Adventures with Rocks

Oh the joys of being pregnant.  And everything was going so well.

Yesterday, I was told that I have gall stones.  What joy!  What fun!  Getting to this diagnosis was also a joy (warning, novel ahead.  Seriously, I'm not kidding).

Starting at, say, midnight I guess, I started to feel pain in my upper abdomen, right below my sternum (when you're pregnant, there really isn't anywhere else to feel pain in your abdomen).  I figured I had an impacted fart, because that's what it felt like.  I also felt sore in my back, right across from the pain, but with my history of back pain, I blew it off.  It sucked, and it hurt a lot, but what with all the other crap going on in our life, this couldn't be that bad.  So I kept ignoring it, even though I could barely sit still it hurt so much.

I was super tired (this should have been tip off for me, I'm never that tired until 3 or 4 am), so I decided to just go to bed.  But laying down just made the pain worse.  So I think to myself, "A shower will help my back not hurt at least."  Nope.  Didn't do a blasted thing, and my stomach hurt worse than before.  So I fill up the bathtub, hoping that the warm water and the floating would take some gravity off my stomach and that would help.  Also nope.

I tried every possible position to get comfortable, at least comfortable enough to make the pain bearable. Nothing.  By this point, I was making noise and talking to myself.  I did consider contractions, but, while the pain did come in waves, it was also constant.  Everything I had heard about labor, even active labor, said that contractions aren't constant until you are in transition.  So I was certain it wasn't labor.  So I paced the bathroom floor and begged God to take the pain away so I could sleep.

Finally, at 3 or 4 in the morning, I woke The Man up (scaring him to death in the process), and asked for a blessing.  He gave me one, and then stayed up with me while I continued to pace and moan and say things that probably didn't make a lot of sense.  We looked stuff up online about abdominal pain and pregnancy, but so much can happen that doesn't mean anything.  And it felt so much like gas pain, that that's what I concentrated on in my search.  Nothing serious.  I did see something about gall bladders, but I ignored it.  I mean, it couldn't possibly be that, I'm only 29.  That's an old person problem.

Finally, the pain subsided a little bit, and I thought maybe I could sleep, if I slept sitting up.  The Man went back to bed, and I tried sleeping in our recliner, with a heating pad on my back.  But it was a no go.  Not long after that, the pain came back.  I tried eating something, to see if that would help, and pretty much immediately threw it up.

At about 8 am, The Man convinced me to call The Parents and see if they knew anything about what it could be.  The Dad told me to go to the doctor.  Since I was pregnant, it didn't matter if it was minor, I needed to see someone.  So off we went to Insta-Care, since it was the only place open.

The pain at this point, while still extremely bad, wasn't super unbearable.  They took a quick look at me and sent me to Labor & Delivery at the Orem Hospital, where I throw up, again, in the parking lot.  We get inside, they have me pee in a cup, hook me up to monitors, and check me.  Oh, I hated that part.  And the whole time the pain is getting worse.  The nurse told me that, even though I wasn't really effaced, and barely dilated to a 1, she was pretty certain I was in early labor, because I was having contractions.  Oh man, did I EVER freak out.  I start crying, while The Man is trying to help me remember my breathing, because it hurt so much.  I just wanted it to stop hurting, I didn't want it to get worse,  I didn't want to go through labor anymore if that's what early labor felt like.  I really just wanted to go to sleep, and kept saying so.  And still, the pain is constant, with peaks lasting, it seemed to me, for 5 minutes at a time.  I start making more noise, hoping it will help distract me.  They check my pee, to make sure it's not a UTI, tell me it's not, therefore, it's most definitely labor.  So we call our midwife and head over to the birth center.

I go through all the checking again, and she says it's NOT labor.  The pain is too constant, and too concentrated in one spot, plus the pain and tenderness in my back, and where it's located, indicate either kidney stones or gall stones.  So she sends us BACK to Labor and Delivery at Orem Hospital, where they take me to the ER.  I'm barely able to walk anymore, and can't even talk much.  The Man is taking care of everything, filling out paperwork and answering questions, while I'm trying not to scream (the pain is growing progressively worse).  Thankfully there wasn't anyone before us, so I got into a room right away.

I get my vitals checked AGAIN, and the nurse says he will get me some pain meds.  While waiting for the doctor to show up, I throw up yet AGAIN.  I haven't thrown up with this kind of frequency since I was a kid.  Even at the beginning of my pregnancy, I only threw up once a day (usually around 1 in the afternoon.  My body has a thing for timing).  I don't even know what I'm throwing up, because my stomach is completely empty.  But there was a lot of empty in there.  And the pain is absolutely unbearable.  I can't stop moaning and making noise, even if I wanted to.  They get me on the table, flat on my back and start getting me hooked up to an IV.  I'm shaking uncontrollably, all over.  The Man is rubbing any part of me he can touch; my legs, my arms, my head.  I'm squeezing any part of him I can reach, which I'm sure didn't feel great.  He keeps telling me to breath slow and deep, but I can barely take a breath at all.

They finally get me hooked up, and give me a dose of morphine.  I'm laying there, shaking and moaning, praying it will work, and wondering why it wasn't.  The Man tells me over and over that it takes some time, but I was feeling nothing.  So they come back, eventually, and give me more.  In just a few minutes, I had a nice woozy feeling, like my arms and legs were just going to float away.  And the pain, the pain was almost gone!  Oh, happiness!  It was still there, but I could finally sleep.  Which I did.  Oh, bliss!  I think I only slept for about an hour, but still.  It was a drugged sleep, where you can still hear everything going on, so I didn't feel very rested when I woke up.  But still, I slept!  I woke up just in time for them to send me to have an ultrasound to make sure that it was my gall bladder, and to make sure the baby was okay.  That went well, and we went back to the room to wait for the results.  Oh, and I got to ride in a wheelchair!  The morphine made it so that there was no possible way I could even stand for more than a few seconds.

Results:  Gall stones.  They said they showed up on the ultrasound, so there's no doubt I have them.  One got stuck up at the top of the gall bladder, which is what caused the pain.  They gave me a prescription for loratabs (or however you spell that) and an anti-nausea pill, since gall stones cause nausea (hence, me throwing up 3 times).

Now, I'm can't eat fat, pretty much at all.  No fried foods, no fast food, no butter, sauces, gravy, cheese, or milk.  Dairy all together is pretty much out.  I can try skim milk, and non-fat yogurt, but dairy alone can cause the pain again.  And while I have pain, no solids at all.  Just clear liquids.  Good thing they have prenatal vitamins out there.  But I do get to eat a lot of carbs!  Woot!  The paper they gave me specifically says to eat a high-carb diet!  How I love carbs.  Just no fat.  Boo!

So, I'm pretty much pain free at the moment.  Loratabs are heaven-sent, let me tell you.  I haven't had to take any today, and I'm hoping it will stay that way, because clear liquids do nothing to fill you up.  I actually went to bed at 10 last night, after sleeping for 3 hours yesterday afternoon.  And slept through the night (I only had to get up once to pee!).  I got up when The Man did for work, but I think I'm going to go back to bed now.  Just writing about this has made me sleepy again.

Here's hoping that going through labor is the last time in a long time that someone in our family will have to go to a doctor of any sort, and that we will all be healthy.  Oh, and after yesterday, I'm thinking labor will be cake.  Maybe not a good cake, but cake nonetheless.