In July I began to have quite a bit of abdominal pain every time I ate ... no matter what I ate. After several trips to the ER and many tests later it was determined that I needed to have my gallbladder removed. Fortunately... and unfortunately it would turn out... this was not an emergent situation and I was able to schedule my surgery for a week and a half after the decision was made. For the next week and a half my diet consisted of Jell-O and Dilauded. From July to August I lost roughly 15lbs. and developed gastritis from being on narcotics.
Recovery from the surgery has been slow and has come with its fair share of setbacks. I was put on a medication to help prevent gastritis after surgery but after having some very unpleasant side effects I was taken off of the medication and it was not replaced with anything. Within 2 weeks of going off of the medication I started having more stomach pain but chalked it up to part of the healing process. September 1 (the last day of my 20's) was spent in the ER having blood drawn and a CT scan to rule out any complications from the surgery. The CT was clean and I was then put on maximum doses of medication to treat for ulcers. I scheduled an appointment with a GI but wasn't able to get in for an upper endoscopy for another 3 weeks.
The upper endoscopy showed some esophagitis, and gastritis, even after weeks of medication. The scope also showed a hiatal hernia and bile pooling in the bottom of my stomach. The medicines are helping tremendously though I am still far from being 100%. I have been instructed to reduce the stress in my life... which becomes stressful in and of itself.
Hopefully I will find a way to work more blogging into my stress management :)
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