Stones

I seem to have a knack for coming up with out-of-the-ordinary circumstances to surround my pregnancies.  With Annalisa it was emergency surgery (and as my dad called it a very expensive pregnancy test) and excess vomiting followed by dramatic weightloss.  Alyssa was delivered by her father on the living room carpet with most of my immediate family present. Andrew was showing symptoms of twins for a while and left me completely exhausted, then gave me a doozy of a labor thanks to his choice of position.  And then this pregnancy comes along like a sparkling trophy.  I had relatively less "morning" sickness with bursts of feeling quite fine before the 13-week mark.  I have had unbelievable energy that I have never experienced during pregnancy.  Even sciatica and heartburn seem to be much better than other pregnancies.  And then this weekend came.

It started on Friday while I drove Annalisa home from school.  I was having some high abdominal pain (above baby) and strain in the back.  I thought maybe I had pulled a muscle in my back and it was causing the pain in my abdomen.  I had a tough time driving home, but once there I rested for a bit and went on like normal for the rest of the night.

The same pain returned last night just as I was about to get up and eat dinner.  But this time it hurt to lay down, it hurt to walk, it hurt to sit.  And the pain did not go away.  I finally thought we better call my midwife who asked Doug after hearing my symptoms, "Does she have a family history of gallbladder problems?" Well, only both my parents have had theirs removed.  A half hour later I was on my way to the ER and wondering how this might affect baby.

While Doug parked the car, I rode in a wheel chair up to the maternity ward.  The attendant pushing the wheel chair really had his hands full.  I was absolutley bawling (seriously, this pain has to be about 10 times worse than labor) and he was running through the hospital while trying to comfort me.  Tests, IVs, monitoring, and an ultrasound were on the agenda.  And did I mention the drugs?  Morphine and whatever else they gave me did some weird things to me. But I did get relief from the pain.  And another attendant I found out was from Mexico, so I managed to get a little Spanish practice into the whole mix of events.

All to say, I am fine now and at home.  I have gallstones, but thankfully no infection, so surgery can be put off until after baby comes as long as a controlled diet prevents any more attacks or any infection.  And what do I have to give up eating?  Everything I love: butter, mayonnaise, chocolate, fried foods (they don't know my love for Peruvian french fries!), basically anything fun.  But for the sake of getting through this pregnancy without having to have surgery, I'll definitely obey.