As you probably can tell from my lovely post title, this post is a health update. Let's start with a quick recap on my braces situation. Can you believe they've been on for over 9 months already? Time is flying! This past week I had the forsus spring appliance added to my braces (remember when I talked about that in this post a while back?)... Check out my sweet new gear...
And by "sweet" I actually mean horribly painful and awkward.
Between the jaw and cheek pain caused by the giant spring, and the tooth pain caused by the added "power chain" to close the gaps in my upper teeth, I was in misery for the few days following my appointment. But now, the pain has worn off and my mouth has adjusted to the new appliance so all is well :) This spring is a great option considering my other ones include wearing braces with rubber bands for two years, or having surgery to have my jaw realigned (eek!)... Yeah, I'm definitely appreciative of this hard-working little appliance in my mouth. And the exciting news is that I only have two more appointments before the braces come off for good! Just in time for my sister's June wedding :)
Alright, moving on to my gallbladder trouble... Two weeks ago when I met with the surgeon, he was not convinced it was my gallbladder giving me trouble - He gave it an 80% guess that it could be the problem which to him wasn't enough to go through with surgery. Honestly, I very much appreciated that because I was not at all wanting to rush into a surgery, especially if it wasn't going to do any good.
So anyways, the doctor decided to put me on a strict, low-fat diet for two weeks to see how my symptoms responded. This diet has been MISERABLE - No dairy (no milk, cheese, whaaat??), no butter, no eggs, no chocolate, no tomato sauce, nothing fried or cooked with oil, no bacon, only lean/grilled meats, no gravies, and absolutely no eating out (as there is nothing on most menus that adhere to my diet plan). Thank goodness I was still allowed to have coffee or I might not have made it! Anyone who knows me, knows that I have horrible eating habits so this was definitely a new experience for me. But to my wonderful surprise, within just two days of eating on this diet my pain and symptoms were gone! Not better... but actually GONE. I continued on with the diet and have felt almost completely back to normal ever since!
Then, this past Saturday night all of friends decided to go out to Mexican food. I was NOT going to stay home just because of this dumb diet. Mexican food is my absolute favorite! I knew I couldn't have any chips and salsa but I thought I'd go ahead and try to eat one chicken enchilada, with no cheese of course. Harmless right? Nooo. That night the pain came back with a vengence and this time it not only was in my chest but it also radiated around my back which was a completely new symptom. I guess I overlooked the fact that the tortilla was fried in oil...oops! Anyways, today I had my follow-up appointment with the surgeon and he now says without a doubt that I need to have my gallbladder removed. I will be scheduled for the surgery to happen sometime within the next two weeks. I'm really praying that this will relieve my pain and let me resume life as normal again, and I'm hoping for an easy and speedy recovery as Jake and I prepare to move to our new base next month. Prayers are very much appreciated! I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment