10 more days

My appt with the surgeon yesterday went well, I guess.

Since I'm still collecting bile from the tube, I will have to have the ERCP (warning, icky pictures in this wiki page!), but thankfully the gastro-enterologist scheduled to do it is away next week, so I'm not scheduled until the 25th. In the interim, I still have the Jackson-Pratt in, and will continue to monitor the quantity of bile collected. They will also try to get me in to see my cardiologist before the procedure, because they don't want to risk my going into SVT again.

I misunderstood what the surgeon said last week, he will not have to go back in to clamp off the gallbladder duct. Apparently the infection/inflammation was so severe that my duodenum had fused to my gallbladder, so he was only able to remove 95% of it, and not get to the duct. Going any closer risked perforating the duodenum, which we don't want. There is a possibility that what's left of my gallbladder will shrivel up and close on it's own, so I'm bound to a low fat diet still, to try to keep as little bile being produced as possible, so it will dry up. If it doesn't, I have to have the ERCP on the 25th to speed things up. I am REALLY not looking forward to this procedure, not only because the thought of it is disgusting to me and as stupid as it sounds, terrifies me (I don't do barf or gagging), but mostly because of the risk of pancreatitis (5%). The plan for the ERCP is to enlarge the little valve to the pancreas to try to create an easier channel for the bile to travel through, to allow the gallbladder to close up. If needed they will also put in a stent, which is typically removed 6 weeks later by ERCP (they lasso it and pull it out... oh yeah, I really want that!).

I'm doing everything I can to try to settle this down, resting, low fat eating, but the bile keeps draining :( Some days there's very little, and others it's double or triple. I'm really really nervous that I'll have further complications if they have to do the ERCP, since everything has gone wrong (at least in my opinion) so far. I know these things happen, but I want to get better so badly! I want to run again :(. Showering still takes so much out of me that I need to rest afterwards. Sigh.

Please send positive vibes!