Gallbladder Surgery Recovery

Posted on March 30, 2013 by justme

Part 1: Trip to the ER and Part 2: The Surgery

When I woke up in the recovery room, I was covered up with multiple blankets and still violently shivering. They kept piling on more layers and I heard them talking to a doctor about it as I was coming around. The nurse saw me open me eyes and I looked at her and just whispered “nausea, pain”.

She said I’m going to get you something right now, sweetie! You know I know some people are annoyed by people calling them terms of endearment like that but I find it oddly comforting – especially in this type of situation. She was back a minute later putting more drugs in my IV.

I was having a horrible time keeping my eyes open. I hate that feeling when you first wake up from anesthesia. You just can’t really focus on anything and it all seems to be spinning. After they got the shaking to stop and I was a little more awake, they rolled me upstairs back to my room.

Moving from the OR bed back to my bed in the room was not a fun experience! It reminded me a little of my c-section where you just don’t want to use any part of your stomach when you’re moving. I have one incision at my belly button and three incisions on my right side. My mom and the surgeon both said they looked good.

Moving around to go to the bathroom, etc was lots of “fun”. Especially with having to put the compression things back on every time after I got up. I quickly remembered to really use my legs for standing, etc. I was surprised how quick that came back to me as I did it for weeks after my c-section. I took a nice, long nap and when I woke up again, I felt much better. The pain was under control and my head felt incredibly clear, which was almost strange. I haven’t really had that experience since everything with Lyme started. Maybe anesthesia is good for me! Ha!

My next big challenge was with the diet. I told them I needed sugar free. I was on a liquid diet the night of the surgery and everything they brought me had sugar in it. They thought they were okay with “no added sugar” items but I had to explain that wasn’t the case. Luckily they located a sugar free popsicle for me so I had that and ice chips as my first “food” in 24 hours.

The next morning, I was allowed to have a soft diet. They brought me the menu and just let me order and then they did the same for lunch. I didn’t eat much either time. It was making me feel nauseous and really, after you don’t eat for that long, you just don’t really care. And then I had to start walking the hallways to get my blood flowing again. It was nice just to have those compression things off my legs!

The surgeon came back in to check on me and told me he wanted me to take protonics going forward. And to follow up in a week in his office. He said I was free to go as soon as I was able to switch to oral pain meds and keep them down without nausea. So I quickly made that switch so I could go home.

He wants me out of work at least until I follow up with him on the 3rd. Which I gladly agreed to, although I’ve been working the entire time I’ve been in the hospital. They took my iPad away from me as they were rolling me in for surgery! So I better not get charged sick time for this!!

Now for recovery but I’m thinking it won’t be too bad!

Tally Time

Just so you know, I go back and add these in later since I don’t really know by the end of the month what all of my charges will be. So this is up-to-date based on all procedures, treatment, etc so far.

Grand total: $78,971.44.

The good news (can you really call it that?!) is that I received notification from my insurance company that I reached my catastrophic cap at the end of March. The bad news is that I haven’t yet paid out all of my catastrophic cap so that means I have bills that will be hitting some time soon. My max out of pocket other than supplements and the doctor who wasn’t covered by insurance is $3,000.

Just Add It To The List: Heart Problems

Posted on February 28, 2013 by justme

Today I had another visit with my Lyme doctor. There’s not much to tell as far as improvement in symptoms is concerned, or so I thought.

Increasing Dosage

First things first. When she heard that my symptoms still aren’t improving, she said we could increase the dosage of the Rocephin. Good! She said that you can have problems with the gallbladder on higher dosages and it seems to happen more in women. So to attempt to protect my gallbladder, I need to eat as low fat as possible with no greasy foods, etc.

This should be one interesting diet. No sugar, no gluten and now low fat too. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that eating out is about to be impossible. In fact, eating period may be impossible! haha No gluten and no sugar are fairly easy since it’s basically the low carb I’ve been doing all along. But low carb is high fat so if I have to cut the fat, I technically need to add back carbs….since I’m not just going to survive on protein! But I have to add back carbs without gluten. We’ll see how this goes.

I have enough Rocephin through next Tuesday so she said to start doubling up now and they’ll call in the increase in the meds. I haven’t had the best of luck with them calling in ANYTHING to the pharmacy so I think I’ll wait to make sure it’s approved before I start doubling what I have left.

My Heart

After we talked about my progress, or lack thereof, she did a quick exam. When she was listening to my heart, she paused for a long time. Then she asked me how much caffeine I drink. When I replied I had not had anything other than water since November, she got a perplexed look on her face and went back to listening again.

She finally stepped back and wanted to know if I could feel the palpitations. My response was “what palpitations?” She said they were quite obvious so she was surprised I couldn’t feel them. My first thought was that it was just tachycardia, which I’ve had issues with off and on for over ten years. But she said no, this wasn’t just fast, the rhythm was off.

I did let her know about the chest type pain I have been feeling on the left and that it was twisting around to my back sometimes. It isn’t constant and doesn’t seem to have a rhyme or reason to it. She became even more concerned upon hearing this. I have mentioned it at other appointments but that was with the NP who always brushed it off.

