Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Update on Gallbladder

I saw the general surgeon on Monday. He was very hesitant to take out what could be a healthy gallbladder since we can't do the test that would definitively say whether or not it is my gall bladder that is causing me so much trouble. He was worried about putting me under anesthesia because of the risks to the pregnancy and wasn't sure it was worth the risk. He suggested that we try and wait it out and "nurse" me through the pregnancy, meaning when the pain becomes more than I can handle with the meds I have at home that I could go to the ER for more pain relief. He said it might occasionally even require a two or three day stay.

I told him that I have to have anesthesia anyway for the stitch and that I was not really thrilled about the wait and see approach. He decided to pencil me in a surgery date and then give me the opportunity to "think it over". One the way home I realized "Are you kidding me? Add more ER visits to the ones I could already potentially have because of this pregnancy? Right!" Normally I am against violating the body and and I like the idea of keeping all my organs unless absolutely necessary but occasionally I'm for the easy road out and in my opinion taking the small risks in order to avoid the extra hospital time is worth it.

Am I wrong? If you have some kind of cleanse or something that I can take that you are fairly certain won't harm the baby more than having the surgery, step up now! I have two weeks to change my mind.

1 comment:

Brandi said...

((((()))) I wish I had advice for you. I really like the website herballegacy.com for herbal remedies and such. Lots of Dr. Christopher formulas and information on the website regarding ailments and herbs. I did a search for "gall bladder" and came up with a couple pages (although it doesn't speak about using it for pregnancy, but you can decide if it's helpful anyway):
http://www.herballegacy.org/Liver_and_Gall.html
and
http://www.herballegacy.org/Gallstones.html

I hope you feel better either way! ((()))
Brandi
My blog - http://grace.mbdblog.com

(btw, so you know who I am, you attended my birth at the end of 2007--I saw your blog link in one of your messages on the UFOM list)