Here's a new favorite song :)
Wednesday, March 14
Friday, February 10
in my patient's shoes
No, I am not a doctor just yet - I am currently still in my 3rd year of medical school.
However, I had an unexpected hospitalization due to a surprisingly enlarged & very inflamed gallbladder that was also filled with huge gallstones. This put me in the role of a completely dependent patient, in much pain, and concerned about my med school classes and activities, and all sorts of stuff in life.
So the emergency medical doctor called in a specialist GI doctor who then ordered another ultrasound - this time an abdominal check. This is when they discovered an enlarged gallbladder with stones. I was shocked. There's this saying among the med students regarding diagnosing for gallstones. It's known as the "4F's" = Fat, Forty's, Female, Fertile. While I am female and fertile, I don't think I'm fat nor in my forty's. Well anyway, not every patient fits in a general box. So they admitted me as an in-patient on Wednesday night. With all the pain meds they gave me, however, I still felt the pain although not as severe. Then later that evening, another specialist came, a GI surgeon, to evaluate my situation. He didn't think that my current symptoms were being caused by this enlarged gallbladder…just yet, especially since the pain I was complaining about is on a very atypical part of the body for it to be due to gallstones or an enlarged gallbladder. So, the surgeon recommended an elective surgery to remove my enlarged gallbladder at a time convenient for me. So I thought, April it is during our spring break. Then on Thursday mid-day, I had a colonoscopy done to rule out any other possible cause of the left flank pain I was still feeling. The GI doctor (not the surgeon) discovered that my colon is quite spastic, meaning making a lot of spasms, which then he attributed to as the cause of my left flank pain. So he discharged me from the hospital on Feb 2nd Thursday early evening with anti-spasmodic medicine. I was happy, and thought yay I can take my Psychiatry final exam. I know what you're thinking :)
Friday February 3rd came along, and yes I went to class to take my Psychiatry final (thank you to a sister in the Lord, Ayanna, for driving me to school despite her tight study and hospital rotation schedules). Unfortunately, the pain was still there…the anti-spasmodic medicine was not much help. I took my exam in pain, but praise the Lord, got through it, and I think I more than passed that exam. Upon returning home, I just had this thought (I really wanted to ignore it) that it might be the gallbladder that is causing the problem. When I got home, I heated up some light lunch and ate. Then within 30 minutes after eating, the pain got worse. This time the pain location has moved to my right lower back, my epigastrium area, and on the right upper quadrant of my abdomen (this is just below the liver). With this, I was convinced that my gallbladder could not hold on until April. So when Nick got home, we called the GI surgeon. The surgeon evaluated me with all sorts of questions on the phone, and at the end of it all, highly recommended that I return to the ER and be operated. Sigh…. I really was hoping the gallbladder could hang on 'til April.
So Friday night February 3rd, I was back at Hospital Angeles del Carmen in much more excruciating pain. During this 2nd admission, I had to get another abdominal ultrasound which revealed a now very inflamed gallbladder (they didn't see it as inflamed the first time around). And I had to go through the MRI tube - that was scary, I must admit. I am not claustrophobic but for 30 minutes while in that noisy tight tube, I just wanted to get out! But since I couldn't and I needed to go through it to find out if there are any bile stone leak in other ducts of my body, I humbly brought myself to a place of just calling out to the Lord for peace during that moment, and I mentally sang "I SURRENDER" by Kim Walker (click on song titles to listen) and "CAME TO MY RESCUE" by Hillsong. And thankfully, before I knew it, 30 minutes had passed. Freedom from the tube's captivity! :) And thankfully, no other bile stone or gallstone leakage. I was all-clear to just get a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal). And oh, I had to get the growing ovarian cyst on my left ovary out also because it had grown to 4.4cm (from 3cm in December 2011). So then we were taken to a hospital room that night, and I was operated on Sunday February 5th (the surgery rooms were all full on Saturday, and since I was stable enough to wait 'til Sunday my case wasn't so urgent). Yay for IV Ketorolac - pain relief.
