Brandt's Battle With His Gallbladder

Sorry for the delay about Brandt's negative experience with his disfunctioning gallbladder. It's been an insane week and I'm writing this post as quickly as I can. Please excuse any incoherent portions.

Recently, Brandt was experiencing stabbing pain in his stomach. He started experiencing small bouts after eating certain foods, which some times included throwing up and fighting pain all night. Just before Thanksgiving, his pain was so terrible that he couldn't eat. He visited an emergency care clinic and the doctor diagnosed him with indigestion. All the doctor did was give him lidocaine and Malox. When Brandt couldn't feel the pain any longer, the doctor deduced it was heart burn. Brandt knew he was wrong but filled the prescription for heartburn medicine and ate any way. Turns out, it wasn't heart burn.

Brandt's insides. He had a gallstone blocking his
"Vader" and needed the gallbladder removed too.

He correctly diagnosed himself via the internet, with gallstones. After speaking with his mom, he found out many members of his family had their gallbladders removed, which helped confirm his self-diagnosis. Immediately after eating, Brandt had another attack and went back to emergency care and saw a different doctor. This doctor knew what the problem was and sent him to the ER. At the ER, the doctor drew the amazing picture to the left. Brandt had a gallstone blocking his ampulla of Vater (AKA an Angry Vader) and would also need his gallbladder removed to prevent any further stones from causing problems.

Brandt wouldn't let me help him into his
gown, despite the sign in the ER.

It was the day before Thanksgiving and the ER rooms were full. They hooked him up to an IV and he got a room four or five hours later in the children's ER. We didn't have to wait much more than 30 minutes to admit Brandt and he got a private room on the 8th floor.

Brandt's description of his Angry Vader.

They scheduled a procedure to remove the gallstones blocking his "Angry Vader" for Thanksgiving day. That morning, we learned that only one operating room was open and only available for emergency cases. Brandt spent another night at the hospital and enjoyed his pain killers and fluid diet. He said it was almost like a vacation in a hotel room, except for the interruptions every hour or two to check vitals or take blood. We spent Thanksgiving hanging out in the hospital and then I went to work at 5 p.m., because Target opened at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day... that's a different rant for another day.

Thanksgiving view from the 8th floor.

They removed Brandt's gallstone via a tube through his throat, through his stomach, and back up into the duct leading to his gallbladder and liver. They successfully removed one stone but another was impacted. They inserted a stint and plan to go back at the end of the month to remove the stone. Brandt immediately felt better (besides the weird sensation of feeling the path the tube took inside of him.) They had to wait at least 12 hours before removing his gallbladder to allow the swelling to go down. His surgery was scheduled for 9 a.m. the following morning.

A rare sunny shot after Brandt's surgery.

Of course, his surgery started late but that was because there was another surgery before his. They took him in at about 9:30 and I spent the next few hours sleeping on a couch in the waiting room. His surgery was supposed to end at 11 a.m. and I had both of his parents' numbers so I could text and let them know how it went. I woke up at 11 but thought the surgery went late. This is where things went awry. The surgeon didn't go to the information desk after the surgery so my pager was never activated.  I ended up having terrible dreams but was awoken by a call from Brandt's cell phone. He was back in his room and more than a little upset. I rushed upstairs. He was stressed that I wasn't there and his phone had been blowing up since I left it in the room. I told Brandt what happened and that helped make him feel better. His surgery went well and his gallbladder was gone. They performed it laproscopically so he had three bandages on his side and one in his belly button.

I made Brandt a sign to welcome him home!

Brandt stayed in the hospital one more night and then I was able to bring him home! More miscommunication at the hospital happened the entire last day of his stay. The gastroenteritis never came to see Brandt but made notes about her "visit" with him in his file. We never ended up seeing her before we left either. Brandt couldn't be released until the surgeon completed his paperwork. We finally had a tentative time set for 7 p.m. The last surgery went late but the intern was able to make it in and finish the paperwork by 7:30, which quite surprised me he was able to finish that quickly.

I also got Brandt a grabber.

Brandt has been in a lot of pain but doing better each day. He is able to take the dogs out when I'm not home and we went to the store two days ago and even that walking around left him in slight pain. He also drove his car to the mailboxes yesterday. I wasn't thrilled about that but it turns out he hadn't had a pain pill in seven hours, so he was OK to drive. Brandt can't lift more than 20 lbs and should be able to go back to work in another week.