Possibly Too Much Information

[chris_gerrib]

I'm not dying or anything, but to save wear and tear on people's f-lists, the gory details are below the cut.



I woke up this morning with the mother of all stomach cramps, fever and nausea. I decided to call Doctor Janowitz, and when he heard "no diarrhea" he said "why don't you come in?" I did, and once he poked on my abdomen and found a sore spot he sent me to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers' Grove. They did an ultrasound and determined that I have gallstones.

Since they're not inflamed, infected or blocking critical stuff, I was sent home with some painkillers and told to eat bland stuff. He didn't say "no booze" but I kinda suspect that the liquor cabinet is closed until further notice. I see Dr. J. on Monday to discuss options.

I called Brett Wolfson, my right-hand man at work, and he forwarded this link. The bad news is that you really can't ultrasonically destroy gallstones, you have to remove the gallbladder. The good news is that this is a laparoscopic procedure, done via two tiny incisions. It usually involves one day in the hospital and a couple days rest at home.

In short, not good news, but it could be much worse.

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

My sister had it done....it was a pretty easy surgery.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information.

[jeff-duntemann.livejournal.com]

I've had two inguenal hernias fixed--fortunately, we're bilateral and that's all the inguenal rings that God gives us--one in 1978 and one in 2000. In 1978 I was in the hospital for three days, had bladder spasms due to the anesthetic, and was flat on my back for a week after that. In 2000 I was in the hospital for two hours and was up and around the next day without anything other than the need to be a little careful and not lift anything over a few pounds for awhile.

Surgery is better here in The Future.

Good luck. The condition is common enough so that as a technological species we've gotten very good at fixing it.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

I had several hours of waiting time in the hospital before my ultrasound on which I reflected on that very point. Because before ultrasound, the way to diagnose gallstones was to do "exploratory surgery."

There are things I really don't want explored, and my innards are one of them!

[jeff-duntemann.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't mind them exploring--I just don't want them using stainless steel to do it!

Noninvasive medical imaging is yet another wonderful thing about living in The Future.