Gallbladder

The first week of January 1996 marched on and I started feeling worse and worse. It all came to a head the evening of January 7th. I woke up at 2am with abdominal pains worse then labor. I was so scared and shaking so bad I couldn't even walk. So I crawled down the hallway to my parents room and woke them up. They got me out to the couch and then called 911. I don't remember much after that until I was actually in the room at the civilian hospital.

Apparently it was decided for me that Dad would go to the hospital with me and Mom would stay home with Rob. You will never know how much those decisions meant to me. I knew Rob would be safe, well fed and cuddled. And I knew that my Dad would take good care of me. He never left my side, gave me what comfort he could and asked the questions that needed asking.

At first they were afraid that something from the delivery had went wrong. I was only 7 weeks postpartum. I was still bleeding but not too heavy so they started testing. They did a complete blood work-up, pregnancy test(ya right) and x-rays. By the time all that was done the ultrasound department was open so they sent me as the first case.

By the time I got back to the emergency department they had their answers. Gallstones, lots of gallstones, and one was blocking the exit tube. I needed immediate surgery. The problem was that I was in a civilian hospital and since there was a military hospital within 50 miles I had to be transferred there. So Dad and I headed home.

Thank god for families. My sister came and helped Dad with Rob so Mom could take me to Scott Air Force base. I had brought all the tests results with me and by noon I was in surgery. The surgery went ok but they had a hard time waking me up. I ended up having to stay over night. That was hard because I was really missing Rob, even though I knew he was in good hands. Then when I got home I was too sore to hold him.

John and I talked it over and he hated that he wasn't there to help. But for the time being it seemed like I was where I should be so I stayed a few more weeks to recover. We couldn't wait to become a family again so hopefully time would go by swiftly.