MORE surgery??

For a while now, I have been having sporadic, crippling stomach pains after eating hamburgers and cheese. Not ground turkey, not yogurt or ice cream, just hamburgers and cheese. I had some symptoms like this right before I was married and was diagnosed with an ulcer. Probably three or four times in the last 3 months I have had these attacks. We chalked it up to another ulcer; it's been a stressful year.

Last night, before going to bed I got a weird pain in what felt like my right lower lung/ribs area. It hurt to breath, but I just got over bronchitis so I figured it was just muscular from the coughing. I took a couple puffs of my inhaler and felt a bit better. At 6 this morning, I woke up because the pain was there and was sharp when I rolled over. I didn't connect this pain to the stomach pain because I still thought it might be asthma related. 

While I was pregnant, I had a similar pain. Not exact, but similar and it resulted in a trip to the ER and they were concerned about a pulmonary embolism. It was this thought that kept running through my head to get checked out. With the amount of bad luck and blood clots plaguing my family lately, I didn't want to risk anything. I told Todd to cancel carpool and we went to the ER.

I have seen first hand a gallbladder attack and it left my aunt writhing in pain and crying. The gallbladder didn't cross my mind, honestly. I wasn't in what I thought was that much pain.

They sent me for an ultrasound and an xray and the ultrasound tech noticed a 1cm diameter gallstone. My gallbladder is not swollen, infected or blocked. My liver functions are fine. The stone is a nuisance, but does not require emergency surgery to remove it. I can find comfortable positions in which to relieve the pain. I have an appointment with a surgeon on Wednesday to discuss options. I'm hoping I can manage my pain and schedule surgery for when Todd's mom is here so that he doesn't have to take off any days from work. 

Similarly to my ectopic pregnancy, we were happy to have a diagnosis. It helps me from thinking I'm crazy. Although, given my luck lately, I wonder if I can request that my appendix and spleen also be removed. With my luck, one of those will be next year's surgery :)

With this surgery, I will have had three in the last two years. Todd was kind enough to remind me that there has been one per year since 2010. Kinda wish we went in with my stomach pain because I hit my insurance deductible after the ectopic. Oh well. At least we paid off last year's medical bills and have FSA this year to help us out.