The Gallbladder Saga

I knew that in late April or May my gall bladder had to be removed. I also knew that because of the size of it ("huge" according to my surgeon and the radiologist who scanned it) that it would be the old school way. No little three holes and leave the hospital that day for me. I was admitted on May 15th and began my IV blood thinner after stopping the pills. On May 17th I was wheeled down for the surgery. I woke up and found myself in SICU. Thankfully I was breathing on my own but surprised that they had my bed in an almost upright position. The nurses and care there was wonderful but I didn't do so well. My hemoglobin had dropped and although I had received two pints of plasma doing the surgery I ended up getting two more after passing out on them. They did three scans to make sure I wasn't bleeding internally, which thankfully I wasn't. I finally made it down to a regular room when they told me that I was not healing well. I have to say there were several factors that I feel were to blame: I was woken every six hours for bloodwork, I had noisy roommates and the hospital is not a quiet place. Finally after two plus weeks I was sent home. At this point I was ready to lose it. When I saw the surgeon the following week he said the wound was not healing well and he referred me to a wound care clinic and ordered a visiting nurse and daily dressing changes. He was not able to remove the staples.

Yesterday I followed up at the wound care clinic (what a marvelous place and group of people.) I won't go into the details but was so thankful they numbed me up first. Today they will be bringing something called a wound vac to put on it to help the healing. I have four places that are more than an inch deep. It's quite painful still. I am trying to move about the house throughout the day and not be a couch potato. I'm really not up to activities such as shopping. He did remove the staples yesterday. My surgeon is really wonderful. My inability to heal is caused by many factors such as anemia (after all the blood my hemoglobin is still 8), the PH I have with my lungs lowers my oxygen levels which promote healing and I have belly fat. :(

I am trying to look at this as a minor inconvenience that will pass. I hate being so helpless and having to rely on others so much. A family friend Joyce an R.N. has been wonderful coming here and helping me with dressing changes and such. I'm hoping this will only be about a four week ordeal. When it's over with I have to pursue the other issues they found on the CT scans.