Sunday February 5th came along. According to Nick I was taken out of the room around 8:30AM. He received the first phonecall-update around 9:45AM that the surgical team was starting to open. Yikes… The second phonecall-update came around 1PM to inform him that the gallbladder removal was successful, although a bit difficult, and that the team was now starting to remove the ovarian cyst on my left ovary, which didn't take as long as removing the gallbladder. Nick got another phonecall-update around 2PM that surgery is complete and that I was being monitored in the recovery room. I'm not quite sure yet as to why they had to keep me in there for about 2 hours. I was returned to my hospital room and to Nick around 4PM that Sunday. A shout-out of thanks to our sister in the Lord miss Yoli and brother in the Lord Henry Roybal for accompanying Nick that Sunday all the while I "went under" general anesthesia for my surgery.
So then the recovery process began. Monday was horrible - so much pain all over my 6 surgical sites, and crying didn't help! Pain on my shoulders - the surgeon warned me about this prior to the surgery. Thankfully, Tuesday was much better after the surgeon removed the bile leak drain he kept inside of me to monitor any bile leakage after the surgery. I think that latex drain was causing the almost unbearable pain I was feeling on Monday. I walked a little and started eating solid hospital foods ;) on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, my heartbeat went a little crazy but then got stable. I had to do this breathing exercise where I have to raise these colorful little balls by inhaling air as rapidly and as much as I can. I could only elevate one yellow ball, which is probably the lightest of all three. But today Friday February 10th, I elevated the yellow one and the blue one - which is the second heavy one. I have to elevate all three to really say, my lungs are back to being great :) So I got discharged from the hospital on Wednesday February 8th in the early afternoon. So glad to be home! I must say that the hospital staff were great at their job in taking care of patients: they were friendly, and tended to my needs in a timely manner. I'm making them home-made chocolate chip cookies :) The only thing I wished did not happen was getting phlebitis - when veins get inflamed and produce bumps (that may possibly be due to blot clots) that you can feel upon touching the surface of your skin above the affected vein. It hurts. I kept thinking of maybe how my mom would have done a great job at inserting an IV line even in the smallest and tenderest of veins - after all, she worked at the ICU for neonates for several years. I think maybe I just need to drink a lot more water, and have wonderful veins like my dearest Nick :)
Well, now I am home. Recovering, recuperating. THANKFUL for the mercy the Lord God has shown me. THANKFUL for my husband's love & care. THANKFUL for our brothers and sisters in the Lord here in Guadalajara for visiting and providing support and prayers. THANKFUL for brothers & sisters around the world for covering and lifting us in prayer to the Lord.
My lesson in this is that it is true, we really do not know what tomorrow brings. I had never had any warning signs before that my gallbladder is enlarging or with stones. It was just sudden. I also learned a whole lot what it feels to be in a patient role, dependent upon others to help you do even the most basic of things. So thankful to the Lord for providing a great surgeon, with good manners in his approach to his patient and the patient's families, in explaining details, in his skills & knowledge, care, and follow-up. I just wonder how the removal of the staples on my surgical sites will go this Sunday. (Eeek!)
Humbled.
Thankful.
Reflective.
Trusting.
Looking forward to attaining full recovery, in the Lord's timing.
However, I had an unexpected hospitalization due to a surprisingly enlarged & very inflamed gallbladder that was also filled with huge gallstones. This put me in the role of a completely dependent patient, in much pain, and concerned about my med school classes and activities, and all sorts of stuff in life.
