I’m probably slightly exaggerating here but last Thursday night it honestly felt as if my gallbladder was trying to straight up murder me!

 

You see, apparently I’m an old person now and have gallstones. And they’ve been keeping me up about once or twice a week since February. Sometimes there’d be nothing for weeks at a time and I’d forget about it. 

Now according to my doctors and also the internet, gallstones are common in almost everyone but mine just decided it was time to fly the nest and cause shenanigans in my common bile duct.

Which leads to me being in excruciating pain and vomiting from Thursday night till Saturday morning. When I went to the loo and saw that my urine was basically the colour of Savlon, I knew I should go see my GP. Who promptly scolded me for leaving it so long but honestly after two c-sections and having these pains on and off​ for almost four months, I wasn’t sure what warranted a doctor’s visit anymore. Anyway, the point was that I had jaundice. It’s not just for babies y’all!

She consulted with a surgeon at Kingsbury and with my symptoms he wanted me to be admitted immediately! But of course once I had dragged my butt to the doctors my pain and nausea was non-existent. 

But he wanted to run blood tests and an ultrasound and the nurses really were so lovely to me. Because The Potato was being brought in for feedings, they moved me to a private room until a paying customer showed up (they never did). 

It’s the worst thing to have a drip in for no reason and even worse thing to lie in hospital and not actually be sick while listening to actually patients be sick. So I tried to call the nurses as little as possible but (and I’m fully aware of what a First World Problem this is) the beds weren’t remote controlled and I had to bother them every time I wanted the bed moved.

More than that, this was my first night away from The Potato. And seeing as we’re still breastfeeding I was a little stressed out. I had to figure out how to pump with a drip in a very awkward place on my wrist. And while it was awkward and a bit sore I managed to pump.

Also The Husband did amazingly well with her  (I didn’t doubt that he would but I was scared she’d look for me in the night) while The Munchkin went galavanting with my parents to a hotel in Sea Point.

Blood tests were done to test my jaundice levels and other things and to do an ultrasound to check out what was up with my gallbladder and liver.

I was discharged the next morning because I had no pain or nausea all night and was feeling absolutely fine. My urine had even returned to its normal colour. But I had to go for more blood tests on Monday to check my levels again. 

Monday rolled around. I went to work because I was feeling fine and I popped over to Chris Barnard Hospital’s Pathcare because it’s literally across the road from my work. On my way home that evening I got a call from my doctor telling me to check in to hospital at 12pm the next day because I needed to have a procedure to remove the gallstones from my common bile duct. 

I was scared and not keen to be away from my babies again. When I told The Munchkin that I didn’t want to go he said to me “But mommy you MUST! The tiny rocks are making you sore!”

So off I went back to Kingsbury to get the ones stuck in my common bile duct out and now I can put off having my gallbladder removed for a few months. I was put under conscious sedation for this but I didn’t remember a damn thing and it was over in an hour. The only side effect I had was a soreness in my diaphragm but the doctor said it was from the procedure and it would pass in a few days 

Of course while I was recovering I had to pick up one of The Munchkin’s creche diseases and was battling the flu all weekend while still getting stuff done and all I could think was that I REALLY missed being sick pre-kids when you could literally sleep the sickness away.

A mother’s job is never done…