getting better and long term

Well, I'm getting better. I've been up and about a bit. I managed to shower, rather than have a wash-cloth bath. I changed my dressings myself, and I lasted until the afternoon before I decided I needed some pain medication. I've been off the narcotic stuff for a couple of days now, so I'm just taking Paracetamol (acetaminophen) or Ibuprofen. This also means I can drive.

A couple of people have asked about any long term lifestyle changes I might need to take. To answer that, I'll give you a quick description of my understanding of what the gall bladder does, as told me by my surgeon.

The liver produces bile, which is used to emulsify and digest fat. This bile is stored in the gall bladder, and released when fatty foods leave the stomach, and enter the biliary tract before entering the intestine. Because of this system, the liver can nice and simply make bile at a constant rate, and then the gall bladder releases it when needed. Pretty efficient! With no gall bladder, that's a problem. Bile that's produced goes straight to the intestine, and it's not in the right place when fatty foods leave the stomach, so they don't get digested properly. Once the fatty foods enter the intestine, that's going to produce loose bowel movements. However, after about two months, the body somehow learns that if it can make the liver produce bile on-demand, when there's fatty food in the biliary tract, it can still do the appropriate digestive processes.

So, what that means is, for two months after the surgery, I have to be on a low-fat diet, to try and make it as easy on my body as possible. However, after that two months, my body should have pretty much figured out what to do, and I can return to a normal diet. There should be no long term changes necessary.

The other thing is, as with any surgery in the abdomen, I have to be careful about how much I'm lifting until I'm fully recovered, and of course to be careful that I don't over exert myself. I am low on energy, but that's only to be expected given what my poor body has been through and its attempts to heal.

Four days out

Four dsys out from surgery and I went to a follow up appointment with my surgeon. Some memorable moments...
Me: "So... how big were my gallstones? Because, you know, big is relative"
Him: "Oh, cantelope-sized. No! Just kidding. About the size of small marbles. 3 of them."
Er, that's still pretty big.
As he's removing some of my stitches:
Me: "Ow!"
Him: "That was your skin. But, I don't need to tell you that! You already know that! Hey, will you stop moving?"
Me: "Yes, when you stop making me laugh!"
and a bit later:
Him: "OK, can you give me a couple of good coughs. Really good ones."
Me: "I'll try. *cough* *cough* OW! Ah... the old 'cough as a misdirection' ploy as you remove my JP drain."
Him: "Yes, I admit it. Sometimes they come right out without the patient noticing, but the 'Ow' kind of gave it away that you noticed."

He's not removed all of the stitches yet, as he doesn't want the wounds separating. I go back in a week.

I've been up and about some today, and I'm feeling quite a lot better.

livejournal weirdness

in my livejournal friends page, where I'm picking up a syndicated feed of this blog decided to show the wrong video, thow if you look at the feed itself it's the right one. So, LJers, if the embedded youtube video appears to be something other than "Content Aware Image Resizing" click through to the blog to see what it's meant to be.

Content Aware Image Resizing

My brother directed me to this - it's very cool. Enjoy!

Time for pics

Thanks to my friend Karen for taking these!
I still have the ability to smile
even with 4 incisions, and a Jackson-Pratt drain.
One of the incisions required quite a bit of drainage.
I managed to play Fluxx
and even won a game or two!
All the while, his legs were being compressed by an Intermittent Pneumatic Compression (IPC) device, to help prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT).

Incentive Spirometer

Now you can see my Incentive Spirometer in action!

Home again

Karyn came this morning to see me, before heading out to church. I kind of listened to the radio while writing some emails.

lunch: beef broth, iced tea, apple juice, mango smoothie, peach jello, lime jello

Mid afternoon I had some more visitors, who were very welcome. Karyn came back with some DVDs from the library. Our TV is downstairs in the basement and the stairs are a little steep, and the rail isn't very secure, so although I'm allowed to climb stairs, I'm not going to try it today. I can, however, play DVDs on my computer.

dinner: beef broth, iced tea, apple juice, mango smoothie, strawberry jello

got my paperwork figured out; Karyn and I learnt how to empty the JP drain that I have. And now, I'm home.

Tomorrow, I get to have some actual food. Well, one scrambled egg, at least, to see how I cope with that, more jello, and plenty of clear liquids again too.

Time to start working on some pics and a video.

gall bladder update

So, yes, the gallbladder was removed, and I've got 4 insertion sites, one of which is a bit icky and has drainage. I have a couple of stitches which will need removing. The surgeon said that technically he could have given me stitchless stitches, but by giving me real ones that he's going to take out, it forces me to see him again. My liver function is fine, and my blood oxygen saturation is at 93% on just room air, so that's good too. BP has been 117/78, which is normal, pulse was about 75, I think. No longer on the morphine being injected via my IV, but on oxycodone + paracetamol (aka acetaminophen) which is another requirement for my discharge - to keep the pain manageable with oral painkillers.

