In my research about gallbladder disease (cholecystitis if you want the $5 word; don't ask me to pronounce it) I found that it can cause a lot of things in your body to get off kilter; among them feeling tired all the time (which I am, even with a good night's rest and being knocked out by half a sleeping pill), weight gain and difficulty losing it (well -- I have no trouble "losing it" -- ha ha). My surgeon, at the consult, said I'd likely find that after that pesky bag of marbles lodged under my ribcage is removed, many things would clear up.
I hope so, given I woke up yesterday with the left side of my jaw aching. I thought perhaps I'd been clenching my teeth (I do that every once in awhile) and that side of my jaw was sore...but as the morning wore on I realized the lymph node just under the bone and slightly forward of the joint was swollen. The ache radiated all the way up my head, collecting in my eyeball, stopping at the temple -- and all the way down into my shoulder. I finally went home at one in the afternoon to take some prescription painkillers/anti-inflammatory medicine. It barely made a dent, and, after an hour, I swallowed three generic ibuprofins and finally got some relief.
Likely not something my liver and kidneys -- or my doctor! -- would like, but when you can barely open your mouth to slip in a straw to drink water you get creative. I just hope it doesn't get like the one under the right side of my jaw that went postal on me last month when I was sick; I ended up having to go on a 5-day dose of prednisone to calm it down. Or "progesterone" as I kept calling it; my acupuncturist was stumped at why I was prescribed progesterone; I replied back in my email it was for my lymph node (she later said she figured out what I meant). It wasn't until I was talking to a co-worker who paused and said, "You mean -- prednisone?"
I paused -- and then laughed as I realized the mistake I had made. It was somewhat like the time I got really sick as a child and my father took me to the doctor. When we got home, my mother said, "So what does she have?"
I declared, "I have FLUMATISM!"
Hey -- it sounded like a real word. (Still does, thankyouverymuch!)
I realize that it's movement and exercise that keeps your lymph nodes clear, but when even -- gentle -- yoga makes your gallbladderthrow a tantrum, you wind up just becoming more and more of a couch potato. Which is okay...I'm enjoying my PS3 immensely and the Netflix streaming; I also watched Up last night -- in Blu-ray format!). Great movie. And I'm glad I watched it that way, as there were parts that had me laughing so hard I was coughing, thus making it necessary to rewind it (can you say "rewind" when referring to a DVD?) and watch it again. There was one scene I watched about a dozen times merely because it was so funny.
Those Pixar people are absolute geniuses.
So, so much for my plans this evening. I was going to go see a friends band, but the idea of standing around for four hours makes me want to fall asleep. Oh well.
At least it's a beautiful day. I have my terrace door open at the moment, to let in the wind and air, which smells clean and creamy and limned with the scent of cherry blossoms from the tree outside my apartment. I'm also listening to the birds happily singing out there. I hear more over in this unit than I ever did in my old one (though I miss hearing the robins that live mostly over by that building), and I've even been hearing mourning doves. I just wish, come summer, the little guys would wait until 6:00 a.m. or so before they started chorusing, rather then the nanosecond the first ray of light hits the atmosphere.
I guess that's what earplugs are for.
I can also sit here on my couch and watch the hummingbirds come to my feeder. The species that lives around here don't migrate, and so I've had to keep my feeder filled all winter -- I have to put new food in every week! The hummers that come (holy cats ats their wings are loud; when they whizz past me when I'm outside it startles me every time!) are very territorial. I've watched more than a few humming bird beatdowns out there.
And for little birds, their call/song sure is loud!
So Spring is definitely springing. I'm not sure if I'm going to attempt any veggies. I may try a hanging basket of tomatoes. But as for flowers -- maybe some of my usual geraniums, but I need to get others that are fine in hot, dry heat, given that even on days when it was around 80 it was still warm due to the heat and light bouncing back up from the cars and asphalt below. My dad suggested salvia, and I noticed on a website zinnias (one of my favorite flowers) and dahlias are good too. Perhaps I can take the list to the nursery near me and see what I can find.
My first step towards getting healthier will be my surgery on March 11; they said to expect recovery time to be around 5-7 days, so I won't miss too much work. Just Thursday the 11th, Friday and Monday and Tuesday perhaps. Plus I have Saturday and Sunday in there. I lost a bunch of paid time off and vacation time last month when I went kaput, so I earmarked a chunk of my tax return to offset any time lost (another chunk is going to go towards a new laptop).
Then I'm going to focus on the exercise. I'm considering hiring a personal trainer to help me get back on track -- and not move too quickly. I feel like a review/reset of my habits might be a good idea. I also have an appointment with a nutritionist later in March -- my choice -- to have someone take a look at my diet. It's generally pretty good and healthy, but again -- a review is always good, especially post-gallbladder ejection.
