!!! Ow !!! My pancreas !!!
Uhm. well … what can I say.
Mild Acute pancreatitis – due to gallstones – which is to say … it hurt like billy-o, but was treatable.
And by billy – o, I am reliably advised that it ranks up there with natural, un-painkillered childbirth of some kid with a big head. (Yet ANOTHER reason for me to strike having children from my list of things to get round to )
Soooooo, in the early hours of sat 7th april, it kinda happened rather suddenly, and after a couple of hours of watching me do my impression of a ball, Adam hauled me off to A & E. Which was blissfully empty, and where they poked me with a stick. It felt like a stick. I said OW a lot. After a couple of hours of this, and X-rays, they injected me with morpheine till my arms went fuzzy and admitted me to a ward, hooked me up to drips and put me on clear fluids for a week or so while they waited for my pancreas to be less infected so they could operate. Periodically I had X-Rays, CT Scans and MRCP scans.
The outcome was that a) i have teeeeeeeny tiiiiiiny bile ducts b) I have 7 teeeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiiny gallstones ( rice grain sized ) and c) i have a very upset and sore pancreas.
One of the rice grain sized gallstones was kinda wedged in the old pancreatic duct. BAAAAAD
So, had to remove all gallstones for being naughty, and pull out the old gallbladder to prevent it happening again. Only problem with this is actually getting a space in the operating theatre, being Too ill to go home, and at the same time, well enough that its not a super emergency.
After 3 days, and one late night quickly ended trip to the theatre that saw me beaten to the table by someone with a better illness, they finally whapped out my gallbladder – aka laparoscopic cholecystectomy. which means they poked 4 holes in my stomach and slid the little sucker outta there.
24 hours later I was home covered in bruises, sticky plasters and needle holes from vampiric phlebotomists.
Tired, swollen, aching and a stone lighter than when I went in.
The sticky plasters came off today. I have 4 little round puncture wounds covered in steri strips. one of them is in my belly button, two in my side, and one just under my breastbone.
They look kinda weird, but i’m feeling a lot better. If still a little jelly legged when walking far.
Ah well…
- Inches from disaster… - February 17, 2022
- Vampire phlebotomists - August 22, 2021
- Percussive maintenance for the brain - July 30, 2021
