SEP 23, 13 .. OUR VISIT WITH A GALLBLADDER SURGEON ..
Another two photos taken on the Seward Highway going south from Anchorage down the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet.
Our Autumn Season is upon us here in Alaska.
Because I have broached this Gallbladder Attack of Patti’s with you .. I feel an obligation to finalize this episode.
Onward!
Over this past weekend .. Patti and I did a lot of highly educational and interesting research on the Internet with regards to the Gallbladder and Gallstones and what-to-do and what-not-to-do to take care of one’s Gallbladder.
As I wrote in my previous post dated last Friday the 20th .. as scheduled .. today we met with the surgeon that the Emergency Room doctor recommended to Patti.
Thankfully we both felt ‘great chemistry’ with the surgeon. Both Patti and I liked him and we both were most favorably impressed with him! This is one ENORMOUS WHEW!
He went into so much detail about the Gallbladder that .. when he got down to the specifics of the surgery .. I finally had to excuse myself and leave the room. I do NOT do well with medical specifics.
I have a history of blacking-out and having to be ‘revived’ with smelling salts when exposed to ‘gory’ details. Once .. in the autumn of 1964 .. it was so bad that I ‘awoke’ looking up at the ceiling of an ambulance en route to a hospital. I was told I fainted so hard that my head hit the concrete floor sounding like a coconut. Another time .. February of 1975 .. I was in an E.R. in West Germany with one of my sons (HE not I was the patient!) and ‘bingo’ .. same-old-same-old .. I ‘awoke’ being ‘revived’ on a gurney next to my son!
To believe today’s surgeon .. and to believe those-of-you who have given us ‘feedback’ .. the removal of one’s Gallbladder is a next-to-nothing affair! Done on an out-patient basis. Back-to-work in a day-maybe-two at the most.
Before I left the briefing .. KNOWING DARNED WELL THAT THERE CAN POSSIBLY BE ‘COMPLICATIONS’ IN ANY SURGERY! .. I ‘pressed’ today’s surgeon for ‘the-other-side’ of this so-called ‘gimme-operation’. Infections? Possibly. Internal bleeding leading to more surgery because of internal scarring and blockage of the intestines? Possibly. The ‘usual’ hospital-borne disease infections risk? Possibly. General anesthetic after-effects? Possibly.
When could Patti have another Gallbladder attack?
Flip-a-coin .. maybe not for quite awhile and maybe tomorrow.
THEN WE HAVE THE BIG SIDE-EFFECT!
Doing nothing and having another Gallbladder attack. The risk here is this: all sorts of ‘scary’ complications can possibly happen because the pancreas and other-internal-things can possibly get seriously effected by some future Gallbladder-Attack-From-Hell!
SO WE HAVE .. THE ROCK AND THE HARD SPOT!
The two of us remain very happy that Patti did NOT have this surgery last Thursday night.
We now KNOW .. things (the Gallbladder) can and DO settle down to ‘normal’ after an attack. And we know the ‘other-shoe-can-fall’ anytime also.
WHAT-TO-DO? The ‘ball-is-in-Patti’s court’.
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! ..
Cap and Patti
THIS I WILL SAY!
IF I had a choice .. which of course I do not have .. but if I did!
“Captain .. you can take your pick! Eye-Cataract-Surgery OR Gallbladder Surgery?” ..
It would be an absolute and totally positive NO-BRAINER!
TAKE THE GALLBLADDER OUT and leave my cotton-picking eyes alone!
- SEP 20, 13 .. WELL? .. A BETTER DAY TODAY!
- OCT 5, 13 .. PATTI IS GOING AHEAD WITH GALLBLADDER SURGERY ..