You have probably noticed that Frank has been writing a few more articles and responding to more of the comments lately. For the past six weeks, I have been suffering with a dead gallbladder which I will finally get rid of on Wednesday. It has been a difficult month and a half.
I know there must be a lot of gallbladder sufferers out there. I have talked to a number of folks that have had theirs removed and one common thread appears to have happened. It took a while for it to be diagnosed if they didn't have obvious stones that could be seen by an ultra sound.
My problems started with an attack of sorts in the middle of the night that was painful enough to start packing a bag for the emergency room. Luckily the pain subsided somewhat and we stayed home. The next week I had an ultra sound that showed no stones. The next week I had an endoscopy where they looked over the upper part of my digestive tract all the way to the duodenum, or beginning of my small intestines, where the bile from the liver is added to aid in the digestion of fats. The only thing that showed up there was gastritis which I think was brought on by the attack.
Yet another week later I had a HIDA scan. This is a two hour long CT scan of sorts that tests the functioning of the gallbladder. The results were that my gallbladder is only functioning at 18% capacity, which means it is basically non-functional, so I'm calling it dead. They also did a CT scan of the rest of my guts which came back negative for other problems. That was good news. After all the scanning and checking I finally made it to the surgeon's office. I couldn't talk him into doing the surgery today, so Wednesday is the day. After suffering with pain, which is sometimes rather intense, and nausea which has greatly affected my appetite, I cannot wait to have this outpatient surgery.
And yet.....hospitals are not where we want to be right now. Between Enterovirus D68 and Ebola, hospitals are not where we want to be at all. It was interesting to note that the facility where I went to do my pre-surgery lab work was strangely deserted today. The last time we were there a few years ago the place was packed. Today there were few people. We also called another doctor's office to schedule a routine check up. The normal wait time to see this doctor is a couple of months. This time our appointment is in a few weeks. Both of these odd occurrences make us wonder. Is it ObamaCare, Ebola or the economy? Why are there so many fewer patients?
I am truly grateful that I am still able to receive medical attention and have my gallbladder removed. I have gotten sicker and weaker with each passing week since that attack. If a collapse had occurred and I just had to live with this, I don't think I would last very long. I guess that's the way it used to be in the old days. I'm just glad it isn't that way now. We hope to be back up to speed next week. In the meantime, pay attention. There are many indicators that the fragile stability of our society is wobbling ever greater. And like a big, old fashioned, wooden top, one day it will fall over and gradually spin to a halt. Be ready.
Until next time - Fern
