{"id":2900,"date":"2015-01-30T19:24:42","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T00:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/?p=2900"},"modified":"2015-01-30T19:24:42","modified_gmt":"2015-01-31T00:24:42","slug":"psa-dont-blame-it-on-popeyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/30\/psa-dont-blame-it-on-popeyes\/","title":{"rendered":"PSA: Don&#8217;t blame it on Popeye&#8217;s !!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So, the blog is going to go dark for a bit. You\u2019ve probably noticed I was a little light on posts lately \u2013 well, yesterday the ole gallbladder needed to come out. I\u2019d had an attack about 2 weeks prior, but didn\u2019t realize at the time that the 12 hours of excruciating abdominal pain followed by relief-inducing vomiting was a gallbladder attack. Silly me, I thought it was a GI virus. I teleworked the next day, taking a quick nap mid-afternoon, but just shook it off. I felt a bit off in the days following, but didn\u2019t think much of it.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to this past Sunday, when an innocent lunch of leftover Popeye\u2019s led to 6 hours of debilitating abdominal pain, again followed by a relief-inducing vomit. As I lay on the couch, pre-vomitus, crying, my husband is saying \u201cYou are going to the doctor tomorrow\u201d and I\u2019m agreeing, blubbering \u201cYes! Yes! I\u2019m going to the doctor tomorrow!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And off I went. There seemed to be some urgency, as I had an ultrasound on Tuesday (it would have been Monday except I had had coffee before my doctor appt), a surgical consult on Wednesday, and then surgery scheduled for Thursday. Each appointment ended with strict instructions to avoid any fat in my diet and if the pain returned, I was to head straight to the ER. So basically I\u2019m a walking time bomb. I stuck to the diet instructions \u2013 relying on uber low-fat chicken soup, crackers, jello, and plain pasta. I called it the white diet. My appetite was a bit off \u2013 not surprising as I feared that the next bite might set off the pain again. Although I suspected since Monday that the gallbladder was coming out, I wanted it to be in a planned fashion, not some chaotic ER emergency.<\/p>\n<p>The surgery actually went very well. Checked into the hospital around 1p, back to pre-op at 2p, promptly into the OR at 3p, rolled back to recovery around 4p, out of hospital by 6p. There were a few humorous moments I\u2019d like to share:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When I was instructed to change into hospital gown and socks, I was so excited to see my socks were green \u2013 that way I won\u2019t get them mixed up with Keith\u2019s collection!<\/li>\n<li>Before rolling to the OR, Tim, the nurse anesthetist, gave me a bit of a sedative in my IV. It kicked in immediately, making me pretty loopy. As they are rolling me to the OR, I exclaim, \u201cSince pot isn\u2019t legal in Virginia, this is probably as high as I\u2019m going to get!\u201d They laughed. I\u2019m pretty sure I was their last patient of the day.<\/li>\n<li>In the OR, as they are getting me ready, one of the nurses tells me she\u2019s going to adjust my socks and leg wraps. I tell her I shaved for her, since I wasn\u2019t sure when I\u2019d be able to bend over again. As before \u2013 laughs all around. Do you think I missed my chance for stand-up?<\/li>\n<li>Upon waking up in the OR, the first thing I wanted to know was whether it was laproscopic, as planned, or if they had to open me up. I was thrilled to hear it was laproscopic. Then I announced I thought I had peed all over the bed. They assured me it was no problem. I was too high to be embarrassed. Maybe they shouldn\u2019t have pumped 2 liters of liquids into an unconscious, intubated, peri-menopausal woman.<\/li>\n<li>Back in recovery, I was instructed that I had to sit up and see about getting dressed. I was pre-occupied with exactly where the incisions were, and insisted the nurse show me. Keith told me later she seemed a little uncomfortable with the whole thing. I think I had a valid concern \u2013 I needed to know if I could get a bra on (we decided no) and whether the pants were going to have to be rolled down yoga-style or not (not). There had been an extended discussion about the bra thing in the house, before leaving, and Keith had already called it \u2013 no bra.<\/li>\n<li>When I changed T-shirts this morning, I discovered one of those sticky things with a snap on it on my shoulder &#8212; they missed one!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So I\u2019m home with an arsenal of pain medications and a variety of bland foods for the next couple of days. I\u2019ve been advised by both my surgeon and others lacking a gallbladder to take it easy on introducing real food again. My digestive system has been traumatized and permanently altered, so that seems a wise approach.<\/p>\n<p>Many thanks to my husband Keith, who is doing a fantastic job of taking care of me. Also thanks go to the staff at Inova Medical Group (Annandale), starting with Dr. Seetha Durbhakula (&#8220;Dr. D&#8221;), who immediately recognized this was likely an acute gallbladder situation, and the nurses who were diligent about the scheduling and referrals. I really liked my surgeon, Dr. Virginia Madey of Virginia Surgery Associates. Her hospital staff&#8217;s cheerful demeanor (they laughed at ALL my jokes) and practiced manner went a long way towards calming my anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;m going to end this PSA by saying, if you have excruciating abdominal pain that lasts for more than 2 hours, whether or not it&#8217;s accompanied by vomiting or diarrhea, please follow up with your doctor. An upset gallbladder is not something to fool around with &#8212; and if it needs to come out, it needs to come out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, the blog is going to go dark for a bit. You\u2019ve probably noticed I was a little light on posts lately \u2013 well, yesterday the ole gallbladder needed to come out. I\u2019d had an attack about 2 weeks prior, but didn\u2019t realize at the time that the 12 hours of excruciating abdominal pain followed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tmi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/2015-01-30-17.49.22.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ImYM-KM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2900"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2904,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions\/2904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}