I am out of the hospital and a little lighter in the abdomen without a gallbladder.

Shortly after my last blog post, late on Christmas evening, the surgeon who took over for the emergency room doctor visited my hospital room to convey that he and his colleagues, after more discussion, are 99% sure that I need my gallbladder removed.

In the time from when I completed all my various tests in the EF, was admitted to the hospital, and finally settled in my room, a small team of surgeon’s reviewed all my previous CT scans and determined I have had an enlarged gallbladder for some months now. They speculate that I had so much else going on that my body just ignored the symptoms of the inflected organ with developing / developed stones. (At some point in the not-too-distant past, I had a pea-sized stone, but passed it)

Now that most of my primary cancer and post-gastrectomy issues resolved, my body woke up to the issue with my gallbladder.

Therefore, no more medical testing was required. The remedy: remove the gallbladder forthwith!

The plan was a straight-forward 60-90 min laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The surgeon’s would start with a small incision near my belly button and then make three small incisions along my rib cage on the right upper quadrant of my abdomen. They would cut out the gallbladder and ensure the bile duct from my liver was clear so it could take over the missing organ’s functions.

But, when has anything been straight-forward with my care and treatment as of late?

After a 4-hour procedure, the surgeons removed the gallbladder, but in a more traditional slice-you-open approach as I had so much scar tissue from my gastrectomy, the laparoscopic approach was not successful.

So, now I am home with another abdominal scar and only pain from the healing cut to bother me. (I am waiting for an issue with my appendix so the doc’s can complete the abdominal Bermuda Triangle they start with the first two surgeries)

Luckily it was only a 2 and a half day stay in the hospital. Just in time for me to get home before my mother-in-law jumped on a plane back to Italy. She has been helping us for the last six months while I went through treatment. It was such a blessing to have her help as my wife and I went back and forth from the hospital literally hundreds of times over the past 180+ days.

No more body drama! Now is the time for me to physically recover, and my family to return to a stable living pattern.

Now that 2019 is closing, I don’t want any more hospital stays. No more nights filled with stabbing pain. No more infusions of toxic miracles to beat back my cancer. Only healing and good times ahead.

2020 is going to be a great year! I can just feel it…