It all started late Tuesday night, January 31st. I felt a sudden sharp and stabbing pain on the lower portion of my back - which in medical terms would be described as "flank pain." I could hardly breathe properly due to the pain I would feel upon inhalation. I didn't want to move because the pain would increase in severity. I didn't want anybody touching me. I just wanted to be still in bed, lying there, hoping and praying the pain would just go away. Well…it didn't. I couldn't bring myself up to go to school the following day. So my husband Nick took me to the emergency room at Hospital Angeles del Carmen (a hospital within a few minute's drive from our house). He had to go to work for an hour or so to set up their important testing session for their students, and then came back home to take me to the hospital. On our way there, I had this firm idea that I would only need to provide a urine sample to find out what type of bacteria are causing the infection and then be released with a prescription of some antibiotic - because based on my left "flank pain" I thought I had a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). To my surprise, the attending emergency medicine doctor told me that a nurse will be putting in an IV line. Not long, I was taken to ultrasound. They discovered nothing is wrong with my ureters, kidneys or my bladder, no stones, no problem at all in the pelvic area. So they were convinced that what is causing my "flank pain" is purely a bacterial infection. Well…the urine test came back negative. No infection. So I started thinking to myself…well, am I faking this then? Is it all in my head? Snap out of it, Shayne! I have to say that during this time I was finishing up my Psychiatry class, so you can only imagine the thoughts in my head.
 |
| (perhaps, I had a little too much pain meds. Hence the smile.) |
So the emergency medical doctor called in a specialist GI doctor who then ordered another ultrasound - this time an abdominal check. This is when they discovered an enlarged gallbladder with stones. I was shocked. There's this saying among the med students regarding diagnosing for gallstones. It's known as the "4F's" = Fat, Forty's, Female, Fertile. While I am female and fertile, I don't think I'm fat nor in my forty's. Well anyway, not every patient fits in a general box. So they admitted me as an in-patient on Wednesday night. With all the pain meds they gave me, however, I still felt the pain although not as severe. Then later that evening, another specialist came, a GI surgeon, to evaluate my situation. He didn't think that my current symptoms were being caused by this enlarged gallbladder…just yet, especially since the pain I was complaining about is on a very atypical part of the body for it to be due to gallstones or an enlarged gallbladder. So, the surgeon recommended an elective surgery to remove my enlarged gallbladder at a time convenient for me. So I thought, April it is during our spring break. Then on Thursday mid-day, I had a colonoscopy done to rule out any other possible cause of the left flank pain I was still feeling. The GI doctor (not the surgeon) discovered that my colon is quite spastic, meaning making a lot of spasms, which then he attributed to as the cause of my left flank pain. So he discharged me from the hospital on Feb 2nd Thursday early evening with anti-spasmodic medicine. I was happy, and thought yay I can take my Psychiatry final exam. I know what you're thinking :)
Friday February 3rd came along, and yes I went to class to take my Psychiatry final (thank you to a sister in the Lord, Ayanna, for driving me to school despite her tight study and hospital rotation schedules). Unfortunately, the pain was still there…the anti-spasmodic medicine was not much help. I took my exam in pain, but praise the Lord, got through it, and I think I more than passed that exam. Upon returning home, I just had this thought (I really wanted to ignore it) that it might be the gallbladder that is causing the problem. When I got home, I heated up some light lunch and ate. Then within 30 minutes after eating, the pain got worse. This time the pain location has moved to my right lower back, my epigastrium area, and on the right upper quadrant of my abdomen (this is just below the liver). With this, I was convinced that my gallbladder could not hold on until April. So when Nick got home, we called the GI surgeon. The surgeon evaluated me with all sorts of questions on the phone, and at the end of it all, highly recommended that I return to the ER and be operated. Sigh…. I really was hoping the gallbladder could hang on 'til April.
So Friday night February 3rd, I was back at Hospital Angeles del Carmen in much more excruciating pain. During this 2nd admission, I had to get another abdominal ultrasound which revealed a now very inflamed gallbladder (they didn't see it as inflamed the first time around). And I had to go through the MRI tube - that was scary, I must admit. I am not claustrophobic but for 30 minutes while in that noisy tight tube, I just wanted to get out! But since I couldn't and I needed to go through it to find out if there are any bile stone leak in other ducts of my body, I humbly brought myself to a place of just calling out to the Lord for peace during that moment, and I mentally sang "I SURRENDER" by Kim Walker (click on song titles to listen) and "CAME TO MY RESCUE" by Hillsong. And thankfully, before I knew it, 30 minutes had passed. Freedom from the tube's captivity! :) And thankfully, no other bile stone or gallstone leakage. I was all-clear to just get a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal). And oh, I had to get the growing ovarian cyst on my left ovary out also because it had grown to 4.4cm (from 3cm in December 2011). So then we were taken to a hospital room that night, and I was operated on Sunday February 5th (the surgery rooms were all full on Saturday, and since I was stable enough to wait 'til Sunday my case wasn't so urgent). Yay for IV Ketorolac - pain relief.
Sunday February 5th came along. According to Nick I was taken out of the room around 8:30AM. He received the first phonecall-update around 9:45AM that the surgical team was starting to open. Yikes… The second phonecall-update came around 1PM to inform him that the gallbladder removal was successful, although a bit difficult, and that the team was now starting to remove the ovarian cyst on my left ovary, which didn't take as long as removing the gallbladder. Nick got another phonecall-update around 2PM that surgery is complete and that I was being monitored in the recovery room. I'm not quite sure yet as to why they had to keep me in there for about 2 hours. I was returned to my hospital room and to Nick around 4PM that Sunday. A shout-out of thanks to our sister in the Lord miss Yoli and brother in the Lord Henry Roybal for accompanying Nick that Sunday all the while I "went under" general anesthesia for my surgery.
 |
| (hand-made with love by miss Yoli, our sister in the Lord here in Guadalajara) |
So then the recovery process began. Monday was horrible - so much pain all over my 6 surgical sites, and crying didn't help! Pain on my shoulders - the surgeon warned me about this prior to the surgery. Thankfully, Tuesday was much better after the surgeon removed the bile leak drain he kept inside of me to monitor any bile leakage after the surgery. I think that latex drain was causing the almost unbearable pain I was feeling on Monday. I walked a little and started eating solid hospital foods ;) on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, my heartbeat went a little crazy but then got stable. I had to do this breathing exercise where I have to raise these colorful little balls by inhaling air as rapidly and as much as I can. I could only elevate one yellow ball, which is probably the lightest of all three. But today Friday February 10th, I elevated the yellow one and the blue one - which is the second heavy one. I have to elevate all three to really say, my lungs are back to being great :) So I got discharged from the hospital on Wednesday February 8th in the early afternoon. So glad to be home! I must say that the hospital staff were great at their job in taking care of patients: they were friendly, and tended to my needs in a timely manner. I'm making them home-made chocolate chip cookies :) The only thing I wished did not happen was getting phlebitis - when veins get inflamed and produce bumps (that may possibly be due to blot clots) that you can feel upon touching the surface of your skin above the affected vein. It hurts. I kept thinking of maybe how my mom would have done a great job at inserting an IV line even in the smallest and tenderest of veins - after all, she worked at the ICU for neonates for several years. I think maybe I just need to drink a lot more water, and have wonderful veins like my dearest Nick :)
 |
| (the little breathing exercise apparatus I had to use, and still use) |
My lesson in this is that it is true, we really do not know what tomorrow brings. I had never had any warning signs before that my gallbladder is enlarging or with stones. It was just sudden. I also learned a whole lot what it feels to be in a patient role, dependent upon others to help you do even the most basic of things. So thankful to the Lord for providing a great surgeon, with good manners in his approach to his patient and the patient's families, in explaining details, in his skills & knowledge, care, and follow-up. I just wonder how the removal of the staples on my surgical sites will go this Sunday. (Eeek!)
Humbled.
Thankful.
Reflective.
Trusting.
Looking forward to attaining full recovery, in the Lord's timing.
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