The One Where Christmas Was A Bust

Well, this Christmas will go down as the crappiest Christmas I think I've ever had!

First, my son, who spends the majority of his time in New Hampshire for his job,  was supposed to be back here in Michigan the Thursday before Christmas. I planned a nice dinner for us all and looked forward to having our little family together enjoying and sharing Maxwell's first Christmas ever!

On Wednesday he started to be in a lot of pain and went to the ER where they diagnosed him with kidney stones. I won't go into a lot of details but he had a pretty rough time passing them and did not make it home until this past Thursday!

On Saturday the 23rd we decided to do our Christmas with just Shauna, Brad and Maxwell. I cooked my famous ravioli lasagna and we had a nice dinner. Maxwell loves my cooking by the way!

Very shortly after dinner I started to get a pain in my upper right abdomen. I didn't say anything to anyone and we continued on with exchanging gifts and watching Maxwell open his. Well, he mostly just grabbed them and shook them and occasionally ripped  a piece of paper He doesn't quite get the whole opening presents thing yet!

We got him this little car that he can sit in and be pushed around. He wasn't real impressed but I think he's going to love it in the Spring!

The whole time we were opening presents and stuff my abdomen was killing me. I didn't say anything because I was enjoying watching Maxwell play with all his new toys. After a while Shauna and Brad left and I told Rich how much pain I was in. I tried laying different ways, laying on the floor (seriously), heating pad, antacids but nothing helped. I was pretty sure it was a gallbladder attack and I was trying to wait and see if it would go away on it's own but after a few hours it was apparent that I needed help. Rich drove me to Providence Park hospital Emergency Department.

They took me in right away and the ER doctor agreed with my suspicion that it was my gallbladder. They did a abdominal ultrasound and told me I had gallstones. They also said that because it was the day before Christmas Eve and almost everyone was off of work they would send me home with pain meds and to contact a  surgeon to arrange to have my gallbladder removed,

After the radiologist looked at my ultrasound he said that the walls were enlarged and it looked infected so they put me on IV antibiotics and decided to keep me overnight. All this whole time I was still in severe pain though because they only gave me ibuprofen and it was taking forever to work!

The next day was Christmas Eve. In the morning a surgical resident came into my room and said that the surgeon was in the house and was willing to do the surgery that day if I wanted! I said yes without hesitation! I was there, I had already been IV'd and I saw no reason to wait. The surgeon came in and talked to me for a few minutes and they scheduled my surgery for 12:00. I'll tell you what. If you have to have surgery then Christmas Eve is the day to do it! They came and got me at 10:00 and by 12:00 I was already in recovery!

They kept me one more night and I came home on Christmas Day. I missed my family's Christmas Eve celebration and all the good food! But it was worth it because I think I have been having gallbladder problems for a while so now it's gone and can never hurt me again!!

I stayed home from work on Tuesday and Wednesday but went back for the rest of the week. I felt pretty good and the surgeon said it would be alright as long as I didn't lift more than 10 lbs.

Chris was home and we finally had our little family celebration last night! Brad got new camera equipment and we took this family photo! So happy to all be together at last!

I was asleep by 10:00 last night and only woke briefly at midnight when the fireworks were going off all over!

Happy New Year to all and I hope 2018 brings you everything you hope for!

Until the next time....