My goal and focus for the summer is to get back on track with everything, maybe even take part in the Race for the Cure. Walking, of course; I'm way too out of shape to train in time to run it. I have to say it's really nice to be moving towards a solution for all of this. It's been taking a toll on my spirits, too.
Anyhoo -- perhaps I shall at least go for a small walk around the perimeter of the apartment buildings later this afternoon; fresh air and a dose of sunshine can really do a lot.
-- H
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
No, Really. I Get It for the Articles.
It's an absolutely glorious day outside, warm sunshine, cool air, pale crystalline-blue sky, more and more birds returning and singing. The air smells clean and sublime. Right now there's a private plane flying overhead and days like this combined with that sound make me think of being a little kid in Walla Walla, Washington; I remember lying out in the grass on pretty spring and summer days just like this one, listening to the wind in the trees and to private planes thrumming by overhead.
If it were any other day, I'd be outside in a jiffy, going for a walk, but I've been on the downside of health this last month. I came down with a rotten tummy virus around January 11, that cascaded me into being out of work for two weeks (I was able to do some work from home, thankfully), several trips to the doctor and the urgent care facility at Kaiser -- as well as multiple calls to the advice staff after hours.
I had been having pain off and on in my sternum and under my right ribcage, and one Sunday morning a few weeks ago I started feeling dizzy and hurting more; after another trip to Urgent Care (chauffeured by my father) and a follow-up ultrasound -- and, in addition, another trip to Urgent Care a week later -- an EKG and X-Rays, it turns out my gallbladder has finally gone kaput.
I had a terrible attack four and half years ago, resulting in my brother -- who was living with me at the time -- needing to rush me to the hospital around two in the morning. I had awakened in serious pain and feeling like I'd had 32 chili cheese dogs just prior to going on as many whirly rides at a county fair; I finally did manage to throw up -- several times -- and relief didn't come. Generally, the thought is, If I could just throw up, I'll feel so much better! -- but, it didn't work that way that time. That's when I knew I was in trouble.
The suggestion was to have it out then, but all the surgeon could do was repeat himself by saying, "I think you should take it out on the possibility you might have this happen again."
"You mean it will happen again?" I asked.
"Maybe," was his reply.
"So there's no guarantee, then."
"You might have another attack -- and you might never have one again."
"So why do I need to have my gallbladder removed -- right now?"
"Because," the surgeon said again, "you might have one again. Someday."
I declined; the idea of having surgery maybe possibly perhaps on the off chance you might / might not just didn't sit well with me.
But apparently I'm now carrying a small bag of marbles in me, many of which are apparently half a centimeter in size. My current physician suggested surgery, and my reply this time was, "Yes, please."
I was, however, on the fence for awhile about it, but after being awake all night feeling my gallbladder spasming like it was spitting out desperate Morse code, I decided it was definitely time. Technically, that was when I sent my doctor an email that said, Yes, please. Get this thing out of me.
I blame my father. I have no other reason for gallbladder disease other than my inheriting his clunker of one. I've always eaten well, and don't have a smidgen of a lifestyle that would result in developing it. The last possibility of it was family history. I.e. -- Dad. Apparently his started misbehaving when he was 17, and it wasn't until about 15 -- give or take -- years ago he had his out on an emergency basis while on business in Taipei. It was so bad for him, a stone had gotten lodged causing pancreatitis and internal gangrene. I really do not wish to have that experience.
My father has a theory of "reverse genetics", in that he did not develop certain traits until after I was born, and I told him he couldn't claim that this time for his own malfunctioning gallbladder, consider that, when he was 17, I wasn't even a gleam in his eye yet.
"True," he said. "So it's your inheritance."
Thanks, Dad. I'll be sure to not spend it all in one place....
(The last thing he saw before he fell asleep prior to his surgery was a fly going by...sorta sums up the conditions at the hospital there!)
So, consequently, I've been feeling particularly under the weather these last weeks; it doesn't matter what I eat now..anything can cause this stupid thing to have a fit. I had sushi the other night and it threw a minor tantrum. A plate of mostly raw veggies and a Morning Star "burger" (all very low-fat!) and it had a fit. It's okay during the day, but, at night, it makes it hard to sleep. I was prescribed vicodin a few weeks ago for the pain so I could sleep, and I ended up having an "adverse reaction" to it; instead of knocking me out cold, I wound up as wired as if I'd had five espressos right before bed, having a racing heart and I kept breaking out in hot flashes and sweating. I didn't fall asleep until after 5:30 that morning, causing me to miss more work.
I haven't felt rested and fully well in over a month, and, after doing research about issues that can arise from having a factory-defective gallbladder, it seems a lot of my other health complaints could very easily be stemming from it. My surgeon (she's actually an intern, but I liked her right off the bat) said that I'll easily feel much, much better shortly after it comes out.
