Surgery After All & All Alone
As I mentioned in this week’s Thursday Thirteen (I wonder how many people accidentally type “thurteen”), after my experience in the emergency departement on December 15th, which I still think was a repeat of the infamous 1997 December ED experience minus the really good and fun drugs, the doctors and that pesky surgeon have come to the conclusion that perhaps now is a good time to remove my gall bladder.
Apparently, now that “one” gallstone has escaped and caused me such horrific grief, another attack could happen again at any time or it could never happen again, but it could happen at work, on vacation, on a plane, on a train, in a car, when I’m alone, when I’m far from help, etc. Plus, there are other considerations like how young I am, like the condition of my kidneys, which are currently good — better to do the surgery while there’s little risk to them, like they can’t possibly ask me to eliminate any more kinds of food because there’d be nothing left to eat. 
So, ignoring the fact that 1 in 300 of these surgeries go wrong, I’ve scheduled one for February 2nd.
Unfortunately as I also mentioned in my Thursday Thirteen, my mother won’t be coming to take care of me. I’ll be facing this alone. My mother is currently in NM at her own home taking care of my father’s mother because she won’t take care of herself and my father refuses to help take care of her. I have to admit that I’m hurt and frustrated by this turn of events but I can’t do anything about it. I feel guilty and selfish for wanting my mother to drop everything and come take care of me. At the same time I feel like this is surgery and I’ll have no one here with me. What if something does goes wrong?
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on January 4, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Sparky Duck said:
your not selfish for wanting your mother there. When we are sick or scared we as humans need to be taken care of.
on January 4, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Laughing Muse said:
I know that there are in-home care services for the elderly. There must be similar services for people recovering from surgery, if there’s no one else. Check with the hospital, check with your insurance, see if there’s anyone who can call or come by once or twice a day and make sure that you’ve got food and water and that the pets are fed and all that jazz-mo. A hospice care organization, maybe?
on January 4, 2007 at 3:06 pm
n. mallory said:
You know, I really should think about starting a company that provides these kinds of services to “locational orphans”. I wonder how many there are like me that occasionally need a temp mommy.
And thinking about that, I bet there are Empty Nest Mommies looking to mother “location orphans.”
Or is that kind of creepy?
on January 4, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Mrs Lifecruiser said:
I can relate to the feeling. I almost thought that I had got problem with the gall bladder before xmas. I had pain in my stomach and couldn’t eat properly for a couple of weeks. I’m not sure now if it was something else or not…
It’s horrible to not know if it’s going to start again!
Good luck with the surgery and afterwards. I do believe that they are much better on doing this surgerys nowadays.
That 1 of 300 might be people in worse condition. than you are, so I think that you’ve done the right decision - to avoid future damage instead.
Just get rid off it
Sorry though that your Mom couldn’t come, but surely they don’t send you home if you’re in bad shape?
on January 4, 2007 at 4:33 pm
n. mallory said:
True. I just keep thinking about how I had to go to the ED after the kidney biopsy and how it’s such a long drive (45 minutes) from my house to the city and that I’d have to drive myself and it was very unpleasant driving home from the ED after passing the gall stone with no drugs.
I’m just going to hope that my mom changes her mind or my aunt questions her about it or my dad does or something…I’m trying to be understanding. Really, I think I’ll be fine. I’m just being a ninny. When I had eye surgery, I went home and took care of myself. Of course, she lived in the same city and could be phoned…now she’s across the country.
Eh. I’m just going to focus on making a list of the books I want to read during the two weeks I’ll have off and make sure my house is clean.