Monday, July 25, 2011

My gall bladder and I are at odds

Well because summer has just been so normal, we had to throw something into it to make it more exciting. I guess since we had no plans to go away...

A week ago Saturday I had horrible pain mid morning all from my chest into my back, and down into my abdomen. I thought at first it was really bad gas at first, but it didn't go away. For the next few days I had these attacks again, sometimes lasting a long time, and then I realized it might be my gall bladder. I remembered my Mom saying that anything with fat in it would set her off before she had hers out.

I made an appt to see the doctor on Saturday morning. On Wednesday night/early Thursday morning I had a really bad attack lasting about 2.5 hours. I was waiting until the family was up so Bill could bring me to the hospital. Well I decided to shower 1st, and it totally went away while I was showering. So I went to work. Then I got sick. Then I came home again.

Knowing it was likely my gall bladder I Googled it for some tips on how to manage it for a bit. So Friday I was fine. Saturday morning I went to my weigh in (down 25 lbs!!) and then to the doctor. He confirmed that yes it is likely my gall bladder and sent me for some blood work an an ultrasound.

I have managed to avoid any attacks again as of today, although I can certainly feel it. It sort of fells like someone is constantly punching me in the back.

Small amounts of fat can set it off so I am eating almost an entirely fat free diet. Yesterday I had some 2% milk in my tea and even that caused some pain. I can eat boneless skinless chicken breasts, fat free plain yoghurt, and fish for protein. I was already eating oatmeal and salads for lunch, so no big change in my diet there. Night time is the hardest. No alcohol (hard on the liver), no coffee (boo hoo!).

Today I got a call from the doctor that my liver levels are high, so the ultrasound has been bumped up to this Thursday morning. We might have surgery soon after that - we'll see. Unless I have an attack before that, in which case I'll be there even sooner!

Kind of crazy, but if we get this done with the laparoscopic surgery I should be good to go within a week or two again.

And that's it from our corner of the world!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Happy House Anniversary!

It's been one year since we moved into this house! Crazy! One year! On many levels it is hard to believe it has been that long, and on several other levels it feels like it has been a lot longer. We're just so happy here.

When we bought this place one of the things we liked was that it was a bit older and we would not have to worry about being a little hard on it- denting walls or other such things. We put in a 3rd bathroom, revamped my sewing room (moved a door, put up a wall, took down part of another), put down new floors in Bill's room, my room and as gift from my brother, through the whole entry hall. Bill finally got around to painting the downstairs bathroom on Friday (yeah, it took us a year).

We love, love, love the back yard. The kids do too. They are out there every day the weather allows them. The previous owners left a sandbox and a play house, and we have two climbers, and a water table. So there is lots to do out there. Duncan loves to play baseball out there, and anything else that involves running and hiding and lots of giggling. Our garden is doing okay... Mom came and took a look yesterday and gave me some advice on it, so I'll need to get some of that taken care of.

What would I change? Well our deck still needs a revamping. The plywood underneath is a bit soft, and in my happy little world I would like to make it a bit bigger, which we might do at some point. The kitchen needs the most help. We've been trying to score some cabinets off of Craigslist, but every time we find what we're looking for (just a bank of cabinets up and down, about 3-4 doors long) in our price range (free - $200) they are snatched up so quick we can't get our hands on them. Eventually I see renovating the whole thing, opening up the wall and making it a great room. But by my guess that would cost upwards of $20,000, so we'll be waiting on that one a while.

But we love it here. We feel blessed to have this home, and have no plans any time soon to look anywhere else. Happy Anniversary House!!