Amen, sister. Amen to that.
Some days are better than others, but usually I just want to sleep and stay still...hence my being inside on this glorious day.
Although it's laproscopic, the surgery information says to give myself about 5-10 days of recovery time, still. My hope is to have my new laptop by then so I can work from home (I can do it on this one, but it's somewhat on the laborious side due to the screen being so small). If not, this laptop will do -- plus I have my brand spankin' new PlayStation 3, which my brother convinced me to purchase.
I mentioned I was going to use my Christmas gift money for a Blu-Ray player, particularly one that had the ability to stream Netflix movies; Andrew suggested I get the PlayStation 3 since "you can also play games!"
Yes, I like a good computer game, but I don't really need that ability. But then he started explaining exactly what else the snazzy little thing can do, I decided to do so. In addition to being one of the top-rated Blu-Ray players out there, you can also purchase and store movies on its 120GB hard drive (there's also a 250GB model) -- as well as music and photos. There's also a multitude of other things it can do (like browse the Internet!), and you can even swap out the hard drive for a larger one as it's just a standard laptop drive. There's even a utility on the machine to transfer your data -- but you can also hook up external drives and store more movies on them and access them through the player.
It's pretty sweet.
I'm hoping I can do what my brother did with his media center (which is essentially what the PS3 can be), and that's load all my DVDs onto an external drive and store them that way...I'm running out of room to store my DVD boxes, and I'm starting to need to get a rack of some sort -- and I don't really have the room for one.
The streaming Netflix ability is really cool, too. I'm working my way through Torchwood -- a spin-off from the "new" Doctor Who show -- and have a bunch of other things lined up as well. I also watched my first Blu-Ray movie today, Moon, which is excellent. I upgraded my Netflix account to one DVD -- Blu-Ray or standard -- out at a time (and as many as I want in a month) and unlimited streaming time. That was just $6.00 more than what I was already paying.
I also used the rest of my gift money to get some new, good-quality speakers to plug into my television (it's really nice to finally get the full use of its HD capabilities) so now I have really good sound, too. I also got a standard-looking remote for the PS3; you can use the game controller, but it's sort of awkward. I ended up paying a whole whopping $13 of my own money to get all that.
I mentioned to a co-worker I'd gotten the PS3, "But mostly for the Blu-Ray capabilities," I said.
"Not to play games, of course," he said.
"No," I said. "Never."
He burst out laughing and said, "Yeah. Just like people only get Playboy for the articles."
"Yes -- exactly!"
So game playing ability aside (a bonus, just like the articles -- er, the pictures -- are in Playboy) it's an awesome little piece of technology. I will have plenty to watch as I'm recuperating after my surgery -- which is scheduled for March 11.
I think I may ask the surgeon if I can toss my gallbladder into the incinerator myself.
If it were any other day, I'd be outside in a jiffy, going for a walk, but I've been on the downside of health this last month. I came down with a rotten tummy virus around January 11, that cascaded me into being out of work for two weeks (I was able to do some work from home, thankfully), several trips to the doctor and the urgent care facility at Kaiser -- as well as multiple calls to the advice staff after hours.
I had been having pain off and on in my sternum and under my right ribcage, and one Sunday morning a few weeks ago I started feeling dizzy and hurting more; after another trip to Urgent Care (chauffeured by my father) and a follow-up ultrasound -- and, in addition, another trip to Urgent Care a week later -- an EKG and X-Rays, it turns out my gallbladder has finally gone kaput.
I had a terrible attack four and half years ago, resulting in my brother -- who was living with me at the time -- needing to rush me to the hospital around two in the morning. I had awakened in serious pain and feeling like I'd had 32 chili cheese dogs just prior to going on as many whirly rides at a county fair; I finally did manage to throw up -- several times -- and relief didn't come. Generally, the thought is, If I could just throw up, I'll feel so much better! -- but, it didn't work that way that time. That's when I knew I was in trouble.
The suggestion was to have it out then, but all the surgeon could do was repeat himself by saying, "I think you should take it out on the possibility you might have this happen again."
"You mean it will happen again?" I asked.
"Maybe," was his reply.
"So there's no guarantee, then."
"You might have another attack -- and you might never have one again."
"So why do I need to have my gallbladder removed -- right now?"
"Because," the surgeon said again, "you might have one again. Someday."
I declined; the idea of having surgery maybe possibly perhaps on the off chance you might / might not just didn't sit well with me.
But apparently I'm now carrying a small bag of marbles in me, many of which are apparently half a centimeter in size. My current physician suggested surgery, and my reply this time was, "Yes, please."
I was, however, on the fence for awhile about it, but after being awake all night feeling my gallbladder spasming like it was spitting out desperate Morse code, I decided it was definitely time. Technically, that was when I sent my doctor an email that said, Yes, please. Get this thing out of me.
