Transport to Denver Please

Last Thursday night, this mama spent the entire night puking and in lots of pain. Not sure what was going on I called up a friend whose mother is an RN. The RN mother came over and pronounced my gallbladder to be the culprit. Having dealt with gallbladder issues LAST July I started my cleanse and vegan diet thinking no worries, I can handle this. Fast forward Sunday late afternoon when I get a passed out painful episode and crawl to front door begging to be taken to the hospital. Something wasn't right and I knew that it was time for medical professionals to step in.

Our tiny little town hospital has wonderful friendly medical professions with limited equipment. They admitted me overnight which turned out to be a blessing since the pain medication they had me on put my heart rate and blood sugar in dangerously low levels during the night. Being monitored allowed them to fix that issue promptly without any further incidents. Monday morning (the dreaded 29th of July) brought in the ultrasound techs who were able to confirm the gallbladder was indeed the major problem along with some blood tests that showed my liver was in soon to be trouble. Again, our tiny little town hospital is lovely but simple not equipped to handle things like surgery. The nearest medical facility that could handle that was 2 hrs away in Denver. Still being in excruciating pain and needed to be pumped with fluids and meds, a medical transport was arranged and we left on the bumpiest most expensive ride of my life.

Arriving in Denver I was admitted to a lovely brand new huge medical facility that was able to do the liver cleansing procedure that same day. Basically a gall stone had escaped and was taking a ride in the bile duct causing the bulk of the pain. In order to have a simple gallbladder removal surgery, that duct needed to be cleaned out first. The procedure went splendid with no complications and actually took away 90% of my pain. Mr. Llama and KB visited me that evening in Denver and tried to decide how to do visiting the next day. KB was having a hard time with me not being home and didn't understand why mama was so sick. She was extra sweet and just wanted to hold my hand and kiss away the pain. It was finally agreed that they take the long drive home (all the hotels associated with the hospital offering discounts were full and gas was cheaper driving back the next day any way).

They took me into surgery Tuesday morning and after a couple hours I was taken back to my room to do the rest of the recovery period. I did not handle coming out of surgery so well and was in incredible pain for a few hours following the surgery. Pain meds were an issue with my body and I was on oxygen and other constant monitoring equipment until everything settled down. It was one of the longest days of my life, but certainly not the one of the worst. The surgery was successful. My gallbladder was so chock full of stones and sludge that it really needed to go.

I was discharged from the hospital today (Wednesday) and am now home and resting. Mr. Llama and KB are excited to have me home and are being wonderful about letting me rest and recover. I am so very sore and slightly in pain from that, but nothing I can't handle. This whole experience came at the end of a bad health month for our family. It will not be pleasant to deal with the aftermath, but we are all home and healthy albeit recovering.

While the doctors did not specify a diet I have to be on with no gallbladder we are taking the health initiative and going vegan for a while. My body handles that diet the best for my lifestyle and I really think I can heal a lot better without the animal content of other diets.

I appreciate the thoughts and prayers we've received thus far. Our little family is going through plenty of trials for July and we continue to pray that Heavenly Father will bless us with some rest come August.

Peace and rest my friends!