Operation Kel

This year is our first Christmas "together" - its our second one as a couple, our first being married and our first in person and not over skype!
I love Christmas it is my most favourite time of the year. I love decorating. I love making, buying, wrapping and giving gifts. I love spending time with family and eating my yearly intake of calories over a few days. I love making the house smell like "Christmas" and I love Christmas Carols.
It's also the best time of year because its summer and I'm on holiday!
Christmas for me starts December 1 and this year December 1 looked a little like this...

I ended up being admitted to hospital with pain from my Gallstones... After being in A&E on Sunday, this was me on Tuesday night after our junior school prizegiving...

Then on Wednesday...I was back in. This time it took 9 lots of morphine (took 2 lots 24 hours before) to even do anything to the pain. 

They told me that they would call the surgeon and see if I could get surgery except the doctor came back with the bad news that 16 people were more acute than me and there were 12 more like me AND I had to stay in hospital to get on the surgery list....kill me now...and it could be a week in hospital before I might get the surgery.

So I went home with a prescription for morphine and went back to work on Friday (Sam also arrived that morning) which probably wasn't the best idea because I was in a little bit of pain all day and the pain really came on in the afternoon and the morphine did nothing. Long story short the pain went away a couple of hours later right about the time I had packed my bag for the hospital.

All was fine until Saturday night and the pain struck again. Just to put it into perspective I had been having pain since May every 5/6 weeks for 14 hours and then after pain for about 4 days. This was now day 7- in a row.

So Sunday morning (day 8) I hobbled back into the ED with my bag packed and my hubby in tow. I was admitted and given stronger drugs this time AND I got referred to the surgical team! YAY!

They told me that I needed to stay in until I got the surgery and that they didn't know when that would be but it wouldn't be today. Great. I got moved to ADU and from there had the noisiest woman move in right next to me (texting with the key tones on an old phone, in her brown paper hospital bag, talking on the phone) while I'm thinking how am I going to ever sleep....then two angels in orderlies uniforms came in and said you are moving to the short stay ward and all I heard was SURGERY!! I was probably the most excited person in the hospital at that moment.

As I was wheeled into Short Stay the man in the room next to me had just had his surgery and he was saying to his wife "We need to get our stories straight" - no idea what that was about but it was hilarious.

On Monday I had my surgery with the nicest surgeons and doctors and came out minus a gallbladder, with 4 keyhole holes and the sorest shoulder!

I've never had surgery before so when they woke me up it was way too bright to be alive. I wore Sam's sunglasses until the nurse turned all the lights off around me which was brilliant. 

I went home the next day feeling like what I imagine it is like to be pregnant - not being able to bend or touch my toes for a few days and then I went back to work. 

It was really interesting after surgery I only needed paracetamol twice and that was at night time once I got home. Shows how bad the pain was!

Now a month later today the 3 little scars are healing really nicely and have never hurt. The big one (just above my belly button) is still sore on and off (mostly just irritated by clothes) and its healing well too.

Now that this medical adventure is over I plan to stay away from doctors for a long time (well for as long as my body will allow!)

Oh and if you are wondering (because I know you are) I kept my gallstone. I originally had 3 so must have passed two (probably what the intense pain was) and now I have one gallstone in a jar - the size of a marble! Ouch!