myhappyproject

Saturday (day 12) was a great morning. Went to the Kent Farmer's market with my two of my best friends, ran errands then went to pick up my teenage niece and cousin to have a girls weekend. We had so many plans, hair cuts, luch, moving night, pedicures and back to school shopping! Well we made it through lunch and hair cuts then it all turns bad. I got extremely sick at the salon, almost remined me of days where I drank to much, but I knew for sure this was different. I'd been having episodes of what I thought was bad stomach gas, but I spent the night with stabbing pains and vomitting any water or gas medicine I tried to keep down. Sunday morning, I was feeling a bit better, went for a walk trying to "move" the gas out, but the pain started again. On to the Urgent Care facility, the pain had now turned to sharp stabbing pains, on the the ER and a CT Scan which shows that I have an enlarged and infected Gall Bladder and a Gall Stone as large as 1" in diameter. Next up an Ambulance ride to the hospital and Emergency Surgery to remove my Gall Bladder and what my new surgeon described as the largest Gall Stone he had ever seen. 48 hours later, still in the hospital in extreme pain, but getting better! Obvously I didn't drink anything during these days, but they had me on some pretty good pain meds and are sending me home with Vicodin (sp?) for the pain I still feel in my stomach from the surgery. Since I've never been a pill taker, does this count against my sobriety? I really hope not, I was glad to hear that the liver tests showed that my liver function was normal, that was something I'd worried about myself, but didn't want to request a specific test.

I'm glad to have this health scare behind me. This makes my resolve even stronger as I don't want anything similar (Heart Attack, Kidney or Liver Failure) to ever happen again. It's really painful and no fun to be this sick.

I'm finishing day 16 from my original count

Veggiejojo

Thanks for sharing and congrats on day 16, that's amazing. I wouldn't count legitimate pain relief agaist your sobriety and thank heavens you are OK, must have been so scary, x

Sapling

Wow...Sorry to hear that...No that doesn't count against your sobriety...You're still doing great...I guess it's best you had that taken care of....It was painful just reading that...Get some rest.

Anna

I'm glad you're doing alright, and of course the medication was necessary under the circumstances. There is no reason why we should suffer with pain after surger, simply because we're alcoholics.

FredG

Personal thoughts are ... no, taking medication as proscribed by a MD is not a hit on your sobriety. That said, should you take it when you really don't require it, starts to become an issue.

If proscribed medications were an issue for sobriety then I don't think there would be anyone out there with more than 6 months sobriety.

Be careful though. A lot of meds are addictive. A lot of meds react different with alcoholics as well. Bottom line is to make sure your doctor knows that you are a recovering alchoholic.

CONGRATS on your time - that's super. Sorry to hear that you've had to go through a bad time the last few days. Stay with it

candi7

NO, you needed pain relief-whatever is medically necessary to get rid of pain take it as directed-now if you need it a month (or however long it is that it takes you to be pain free) from now when you have no pain-that's when you question it.....That's a really tough pain to deal with, I'm sure that's the worse you will deal with-thank goodness... You are doing amazing! Keep up the good work...


16 days!!!!!7

Dee74

Really sorry about your experience MHP. Hope you feel better soon

I'm with Anna - there's no requirement for us to live in pain - take your prescribed meds as directed and as required for pain....should be no problem

D

myhappyproject

I'm home from the hospital now and I've been monitoring my use of the pain meds. I've been limiting myself to 1/2 the dose and 1/2 the time, just what I need to allow myself to sleep and rest comfortably. I'd never before had my abdomen operated on nor do I have any children, the pain is something I just can't describe so I'll be glad to rid the pain and the pain meds!

No desires to drink either, I guess you are supposed to limit alcohol use when you lose your Gall Bladder anyway, so this fits nicely with my new lifestyle.

Looking forward to Labor Day as it will be 3 weeks since I quit drinking and I feel really good, have a positive outlook and I'm excited about what lies ahead in my life.

Sapling

Sounds good...I'm glad you are home!