I didn't get much sleep last night. I managed to finally drift off at around 3am, to be woken up at 3.30 by the nursing assistant wanting to take my vitals. Fell asleep fairly shortly after that, and was woken up at 6am by someone wanting some blood to test. The surgeon came by a little before 7am, and we talked a little.

I've got the pics that my friend took, still have to process them, and that will most likely happen when I get home. I also took a video of me using the Incentive Spirometer but I can't put it up yet as youtube is another site blocked by the hospital's filter.

I've just gone for a walk, had the bedclothes changed, had a sitting bed-bath, and a clean gown, but I've decided to sit for now rather than going back to bed. I'm being discharged later today, and activity helps. I've also just had the drip fluids stopped, but the IV is remaining in for now. Breakfast was black coffee, chicken broth, cranberry juice, and cherry jello.

No lifting for a week (which means no game crate to gaming events! Sadness!) but I'm glad to notice that I can still play games aggressively - I was concerned I might become more passive in my strategies, given I don't have nearly as much gall.

in the hospital

Inveterate geek that I am, I'm glad that the hospital has free wireless! So, yes, I'm blogging from my room.

I was in the OR for about an hour and a half, which was about half an hour longer than expected, so Karyn was starting to worry. The gallbladder was an 8/10 on the inflamed scale, so it was a bit harder to extract through the scope. Right now I'm fairly well medicated on morphine, and I'm also being oxygenated (as you could see from the picture). I have a funky leg massager thing to help prevent deep vein thrombosis, and I also have a gadget which I have to slowly suck on to raise some blue coloured balls, which is used to help me breathe deeply, and helps prevent pneumonia. I've managed to go for a walk round the nurses' station, which was a lot of effort and exhausting. My surgeon wants me to stay over night so he can check my liver function in the morning. So... I'll have some kind of update tomorrow. I should also have a few more pics, as one visitor had a camera with them, but no cable to upload them to my computer. The earlier pic was taken with the built in webcam, which is too cumbersome to take more than just my happy face.

I'm on a clear liquids diet at the moment, so my dinner was beef broth, iced tea, apple juice, mango smoothie and peach jello. I've also been having a lot of water.
That, with the IV means I've been peeing rather frequently!

As for future diet, I have to be low fat for the next couple of months, but after that, my surgeon said I'd be back to a regular diet, so no long term changes necessary.

I've played a few games of Fluxx, complete with the Party Pack promo cards, with my visitors, which is helping keep my brain active. And of course, I have web access to keep me busy, though the hospital's content filter is blocking livejournal and facebook for "adult content".

If you're in the area, I'm in Missouri Baptist hospital. Visitors are welcome at any time - no official hours, but please call, IM, or email me before hand for more details, especially as I'm not yet sure when I'll be discharged. I'd hate for you to turn up to discover I've gone. If you don't have contact details for me, drop me an email at **mo-bap at timothyorguk** (add dots just like in this blog address, but don't add www), and I'll be able to get that.

an interesting day

This morning, I wasn't feeling very well. I had pain just below my ribs. Wasn't very much, but a few hours after I got up, I vomited a couple of times (yeah, nice, I know). Came home and took some pain killers, but the pain didn't subside - in fact it got worse on the right side, and I just couldn't get comfortable at all - not sitting, not standing, not lying down. Karyn came home from work at lunchtime (Friday being the day she works two different jobs with a bit of time for lunch in between), and I got her to take me to the doctor, as I was in too much pain to drive. So she called work #2 to let them know.

The doctor examines me and says "I think you have gall stones" and then arranges for me to go and have an ultrasound at a local hospital. Sure enough, gallstones, and I call the surgeon the doctor talked to, and he told me that that I needed a laparoscopic cholecystectomy - keyhole surgery to remove the gallbladder. Because of the level of pain I'm in, he's fitting me in at 9am tomorrow (Saturday) morning, and given me narcotics in the meantime. So... I may be out of touch for a little while.

Please pray, send good thoughts, or send good vibes, as you deem appropriate.

This is just wrong

on so many levels. I saw it on TV just a few moments ago.

Sockapalooza 4 - complete and received

Finally! I've completed my sockapalooza 4 socks! I still need to wash them and block them and mail them, but they are done!
And here are the lovely soft socks that Mary Beth made for me! I love them!