My unwanted Christmas present

First of all...happy late Christmas! Its' been busy as usual here in Nebraska and being sick didn't make things much easier. I guess I will start with last Saturday (the 20th). I was recovering from what I thought was the stomach flu and starting to feel better. That morning I loaded my car ever so slowly and headed off to Kansas. I got there in 9 hours and things were ok. I still didn't have much of an appetite but was feeling better. Each day I ate a little more...fast forward to Monday night, I decided to make goulash (casserole) for Dustin and his dad. This was the first night I felt actually hungry. So I ate a good amount...I was for sure full, maybe too full. At about 10pm I got this horrible pain right below my ribs, mostly on the right side. And I was thinking great...its back. I eventually threw up again and spent the whole night feeling horrible. I couldn't sleep, I was throwing up. I slept maybe 2 hours max that whole night. Finally at 6am Dustin got up and we got ready and went to the ER in Beloit KS, which is like 30 miles away and a rather small town. But big enough to have a hospital. They checked me in, did blood work, etc. I talked to the Dr, told him my symptoms and what was wrong. So he schedule and ultrasound for me. Finally, I got taken in for the ultrasound and they found the culprit....a gallstone!

The lady was like "well no wonder why you are in pain, you have a large gallstone"...we finished up there and got back in the room. Which the Dr was supposed to come back, but he just left. Apparently they didn't have many Dr.'s on staff. He told the nurse that he still thought it was a virus and wrote a bunch of meds for me to take...which I felt it was stupid. Anyway, so I have a gallstone which makes sense thinking back and I would sometimes experience the same pain, just not as severe. The next plan of attack is to get back to Champaign and find a good Dr that has time to help me and go over my options. This is NOT what I was wanting this Christmas...but I'm happy I have now figured out what the deal was!

Anyway, that put a huge wrench in my plans. I didn't get to Lincoln on the 23rd/24th which made me sad. I just slept and recovered all day on the 23rd. Luckily enough I woke up on the 24th and felt I could drive from KS to North Bend...about a 4 hour drive. By Christmas day I was feeling much better but really watched it so I didn't eat too much. I had the plate of a 4 year old for supper that night. Dustin was a trooper, he hauled me all over...to the Dr., sat there for 4 hours with me, to the pharmacy, he got all my meds for me while I slept, brought me food. I know I'm a handful to take care of when I'm sick and he passed with flying colors!

So now I'm still in NB and feeling good. Dustin was here from Christmas day till today. On Friday we took off to Norfolk to meet Melissa and Heath. Then Nikki showed up as well. It was a really good time. I wish I lived closer to home...oh well, maybe someday. I'll be here in NB till Tuesday then I think I'll go to Lincoln, hang out with Tigh, then to KC on NYE! Hopefully I have no more "gallbladder attacks" (yes they are real, I saw it on wedmd) and get back to IL in one piece!