Under the Knife

Yesterday wasn't a great day in my books. 

Ted and our Friend Sarah in DC in 2005
(they were dating at the time)

In order to deal with yesterday's suck we have to back track to Friday. Friday was the memorial service for a friend of mine (and the son of my college advisor and favorite professor). Ted was killed in Hilo, HI by a drunk driver. He was 22. You can read more about Ted's beautiful life here. The memorial service was called Tedfest and really captured everything about him. It included balloons, juggling, clowns, a TON of cheesecake (I made a dairy free one so that I could eat some), a pig roast, and lots of memories. 


Anyway, the memorial was up in Pennsylvania where I went to college and on the drive up I got a phone call from my Gastroenterologist. I had a scan for my gallbladder done 2 weeks ago and I had called for the results a week before but nobody would give them to me since I had an appointment in a few weeks. They said if it was urgent they I would have gotten a call. So I was a little confused when I saw them pop on my ID and thought maybe I had written down the appointment wrong and it was a reminder for Monday rather than the following monday. Well it turns out it was the nurse calling with the results of my scan. 


The test I had was the HIDA scan. Its a pretty noninvasive test where they put in an IV give you some radioactive tracer and see how long it takes for your gallbladder to absorb the tracer. The worst part of this is that you have to lay on a VERY hard table completely still for about an hour. I tried to doze and not twitch too much. Once you've uptaken all of the tracer the inject you with something called CCK to see how well your gallbladder functions when you eat. Your body produces CCK naturally when you eat food, especially fatty foods, this part of the test has the potential to suck. I took a zofran before the test so other than feeling a little panicy thinking I might feel awful I didn't notice anything. Other people have talked about intense pain and nausea. 


Anyways, Normal gallbladder function during this part of the test is between 30-35% depending on the lab and the brand of CCK. My functioning was at 13%. Technically this is called Billary Dyskensia. Ouf. That would explain the pain in my right side that alternates between stabbing and a dull ache. Dyskensias are ineffective movement of the bodys. Basically my bile ducts are not performing correctly and when I eat the gallbladder fills up with Bile like its supposed to but then it can't get out. Thus pain. And potentially, nausea, heartburn and all of my other symptoms. 

What does this all mean? My gallbladder has to come out. I meet with a surgeon on Thursday to see when and how that's going to happen. I have been in pretty intense pain and nausea since Friday. So I am hoping that its sooner rather than later because my heating pad and all the anti-nausea meds I have are not working. Last night I resorted to taking way more medication then I probably should have plus some tylenol PM just so I could pass out. So I have a bit of a medication hangover this morning in addition to the pain. 


So that's the latest health update!