Good-bye Gallbladder!

Andy's been having some digestive issues for the past several months. After a few trips to the ER with Andy in terrific pain and even more tests, it was discovered that Andy had gall stones and needed to have his gallbladder removed.



Upon hearing this, we all wondered - so what exactly does the gallbladder DO? Here's what we learned:

• The gallbladder it tucked under the liver, snuggled up against the intestine.
• The liver produces bile which helps break down fat. It stores some of this in the gallbladder, the rest is a continual drip in the "common duct."
• When you eat a fatty meal, the gallbladder will squirt out it's store of bile to help digest the fatty food.

Andy had developed gallstones and whenever the gallbladder would "squirt" and a stone was in the opening it would cause tremendous pain that would last for several hours. We put him on a virtually fat-free meal plan and that helped but if he had even 10g of fat (which is NOT much!), he'd have an attack. They started getting more frequent and more painful so it was time to take it out.

Monday Andy went into the hospital for this outpatient procedure. Everything went fine and when I spoke with the surgeon afterwards he said Andy's gallbladder not only had been completely blocked, but was very diseased and hadn't been working well for "quite some time." Essentially, removing it was the best thing to do.

Andy spent Monday night and all day Tuesday in bed on pain medication. The kids and I decided to take the week off from school (our spring break) to do some spring cleaning (my idea) and go on some field trips (their idea). Today we are headed to the library for story time for the boys and pick up some more books and movies. I'll be looking for books on low-fat meals (not a requirement for Andy, but a good idea for all of us) and baby quilts (looking for some ideas on a cute baby quilt and bassinet patterns). We decided not to purchase a crib for the baby but instead plan to make a bassinet and then move him to the toddler bed when he starts sitting up.

Life continues, Andy is healing well (going back to work for a few hours today and conducting a full day of training tomorrow), and this baby is growing - I can feel the "waddle" trying to start but I'm fighting it tooth and nail!