I told her I would make an appointment with my cardiologist to follow up and she said no, it couldn’t wait and I had to see someone familiar with Lyme. Turns out that Lyme can affect your heart as well. At this point I’m thinking there’s not anything it can’t affect!

She left the room and came back with an appointment to see a cardiologist the next day. I was impressed and scared. This was obviously serious if she made the appointment for me.

So tomorrow afternoon, I will be seeing a new cardiologist.

The Tally

And I just realized it’s the end of the month so time for a new tally. It’s jumped quite a bit since last month – in fact, it’s almost doubled!

Total billed to date: $40,482.02. My insurance has covered all but $1,365. But I also don’t yet know what my co-pays are going to be on the IV meds. I could be getting a bill later for that.

Differences of Opinion?

Posted on January 30, 2013 by justme

My Home Health Nurse

Yesterday, when the nurse came to do my blood draw, she was able to get the blood to flow back out, but it was really slow. She said I need to mention it to them when I go back to the doctor.

She was also telling me about all of the Lyme patients that they have in their care and again reminded me that there are only two doctors in the entire state that they know of that will treat it. That just absolutely blows my mind. I know there are more than that because I’ve personally dealt with three now but two of the three are completely under the radar.

She also told me about one of their patients who is going to be doing hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT). Lyme hates oxygen so the theory is if you overload them with an oxygen rich environment, they will die. I decided I’ll ask about this when I go back. It would be incredibly inconvenient because you have to go for two hours a day, five days a week for up to 12-14 weeks, but if it works, it will be worth it. The other thing will be whether insurance will cover it.

My Doctor Visit with NP

When I went today, I said something to them about my PICC line moving slow and they said it probably has developed a small clot at the end. The word clot kind of freaked me out but they said it wasn’t the break off and kill you kind of clot – my words, not how they said it. She said they would send me back to the infusion center after the appointment.

I told her about the new neurological symptoms that are cropping up now that I haven’t had before. She told me to think of it as the Rocephin is getting into places where the Doxy was not so it’s a good thing. I’m trying to convince myself of that but it’s hard when you don’t feel good. She is now estimating that I will have to do six weeks instead of four weeks. At this point, I want the whole 12. The bad part was getting it put in place so I may as well get all I can out of it now.

I also asked about the HBOT. She kind of rolled her eyes and said she didn’t believe in it. I was shocked she said that because I knew it was one of their patients who was doing it. So I just told her what the home health nurse said. And she said they do have someone who is doing it but she doesn’t believe in it. It was then that I got the first hint that she was possibly treating patients differently than the MD was. So I wonder what else they disagree on? Definitely interesting.

I asked about seeing the doctor and she told me they have opened a new office near where my office is. I am currently working from home when I have to go to the doctor (once a week) because it’s 45 minutes from home (and my work is 35 minutes in the opposite direction from my house). Only the doctor is at that location, who I actually haven’t seen yet since I’ve only been seeing the NP, so I think I am going to go to see the MD next week. And then I’m going to ask every single question I’ve asked the NP about treatment to see if the answers are different. Maybe this strict treatment timeline is just the NP’s belief?

Getting the PICC Moving Again

As for the PICC, I went back to the infusion center and she played around with it, pushing heparin and moving my arm at different angles, until she got a good flow again. Then they sent me on my way.

So far, everything is going well with the PICC minus that one little hiccup. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be to do the treatments. I just need a blanket when I do them because I absolutely freeze! Our biggest thing is remembering to take the meds out of the fridge so they can be at room temperature before I infuse them.

The Tally…

Oh and it’s the end of the month so it’s time for another tally. Last month, the total was $7,113.80. This month, it’s $23,021.33!!! My IV meds and supplies are being billed at $4,000/week! I was told this will fluctuate each week but holy cow! And of course the bill for my PICC placement was in there as well as all of my thyroid/adrenal labs.

My insurance has covered all but $1,329. These totals don’t reflect prescriptions I get from the regular pharmacy or the supplements. I’d estimate that’s another $4,000 right now, of which I’ve been responsible for about $600.

Last Appointment of 2012

Posted on December 27, 2012 by justme

I’m beginning to wonder if I’m really going to make it without the IV antibiotics. She did agree to give me another round of Doxy today so I have enough in prescriptions to do the full 12 weeks now.

But the nausea is getting worse. I tried to eat something with wheat in it a few days ago and that did not go well at all. I asked today if there is a connection between gluten and Lyme. She said there’s not an official one but because the immune system is involved with both, it wouldn’t be surprising.

Lovely. I mean I was already staying away from gluten but when I’m this nauseous, I just want to eat something to help settle my stomach….and meat and veggies don’t really have that effect.

Good news is I’m off work right now so I’m getting in lots of rest and relaxation, just as the doctor ordered.

See you in 2013….

Oh and I can’t forget it’s the end of the month, so:

The Tally…

This doesn’t include pharmacy charges or supplements and goes back to the first doctor’s visit when I started trying to get diagnosed in August.

As of today, the total billed is $7,113.80. My insurance has covered all but $1,281.