Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

Ok, it is time to update my blog.  Some of you may now know what’s been going on with me, but many of you do not.  To put it simply, I am in the hospital awaiting surgery to have a gall-stone or stones removed from my primary bile duct and then assuming all goes well with that my gallbladder will be the next to go.  My parents have come to help take care of the kids, and Kate is on her way to help take care of me and Josh.  ;)  I will update here as the procedures are completed and recovery is underway.  Full details leading up to this point will follow, so if you don’t want to know all the candid personal bodily stuff, stop reading now.  Still with me?  Here we go!  On the Saturday night of my previously posted about “scraptastic weekend” I started experiencing some abdominal pressure and pain.  I had felt this way before and it usually went away within a day or two, so while it was uncomfortable, I expected it to pass.  After a couple days with no relief I was finally talked into calling my doctor and making an appointment.  So I saw my doctor the next Friday morning and gave a deep orange colored urine sample which helped them determine that I am NOT pregnant and therefore could be x-rayed.  The x-rays revealed that I was “bound up.”  Honestly, I don’t know that I’d ever really heard that before.  I was prescribed two bottles of magnesium citrate and told that I would not want to be traveling or away from the toilet, of course I had to be traveling because it was Mother’s Day weekend and we had birthday parties, mothers, and graduation parties to attend.  So, I had to time taking the medicine to not interfere with the rest of our weekend plans.  I had so much discomfort and feeling so full, I didn’t eat anything Thursday.  Friday the doctor said with this medicine I should feel like I could eat again, so I did, but the medicine didn’t work.  And then Saturday the medicine didn’t work.  By Saturday night, I was in a lot of pain and starving and didn’t know what to do next.  I called the emergency nurse line, which put me in touch with an on-call doctor, who listened to my story and gave me two options.  One, I could go to the emergency room.  Two, I could try an in-home Fleets enema.  Ewwww!  But lets review, over the counter enema:$2-$3… emergency room visit: $200-$300 and most likely still involving an enema.  So my mother’s day present was an in-home Fleets enema, which my sister and brother-in-law kindly purchased for me.  It sort of worked.  It definitely gave some relief, but didn’t do the whole job.  I was hoping maybe things would start to progress normally on their own and so Sunday I enjoyed my first real yummy meal at lunch with my in-laws, but by that evening at Kate’s graduation party I was not feeling well again and my colors were still off and Kate said that my eyes looked yellow.  So, first thing Monday morning, back on the phone with the doctor’s office and she couldn’t see me until Tuesday, at this point were all the same plus I’d developed head to toe insatiable itching.  Tuesday morning I gave another silly colored sample and blood and waited for the results.  Tuesday evening blood test confirmed that I was having poor liver function, which definitely accounted for the yellowing eyes and itching skin.  So they wanted me to have an ultrasound done.  Wednesday morning I drove into Des Moines and had an ultrasound done, however, it was my doctor and her nurse’s day off and so no one could give me any information about the results of the ultrasound or the next step or anything.  So, again I waited and waited and scratched and festered.  That night I had to sleep with socks over my hands and Josh holding on to my wrists… not comfy.  First thing Thursday morning I called to get some answers–played a little phone tag–and FINALLY was told that I should just go right to the emergency room and the gastroenterologist would meet me there!  ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME?!  COULD I HAVE BEEN GIVEN ANY MORE NOTICE THAN THIS?!  ALL WEEK LONG I’VE BEEN WAITING TO FIND OUT WHAT TO DO NEXT AND PUTTING OFF OFFERS OF HELP BECAUSE I DIDN’T KNOW WHEN I WOULD NEED IT AND NOW THEY JUST ASSUME I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DROP EVERYTHING AND GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM RIGHT NOW?!  And you know what, it just gets better!  I got a friend to watch the little kids right away until Chad, their uncle, could come and get them and Josh left his meeting early and met me at the hospital.  My mom got out of school and took a couple days off and dad drove her down to make sure they got here before the older kids got out of school and Kate borrowed a car to come and help take care of me/keep me entertained (and Josh).  So I finally made it to the ER at about 10:30 A.M. and they got me in and immediately gave me an IV–yay– and then I sat and waited some more and scratched some more.  The first doctor who came to talk to me gave me a sort of Doogie Howser vibe, and he drew me lots of pictures {Chris, our future nurse would have drawn me a “diagram”, but the pictures did ok}.  The second doctor came in with his posse looking kind of like the dude on Scrubs (the inappropriate, sexual innuendo guy) and was dismayed to learn that the previous doctor had already stolen his picture drawin’ thunder, so he didn’t have much to say.  At this point we knew that I was going to have a really longwinded named scope to retrieve the stone from my bile duct and gall bladder removal.  There were no rooms in the inn, however, so we had to get comfy in our ER spot (sadly, there were no such Noah Wyle types).  I watched some tv–history channel mostly and then the Three Amigos on AMC.  What else did I watch?  Oh, and then a little VH1.  Apparently OJ is doing comedy now, but I was saved from it because I FINALLY HAD A ROOM, after only SIX hours in the ER doing nothing!  It was a fun ride to my room, I got wheeled in my bed, which apparently was having some issues and the poor fellow couldn’t keep it from running into the walls.  There are some freaky, long corridor hallways here like those from the bad movies, but my room seemed nice.  When I got to my room I was told that I could have some clear liquids until midnight… that’s right, they weren’t going to do anything today, GOOD THING I RUSHED OVER!  So I had a lovely, unsatisfying meal of off brand jello, broth, and apple juice.  The broth tasted like ramen without the noodles, but now to cut an incredibly long story short–too late– I’ve survived my first procedure and await my second surgery to remove the gall bladder tomorrow.  Life’s not awesome, but there is hope that I will eventually be able to enjoy a piece of my own birthday cake.  Gee, I spared most of the gory details afterall.