Post by v/\v on Jun 9, 2008 16:15:05 GMT -5
Hey Hey, about six to seven months ago i had sharp chest pains, i was vomiting 1-2 times a day and over the course of a week developed jaundice all over the place, especially in the whites of my eyes.
Anyway went to my GP as you do and he referred me onto a consultant and he had a couple of ideas but wasn't 100% sure what was wrong with me, so he suggested having regular blood tests for about two months and over the course of those 2 months the jaundice gradually went away and the pain and sickness symptoms were gone within a couple of weeks. The consultant's theory was that it was Acute Hepatitis C and that i would probably not suffer from any further symptoms again.
Fast forward to mid-May and the symptoms were back
but were not as bad as before, the jaundice was similar but the pain faded alot quicker within a couple of days. My consultant wanted to run further tests, and arranged for me to have a liver biopsy. I went in about 3 weeks ago now for the biopsy to be done, to prepare for the procedure, the doc did a ultrasound scan and he had a look round and discovered something which he got the lead radiologist to confirm that i had gallstones which had escaped and gone down into the bile duct.
For those of you who don't know, we all have gallstones in our gallbladder but for the majority there are no problems with the stones and the gallbladder just does a small number of things to aid with digestion and i stole this bit from wiki to aid the explanation:A bile duct is any of a number of long tube-like structures that carry bile. Bile, required for the digestion of food, is excreted by the liver into passages that carry bile toward the hepatic duct, which joins with the cystic duct (carrying bile to and from the gallbladder) to form the common bile duct, which opens into the intestine.
Over the past two weeks, i have had two minor procedures, called an ERCP which basically involves heavy sedation and putting a tube down my throat to see what's going on with a camera and to try and dislodge or remove the stones from the ducts they are stuck in. The first one was more exploratory and i was in agony afterwards - the ward i was on didn't help matters either - full of old people and one of them was holla-ing for a nurse to let him die all night long
, the pain subsided just in time for the second go which they planned to take the stones out but they couldn't get them and they didn't want to probe too much and i was absolutely fine after a couple of hours - the ward i was on this time was alot better and alot quieter and i was discharged last Thursday.
Today i was supposed to go in so they could prepare me for tomorrow, where i will have keyhole or open surgery - they are not sure if they can get the loose stones through keyhole and may have to open up - to have the stones removed from the ducts and the gallbladder removed at the same time.
I've been assured that it's a simple enough procedure and i'm not thinking much about it as i find that an easier way to deal with it and i'm generally in a light hearted mood most of the time so i'm not thinking much about what will be happening tomorrow....I will be shitting it when i'm 20 minutes away from being put under anesthetic, hopefully the surgeons will get the job done and i will be back on my feet by the end of the week. It's been hell tbh and i can't wait for it to be all over and done with and i will be able to get on with things in my life.
Anyway this will probably be one of my last posts for a few days so, just a message to any of you pm'ing me about classifieds and such, my brother will be taking a look at them when i'm in the hospital and might get back to you but once I'm able i will get back to you as soon as i can so be patient
.
Later guys, hopefully will see you soon
.
Anyway went to my GP as you do and he referred me onto a consultant and he had a couple of ideas but wasn't 100% sure what was wrong with me, so he suggested having regular blood tests for about two months and over the course of those 2 months the jaundice gradually went away and the pain and sickness symptoms were gone within a couple of weeks. The consultant's theory was that it was Acute Hepatitis C and that i would probably not suffer from any further symptoms again.
Fast forward to mid-May and the symptoms were back
but were not as bad as before, the jaundice was similar but the pain faded alot quicker within a couple of days. My consultant wanted to run further tests, and arranged for me to have a liver biopsy. I went in about 3 weeks ago now for the biopsy to be done, to prepare for the procedure, the doc did a ultrasound scan and he had a look round and discovered something which he got the lead radiologist to confirm that i had gallstones which had escaped and gone down into the bile duct. For those of you who don't know, we all have gallstones in our gallbladder but for the majority there are no problems with the stones and the gallbladder just does a small number of things to aid with digestion and i stole this bit from wiki to aid the explanation:A bile duct is any of a number of long tube-like structures that carry bile. Bile, required for the digestion of food, is excreted by the liver into passages that carry bile toward the hepatic duct, which joins with the cystic duct (carrying bile to and from the gallbladder) to form the common bile duct, which opens into the intestine.
Over the past two weeks, i have had two minor procedures, called an ERCP which basically involves heavy sedation and putting a tube down my throat to see what's going on with a camera and to try and dislodge or remove the stones from the ducts they are stuck in. The first one was more exploratory and i was in agony afterwards - the ward i was on didn't help matters either - full of old people and one of them was holla-ing for a nurse to let him die all night long
, the pain subsided just in time for the second go which they planned to take the stones out but they couldn't get them and they didn't want to probe too much and i was absolutely fine after a couple of hours - the ward i was on this time was alot better and alot quieter and i was discharged last Thursday. Today i was supposed to go in so they could prepare me for tomorrow, where i will have keyhole or open surgery - they are not sure if they can get the loose stones through keyhole and may have to open up - to have the stones removed from the ducts and the gallbladder removed at the same time.
I've been assured that it's a simple enough procedure and i'm not thinking much about it as i find that an easier way to deal with it and i'm generally in a light hearted mood most of the time so i'm not thinking much about what will be happening tomorrow....I will be shitting it when i'm 20 minutes away from being put under anesthetic, hopefully the surgeons will get the job done and i will be back on my feet by the end of the week. It's been hell tbh and i can't wait for it to be all over and done with and i will be able to get on with things in my life.
Anyway this will probably be one of my last posts for a few days so, just a message to any of you pm'ing me about classifieds and such, my brother will be taking a look at them when i'm in the hospital and might get back to you but once I'm able i will get back to you as soon as i can so be patient
.Later guys, hopefully will see you soon
.
