turns out I wasn't hungover on Friday

[angledge]

Hi gang! Wow, was this an exciting weekend. First off, let me apologize to everyone that I stood up this weekend: Iain, funkyplaid, the spatial analysis group, & the Super Bowl party. I can only hope that you find the rest of this entry to be an adequate explanation.

Now, referring back to my previous entry, I had reported that I was nauseated & hungover on Friday. In actual fact, I wrote that entry from the computer lab at the Geography Department. I had gotten nauseous while sitting in a lecture, excused myself, & thrown up in the bathroom. I was too embarrassed to go back into the lecture hall to get my books & coat, so I was waiting for the lecture to end. I was waiting in the computer lab, making trips to the bathroom every ten or fifteen minutes to throw up. When the lecture ended, I got my stuff & went home.

Where I continued to throw up for another two hours. My whole torso was hurting more than I thought it was possible to hurt without a visible injury. I decided to get a friend's opinion on whether or not I should go to the doctor for a mere hangover. When I stumbled out of my room into the dorm hallway, my neighbor Hsin-Yi saw me. She immediately said, "I will call the ambulance!!", so I'm guessing I looked rather unwell.

The ambulance arrived around 3:00 PM. The paramedics gave me an anti-nausea drug, which was fantastically effective & put an immediate stop to the vomiting. But that also let me notice just how much pain I was in. Worst. Pain. EVER. I have not the words.

I got to the hospital, & after waiting TWO HOURS for a doctor, I finally got an injection of 15 mg of morphine. Suddenly, my aching stomach was a distant, gauzy concern. Finally around 9:00 PM, a doctor told me that I'm having a gallstone attack.


I had lots of visitors while I was ill. Which was very nice. And yes, I'm holding in my right arm Kanga, my stuffed animal. I was possibly the only patient outside of the pediatric wing to have one, but that's OK.

The rest of the weekend was much less exciting, mostly due to lots of drugs (I'm not very exciting when I'm tranquilized). But yesterday morning, my gall bladder was removed. And today, I'm home!! I'm sporting four little tiny laparoscopy scars on my belly, & some skanky-looking needle tracks on my arms from the IVs & various other injections. All things considered, I feel pretty damn good. I'm not even on any pain medicine right now.

So that's my weekend.

Comments

[afterwards.livejournal.com]

A gallstone attack? Poor you! *hugs* I agree, there aren't words to describe the kind of pain that causes. I was fortunate that my attack had abated by the time I had to wait four hours at the emergency room.

Re:

[angledge.livejournal.com]

It was the worst pain I've ever experienced. Happily, Mr. Gall Bladder won't be bothering me again. And I should hope that his summary ejection from my body will give my other organs something to think about, should they ever consider putting me in that much pain. You listening, Appendix?

Re:

[d4b.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Glad you're ok! {hugs}