The $23,000 Surgery...and then some

A week before Christmas I had my gall bladder removed. I had been having pain below my shoulder blade and under my rib cage on and off for about a year. Around August I started having pain when I ate certain foods and by Thanksgiving I had pain when I exercised or sat for long. I went to the doctor who did an ultra-sound and found several gall stones.

Ten days before Christmas I met with the surgeon who said my gall bladder needed to come out. I could either do it a week before Christmas or two days before. I opted for a week before hoping I would be in good shape for the holiday season. I spent the following week getting everything done before my surgery. I wrapped gifts, made and mailed Christmas cards, baked 12 loaves of dill bread and delivered them to our friends, cleaned the house from top to bottom, did the laundry, bought food for the family and my post-operation, and packed bags for myself and our girls who went to bahmah's for a few days during the surgery.

The surgery was scheduled for 1pm on a Friday, not my ideal choice but what I had to do. We arrived at the hospital at 11am for check-in and blood work. I had to do it at the hospital instead of the out-patient clinic because our family has a history of bad reactions to anesthesia. My grandmother died on the operating table at 35 due to anesthesia and my mom's heart stopped beating the first time she had anesthesia. Every since then she always has a hard time waking up and throws up for hours after.

The surgery went well and the doctor told M I had a large healthy liver. He also said my fascia was very strong and didn't look at all like he would expect for someone diagnosed with Marfan's. I was supposed to be awake 30 minutes later but it took over two hours for me to wake up from the anesthesia and when I did I was VERY nauseous. We finally were able to leave the hospital about 9pm.

The surgery was done laparoscopically. They went in through my belly button and made three other incisions on my belly. I was in a lot of pain and had a hard time moving after the surgery so I took the pain meds they gave me for a few days. My aunt picked up our girls from bahmah on day two after my surgery and brought them down. She stayed with us for five days which was an amazing help. She played with the girls, made crafts with them, fed me and entertained me when I was up for it. M was a great help too, except for when he was making me laugh, which was very painful!

By the time a week went by, I was feeling good enough to go to Bahmah's for Christmas. We had a wonderful time visiting and I got to spend most of it on the couch putting puzzles together. My mom-in-law made a wonderful dinner Christmas Eve and my sis-in-law made a tasty dinner on Christmas Day. We all got lots of great gifts and the boys helped Bahmah move the wood stove from her old shop into her new wood-working shop. Ignore the face my hubby is making in this picture. It's the only one that had everyone all together in it.
The day after Christmas we headed to my aunts house to have Christmas with them. We had a wonderful time and got great gifts. I don't have a picture of all of us together so here is a picture of what M made for my cousin. It was so cool. I bet you wish you had one, right?
Then we came home to celebrate our own Christmas. The girls loved their gifts from Santa Claus and from us. I will have to post a video of K with her gift from Santa, it's very cute.

K made these for us at school. One is a camping list for M and one is a
grocery list for me. She made the animals for M to use as target
practice with his gun. Both the girls made me these pretty bracelets.

L got new bedding for her big girl bed (a post to come)
and a lamp which she has been begging for.

K got the Magic Tree House series, which she loves, and some games.

I recently went in for my post-op appointment with the doctor who said all looks good. He took off my steri-strips and the incisions look really good. I am guessing in a couple more weeks you won't even know I had surgery. He told me I only have 6 more weeks of a low-fat diet and no lifting over 15 pounds or exercising. Eating low-fat has been hard and annoying. All tasty food has fat in it and I get none, so sad. But I did get back a couple of the gall stones that were removed.
These were the small ones he took out; I had much larger ones. He said I should be proud. I received the hospital bill this past week and it was a doozie! Makes me glad we have medical insurance, though we still will have to pay 30% of it. I haven't even gotten the bill for the surgeon yet; I'm sure it won't be cheap. I definitely don't like how much they charge for medical procedures but it beats Obama-care. I'd still be on the waiting list if we had that kind of system.

So that's what we have been up to for the past month. Now I am counting down the days until I can start enjoying food again. I'll let you know when the big day arrives:)