Oh yeah, a health update

[twirlgrrl]

So my doctor called this morning and they didn't see anything unusual on the ultrasound yesterday. Since the gallbladder seemed enlarged and the lumen seemed a bit dilated on Sunday, perhaps I had a small stone that had just passed when they did the test. Or perhaps not. I just hope I don't have another attack of that gnarly pain again. Whatever it was, I hope it was a one-time mysterious deal. Thanks to everyone for the good wishes.

Comments

[janisfan.livejournal.com]

When I was living in NC I woke up with the most god-awful abdominal pain ever. I went to a health clinic and when they touched me everyone in the waiting room which was quite far away and behing 2 closed doors looked up when they heard me scream (my friend who had driven me there told me this). So they sent me to the ER. They could find nothing at all wrong. Did an ultrasound and whatnot and nothing. The docs told me that if the stone is in the duct (?name) rather than the gallbladder itself then it won't get picked up by the ultrasound and quite often they pass thru. By the end of my 8 hour ER stay (no insurance so $$ouch$$) I was pretty much all better.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally think that's what it was. I'm sorry it happened to you too. OUCH, right?! MAN!!!

[gen-here.livejournal.com]

Most likely it was gallbladder. I was in the ER twice for it (I know now - it was a "we don't see anything... probably food poisoning" at the time) and made another stop to the PA (asshole) who told it absolutely couldn't be gallbladder because I wasn't still tender the next morning.

I have a feeling, from your last post, that you're remembering birth a lot worse than it was. I'm totally not insulting you, Lisa... please don't take it that way. But I know a LOT, a LOT of women who have lost their gallbladders after their first child, some of whom (me included) had natural births. I had those gb attacks about every other day for about 1/3 of my pregnancy and then about 2 times a week until it was gone. I also pushed for 3.5 hours to have my baby in the middle of that - totally med free. I'd take that 9# 3 oz baby every day of the week over the pain from gb stones passing. I was seriously in tears and often, literally, begging God to just let me die rather than go through that mystery pain over and over again. I would will myself to vomit by coughing thinking it was from eating just a little too much... or the wrong food. Even while pregnant (and, yes, I told my doctor every time). Sometimes it helped, sometimes I was just vomitting on top of the horrid pain. But the pain of passing those stones was WAY worse than passing a baby =) I was actually worried that I'd wus out during M's birth and ask for drugs since I hadn't had the "practice" with relaxation exercises that my funky gb afforded me during R's pregnancy.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm not insulted at all! But I gotta tell you, I think my labor was on the high end in terms of pain. It was all in my back, and then later spread to my hips, and super duper excruciating to the point of making me lose control. I actually *screamed* and freaked out. I wasn't scared of damage to my body, and I didn't think I was dying, but it was just too overwhelmingly painful for me to keep my wits about me in the slightest. I know that there is a wide range of labor experiences, and I've seen several women go through labor that looked from the outside like a completely different experience than mine--always intense, and usually a struggle to deal with, but not so spine-snappingly painful, perhaps. And I have a very clear memory of what it felt like for me--I've made it a point to meditate on it and try to maintain a clear recollection of that feeling, not to freak myself out but to try to puzzle out how I can deal with it better next time.

Pushing was super intense but not technically painful for me, and the ring of fire was owie but I didn't mind it much at all, even though it was what had scared me the most during birth preparation. It was the labor contractions that did me in. Maybe next time it will be different.

The pain that landed me in the ER really sucked, and I did moan and cry and sigh some, but I didn't scream like I was in a horror movie. Yeah, like you, I wanted to make myself vomit too, but it felt deeper than the stomach so somehow it didn't seem quite like it would help. I think that I'd probably characterize my probably-gallbladder-related pain as less severe than most gallbladder "attacks" in the same way that I'd characterize my labor as MORE severe than many or most. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that, and pregnant to boot! Yikes!

So, if you have time, how would you describe your labor contractions? Were they different from one labor to the next? Where in your body did you feel it most? I want to ask everyone in the world these questions.