Sorry for not keeping you up to date on the situation. I had to work a 10 hour shift at the fairgrounds yesterday, starting at 5am. I stopped by the hospital after work, but I was so sore and tired that I came on home, took a shower and slept for many hours 🙂
So here is the status. Mom’s gall bladder was infected and causing a good amount of pain. From what I understand, in a normal person it would be a lot of pain, but for mom it was more discomfort than she normally has. The surgeon said that normally they would operate after getting the infection under control, but for mom that would not be an option. In her condition and with her age, operating would be too risky, so they were going to just do a procedure where they stick a needle in the gall bladder and leave it there for a couple days to drain fluid.
They were going to do this Friday afternoon but when the surgeon came to check on her, she was doing remarkably well. No more pain and the tenderness in her belly that she had experienced just hours before had largely gone away. It sort of puzzled the surgeon, but he decided to cancel the procedure and just watch mom for the next day to see how things went. He said that she seemed to be responding to antibiotics alone and didn’t see a need at this point to do anything else. The surgeon checked on her Saturday and she was still doing well and had not been given any pain meds, except for her normal dose for cancer, so he said she could go home Sunday. She put up a stink and the surgeon said that he would discharge her on Saturday, but after some rational thought thankfully she decided that it would be best to listen to the doctor and stay until Sunday. I was very happy that she did.
She was on a liquid diet for most of Friday and the surgeon switched that to a low fat diet on Saturday. So I think once she was able to have more real food, she was happier and better able to make sound decisions. She will have to stay on a low fat diet for some period of time. A higher fat content means that the gall bladder has to work harder producing bile to deal with the fat intake and that could cause problems again. I am not sure when she will be able to return to a more normal diet but hopefully it won’t be too long out. She needs to pack on the calories to maintain (or hopefully gain) weight.
Well that is the current news on mom. I know she is itching to get back to the comfort of her own home and get out of that annoying hospital gown.