And the gall bladder is gone!

It has been a long time since updating! School has been keeping me busy.....school musical rehearsals have been keeping me busy and my gall bladder has been keeping me really bloody busy!!!
So I have not really been feeling well for about 12 months...truth be told. A little off colour here...a little off colour there...but generally not well. Nearly 3 weeks ago I was struck down with the most intense, amazing, debilitating pain i have ever felt. Worse than child birth, much worse. So I spent the day hunched over my desk at work, giving my students busy work to do to avoid screaming at them cause I was in so much pain.
I took myself home and layed in the fetal position on my bed for a while. I thought about going to a doctor but here in Asia that can be a gamble! I then had no choice. Friday night traffic in Manila is an abomination. Trying to get a taxi in Friday night traffic in Manila is even worse!!! Trying to get a taxi whilst you are writhing in pain and crying and feeling like you are about to die is damn near impossible! Luckily for me a nice old taxi driver took pity on me and drove me to the hospital. I fell out of the cab and into the ER......
From there much of what happened is a blur. I was diagnosed with gallstones.....23 of them to be exact.....huge ones......marble sized stones blocking the opening of the gallbladder. And i was informed surgery would be first thing in the morning.
I have never had surgery before....I was scared...so scared!!!! My son was taken to a friends house, I called my mum back in Wagga Australia to beg her to come and be here with me and then it was on.
Surgery went well.....or so we thought and I was told I would be in hospital for 3 days at the most and I would even make my ISTA trip to Perth! ISTA is the International Schools Theatre Association. I was taking 16 kids to Perth to participate in a theatre festival.
Surgery was more complicated than originally thought and I was only told this a few days ago.
The pain had not really subsided like it should, so two days after my first operation I was back in for another. Turned out a few pesky stones had escaped and were now blocking the common bial duct. So for someone who had never had an operation or a general anasthetic I was about to have two in as many days!!!
Hosptial stay.....going on 5 days!!!
Things went from bad to worse.........apparantley the gallbladder was necrotic....(Who knew how long this was going on!!!) and was imbedded into the liver, so upon surgery they had to cut away some more stuff. So as I lay in my hospital bed with drips in my arm and a drain coming out of my stomach, I also got Jaundice. I couldnt keep the contents of my stomach down and was NIL BY MOUTH for nearly 13 days! 13 days of nothing in my mouth....no water, no toothpaste, no food, no nothing. YOu can imagine how I felt vomiting bile every 30 mins and unable to do anything about cleaning the horrid acidic bile taste out of my mouth.
I was drugged with some intense pain killers and on the 8th day my oxygen levels dropped so fast I was fitted with a nasal canula and my son was rushed out of my room as the threw the bed back in an ER type move. I can only imagine how distressed he was!!!!
My drain was filling with liquid faster than they could empty it and my would was constantly leaking. It turns out there was a secondary leak somewhere, but due to the two surgeries I had just had, the doctor refused to go in for a third, saying it was too much for my body. Hence being treated "conservatively".
I missed ISTA!!!! MY kids were devestated, I was devestated and I am currently missing my spring break!
I was visited by friends, I was cared for by nurses but what I really wanted was to go home!!!!!
Here in Manila, you cannot be in a hosptial room alone, so I had to have a watcher. Someone to sit with me 24/7!!! It is a cultural thing. Everytime I rolled or moved or coughed, someone was there asking me if I was ok! It got a little too much to bear!!!!
Finally I was allowed to sit up ...stand up.....shower..and walk! I was soo weak, it was like I had to learn to walk all over again. My back was covered in the starts of bed sores cause I had not moved for 2 weeks and I was shaking, cold and scared!!!
Eventually they let me eat something, drink something, move a little more, shower on my own and finally the moment I had waited for....my drips and drain were removed!!! Painful but totally worth it!!!!!!
So here I am....at home.......after what can only be described as a hideously painful stay in hospital. The nurses were lovely, the hospital is brand new so that was lovely.....but I was not!!!!
The positives I am taking from this are.....mum is here looking after me......my NECROTIC gallbladder is gone..so maybe now most of my health issues will be too...I managed to lose 3 kilos....my son was an amazing support and really came into his own....and I am out of hospital!!!
I have been told I cant work out for 4 weeks......that is a little scary for me...but I am going to listen to what the doctors have said...mainly cause I dont want to go back to hospital!!!
I am sore...I am still nursing wounds and incisions....but I am here.......and hopefully can laugh about this whole experience later down the track!!!!
They even gave me a gall stone or two to keep for memories sake!!!