Adventures at the Hospital

After leaving Craters of the Moon, we spent the next several days at my Mother's house and had a good time visiting with her.

We left Mom's house on Saturday, August 21st, driving up US-95 and spending the night at Hammer Creek Campground, a BLM campground near White Bird. We made it home Sunday afternoon, and that evening was when the trouble started.

I've sometimes had attacks that I've always thought were bad cases of acid reflux. But, whereas those prior attacks would only last a few hours, this started Sunday night and didn't let up. Finally, on Tuesday morning, I had Earl take me to the emergency room where I did, finally, get some relief from the pain.

While there, they did an ultrasound of my abdomen and referred me to another doctor who I saw the next day. That doctor said that the ultrasound indicated a mass within my gallbladder and inflammation around it, so he ordered a cat scan to get a better look.

The results of the cat scan was pretty much the same as the ultrasound...a mass in the gallbladder with inflammation around it. While gallbladder cancer is rare, it was recommended that I have it removed and the mass inspected.

I went into the hospital this past Thursday morning for surgery, which went pretty much as expected, except that there was apparently so much inflammation around the gallbladder that the doctor had to make a bit larger incision than normal to get it out all in one piece. Fortunately, it turned out that there was no cancer, so no further surgery or treatment will be needed...hurray! But the larger incision does mean than recovery will take a bit longer...but I've got pain pills to help me along.

It's great to be on the road to recovery, but I do wish all this could have waited a few more months until I am on Medicare! :-(