilities give you a phone in the room as a matter of course, but then you have to make collect calls, third-party billing, or use a phone card. The nursing home didn't do that. If you wanted a phone, no matter how long your predicted length of stay, you had to have one installed by the phone company ... and therefore paid ALL of the regular installation charges, around $60, as well as taking responsibility for a regular phone bill. And, despite having NO PATIENTS ON TELEMETRY, they banned cell phones in the facility. It's a racket.