I blame my father. I have no other reason for gallbladder disease other than my inheriting his clunker of one. I've always eaten well, and don't have a smidgen of a lifestyle that would result in developing it. The last possibility of it was family history. I.e. -- Dad. Apparently his started misbehaving when he was 17, and it wasn't until about 15 -- give or take -- years ago he had his out on an emergency basis while on business in Taipei. It was so bad for him, a stone had gotten lodged causing pancreatitis and internal gangrene. I really do not wish to have that experience.
My father has a theory of "reverse genetics", in that he did not develop certain traits until after I was born, and I told him he couldn't claim that this time for his own malfunctioning gallbladder, consider that, when he was 17, I wasn't even a gleam in his eye yet.
"True," he said. "So it's your inheritance."
Thanks, Dad. I'll be sure to not spend it all in one place....
(The last thing he saw before he fell asleep prior to his surgery was a fly going by...sorta sums up the conditions at the hospital there!)
So, consequently, I've been feeling particularly under the weather these last weeks; it doesn't matter what I eat now..anything can cause this stupid thing to have a fit. I had sushi the other night and it threw a minor tantrum. A plate of mostly raw veggies and a Morning Star "burger" (all very low-fat!) and it had a fit. It's okay during the day, but, at night, it makes it hard to sleep. I was prescribed vicodin a few weeks ago for the pain so I could sleep, and I ended up having an "adverse reaction" to it; instead of knocking me out cold, I wound up as wired as if I'd had five espressos right before bed, having a racing heart and I kept breaking out in hot flashes and sweating. I didn't fall asleep until after 5:30 that morning, causing me to miss more work.
I haven't felt rested and fully well in over a month, and, after doing research about issues that can arise from having a factory-defective gallbladder, it seems a lot of my other health complaints could very easily be stemming from it. My surgeon (she's actually an intern, but I liked her right off the bat) said that I'll easily feel much, much better shortly after it comes out.
Amen, sister. Amen to that.
Some days are better than others, but usually I just want to sleep and stay still...hence my being inside on this glorious day.
Although it's laproscopic, the surgery information says to give myself about 5-10 days of recovery time, still. My hope is to have my new laptop by then so I can work from home (I can do it on this one, but it's somewhat on the laborious side due to the screen being so small). If not, this laptop will do -- plus I have my brand spankin' new PlayStation 3, which my brother convinced me to purchase.
I mentioned I was going to use my Christmas gift money for a Blu-Ray player, particularly one that had the ability to stream Netflix movies; Andrew suggested I get the PlayStation 3 since "you can also play games!"
Yes, I like a good computer game, but I don't really need that ability. But then he started explaining exactly what else the snazzy little thing can do, I decided to do so. In addition to being one of the top-rated Blu-Ray players out there, you can also purchase and store movies on its 120GB hard drive (there's also a 250GB model) -- as well as music and photos. There's also a multitude of other things it can do (like browse the Internet!), and you can even swap out the hard drive for a larger one as it's just a standard laptop drive. There's even a utility on the machine to transfer your data -- but you can also hook up external drives and store more movies on them and access them through the player.
It's pretty sweet.
I'm hoping I can do what my brother did with his media center (which is essentially what the PS3 can be), and that's load all my DVDs onto an external drive and store them that way...I'm running out of room to store my DVD boxes, and I'm starting to need to get a rack of some sort -- and I don't really have the room for one.
The streaming Netflix ability is really cool, too. I'm working my way through Torchwood -- a spin-off from the "new" Doctor Who show -- and have a bunch of other things lined up as well. I also watched my first Blu-Ray movie today, Moon, which is excellent. I upgraded my Netflix account to one DVD -- Blu-Ray or standard -- out at a time (and as many as I want in a month) and unlimited streaming time. That was just $6.00 more than what I was already paying.
I also used the rest of my gift money to get some new, good-quality speakers to plug into my television (it's really nice to finally get the full use of its HD capabilities) so now I have really good sound, too. I also got a standard-looking remote for the PS3; you can use the game controller, but it's sort of awkward. I ended up paying a whole whopping $13 of my own money to get all that.
I mentioned to a co-worker I'd gotten the PS3, "But mostly for the Blu-Ray capabilities," I said.
"Not to play games, of course," he said.
"No," I said. "Never."
He burst out laughing and said, "Yeah. Just like people only get Playboy for the articles."
"Yes -- exactly!"
So game playing ability aside (a bonus, just like the articles -- er, the pictures -- are in Playboy) it's an awesome little piece of technology. I will have plenty to watch as I'm recuperating after my surgery -- which is scheduled for March 11.
I think I may ask the surgeon if I can toss my gallbladder into the incinerator myself.
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