Laprascopic Cholecystectomy; Am I Less Of A Woman?

Talk about exciting weekends. Last weekend I got to meet Captain Phil Harris and this weekend my gallbladder beat the shit out of me. Phil Harris is understandably exciting, but a gallbladder, exciting?

First, just because something is exciting does not mean it's exciting in a good way. Meeting Phil was most definitely good. My gallbladder develping an infection and then punishing me for it with excruciating pain, is most definitely exciting, but not good. I feel like someone punched me in the stomach all weekend, now. But when I was having the gallbladder attack the pain was as bad as front labor pains, and appendicitis. I say "front" labor" pains because as painful as it was, and it was , back labor is still worse, in my opinion. At first I thought it was acid reflux and took some Pepto Bismol and Pepcid AC. They didn't touch the pain. Then I tried to make myself throw up thinking that the pain would go away if I could just get the stomach contents out. After about two hours of this, it occurred to me that the problem could be my gallbladder. I seemed to remember people talking about it when I worked in surgery. That's when I decided to go to the hospital. The ER saw me right away and it didn't take long to figure out what the problem was. When they did a sonogram of my liver area they could see gall stones in the picture. As far as I was concerned they couldn't get it out fast enough. But that wasn't until the next day. Until then they kept me on a nice dose of morphine. That was great. LOL The surgery went just like the doctor expected with no nasty surprises. He even took pictures of my insides and the offending gallbladder itself. Cool. Now I know myself inside and out. ;p

I've come full circle with my gallbladder too. When I was working in surgery; of all the cases I ever scrubbed, I think the laprascopic cholecystectomy is the one I've scrubbed the most. When they wheeled me into the operating room I felt like I had come home. As I was scooting over to the narrow operating table I looked over at the scrub tech and his/her backtable and tray. I remember those instruments. The trocars, the rod shaped camera that goes inside your body, hoses, tubes, long electrocautery, sponges.

It just occurred to me that when I was first employed and my supervisor felt I was done being precepted, the lap chole (coal - ee) was the very first case I scrubbed by myself. I remember the look on Dr. Crawford's face as he watched me set up. To me it said,"Oh no! Not a new scrub! Not today!" He didn't seem real happy about it. Well, he didn't have a choice. When the case was over he was pleasantly surprised. And after that I was always one of the people he wanted working with him on those cases.
There's another doctor, who's last name was Wolf, and he always put the radio on the oldies station. When the song, "Little Red Riding Hood" came on and the singer started howling, Dr.Wolf howled right along with him. I always wondered what the patient would have thought if they had started to wake at that point. Even though the anesthesia people would never let you wake up enough to feel anything, your hearing is the first sense to come back from being under the influence of it. Surgery is almost never the way it's portrayed on tv. Another doctor had to have his Journey CD on with the volume turned all the way up. I'm surprised the speakers didn't blow.

I'm home now. I'm sleepy. The pain isn't bad. It would be if not for the Darvocet. Yay drugs! LOL I sure did like that morphine though. LOL Now I know why people do drugs. LOL
For the time being I can't lift anything heavy and I'm supposed to rest. This means that my family has to do for themselves. It's nice to just sit here and watch them do what I usually do.
My sister-in-law Tracy just called to check on me. She offered to bring us dinner on Thursday. I told her I would hit my brother up for some of Grandma's meatball soup. He's the only one who can make it just like she does. yummmm.......... One of the benefit's of this situation is the delicious food you get to eat and you don't have to make it yourself. LOL