A Harrowing Tale of Gall and Bile (Part 3)

I've only mentioned snippets thus far, but the full tale has been told to none and so I will recount it here.

Nearly two weeks ago, Mrs. Pad began suffering from gastric pains of an unusual nature. I was busily saving the world from my super-secret Dr. Super Guy headquarters in Washington, D.C., but Mrs. Pad's parents came down to keep her company while I was away. Her father took her to a 24-hour emergency clinic which initially diagnosed her with a Uniary Tract Infection (UTI) and prescribed her some antibiotics. The symptoms did not abate, however, even by the time I had returned to San Antonio, so we went back to the same doctor. This time he asked a few more questions and began to suspect gallbladder issues. He prescribed some gut muscle relaxers, but urged us to accomplish a sonogram.

Immediately upon our return home from this second visit, Mrs. Pad began vomiting frequently. We decided to give it a bit of time to see if the new medication would help with this, but in the wee hours of the morning of Mar. 23 it became clear she was steadily getting worse. We headed to the emergency room of the nearest hospital.

After many hours of waiting, she received a sonogram and was officially diagnosed with severe cholecystitis due, in part, to a gallstone blocking the cystic duct. Even I could see the massed stones collected in the lower lip of the gallbladder on the sonogram screen. She was scheduled for a cholecystectomy on the morning of Mar. 24. 

I was told the procedure would only take about an hour once she entered the operating room. This was proved quite true: right after she was wheeled into the OR, I went in search of a salad at the hospital cafeteria, ate that, and returned to the waiting room. In less than five minutes the surgeon came looking for me and said everything went very smoothly and she would almost certainly be discharged that same evening.

Since returning home, I've been caring for her and trying to keep our two dogs under control. She is still in some pain in her shoulder due to all the gas they pump into the abdomen during these kinds of procedures, but other than that she's doing quite well and is already up and about though her physical activity is still somewhat limited. If anyone from LOTRO has read this, we appreciate your thoughts and well wishes during this time. She may feel well enough soon to join us back in the game before long.

Cheers,

Padhric
Master of Toons