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Posted: 7/3/2003 10:17:36 PM EDT
I've been busy, so I haven't had a chance to post anything lately.

Here's the back story:

About a month ago, I was getting ready to go to an air show, and suddenly I had this intense pain in my abdomen. It went away after a couple of minutes. I didn't think much of it at the time. Figured it was something I ate.

Then, the next week, I was sitting down to watch the Animatrix at 4am(I work 4-12midnight), and the pain came back again, but much more severely. And it didn't go away. So I woke up my mom, and she took me to the emergency "room".

They gave me some morphine, eventually, and that worked great. They checked my blood and urine, and didn't find anything, except for low potassium. They gave me these huge pills for that. They ruled out appendicitis, though. So they took a CAT scan, but didn't find anything. They gave me some Vicadin if the pain came back.

I was fine for another week, but then I started to get pains again late at night. It wasn't bad, but just a little unbearable. I took a vicadin, and that stopped it. I was going to wait and see what happened, stupidly. The next day I woke up in the middle of the night with pains again. A vicadin ended the pain, but I decided to go into my regular doctor.

He checked my blood, which was all fine, potassium included. Then he set me up for an ultrasound to check my liver, gall bladder, and pancreas, I believe. I just got the results back from that yesterday: I've got a large amount of gall stones, to many to remove with drugs. They are going to have to go in. So I guess they are going to remove my gall bladder.

I've got an appointment with the surgeon on the 18th, so he's going to explain everything then. He said it is rare for me to get it at my age(22), but it can be genetic. My grandmother had hers out at 29.

When this whole thing started I was afraid I wasn't going to make it to bulletfest, but luckily it wasn't to serious.
Link Posted: 7/3/2003 10:28:57 PM EDT
[#1]
Link Posted: 7/3/2003 10:36:55 PM EDT
[#2]
This surgery isn't that bad.  They cut 2 small holes in you, one for the camera and one for the tools.  They inflate your abdomen (you look about 8 months pregnant when they are doing this) Then reach in between the 2nd and 3rd lobes of the liver and clamp off the gall bladder.  Then they cut/cauterize between the clamps and pull the gall bladder out through the tool hole.  My wife had it done several years back and we have the video of it.  It is actually really cool to watch.  

You will have some dietary restrictions...Stay away from fried/greasy fatty foods.  The primary purpose of the gall bladder is to store bile which is used in digesting fats.  You will have a reduced capacity to deal with those fats.  Eventually, your body will start to compensate for this (but never completely) but at first you will be taking some nasty dumps and ...
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