So I went for the scan

And here's where I'm glad I'm assertive.

They could only see me today at 8:45 but I said, "no, it's an emergency - I've been keeping the pain at bay through 4 different sets of medication" and then I moved up to 1:45.

Went to work in the morning (boss said, "should you be here?" and I said "I'll be fine once the painkillers kick in"), had a great meeting and then I was off.

The radiographer did her thing and then said, "I'm going to call the doctor" and that was the first yellow flag.

Next a very attractive doctor came in (seriously gorgeous!), did the same scan and turned the screeen so I could see the gall stone in my gallbladder.

He said some words starting with acute and I did my thing of tuning out. He said to go back to casualty immediately so they could admit me.... again, tuned out.

I waited for my results and went to casualty where I saw the same guy I saw on Friday morning.

He says to the receptionist, "the name sounds familiar" and I said, "trust me, I looked 100 times worse the last time you saw me" :)

That's my green vomit bucket next to me, the one I brought all the way from home.

As you can see, I didn't care what I looked like.

Anyway, he called me in and another doctor explained that I had to be admitted because the location of the gallstone was such that it was blocking a duct so the bile couldn't drain and so the gall bladder was being inflamed and was in fact poisoning me.

And here's where things went wrong.

I asked to go home to see the babies (prep them otherwise they'd give D hell the whole night "where's Mummy") and they told me be back in 30 - 60 minutes.

And no eating!

I'd just got home and started packing when I got a call saying the hospital was full and no beds were available.

My second choice is Linksfield because it overlooks such beauty but when I phoned my medical aid, I found they were out of the network so I'd have a R4150 co-payment.

I don't know about you but I have better things to do with R4150 so I asked which hospitals were in the network and chose the one I'm most familiar with - I had my first two laparoscopies here.

When D arrived, we drove here and then the hell started (Roz, I think that's when your call came through, and my father's and one of my colleague's calls - in the midst of the admin nightmare).

Apparently my casualty should have phoned and spoken to a surgeon so they wanted me to go to their casualty again.

No, said I, I'm not paying another R600 just for your red tape - get me a manager.

And eventually...... (those dots indicate lots of waiting time), I was admitted. The minute it looked like it would be fine I sent D home to the babies so V could go home (late for her - he only left at 5:45).

Here's the terrible part - I've had 5 ops in the past, incl the C-section - and D's been with me for all of them, there until the last minute before they kick him out and so on.

This time because of the babies he had to be with them because we had no-one to stay with them. And so I was ALL alone except for my cell phone.

But you know you can't talk properly with hundreds of nurses around so I only took my mother's call because she was frantic (my brother and I were skyping about the photo shoot and I told him about how I was drugged to the hilt because of the casualty visit, he told her and my sister, my sister phoned my landline and V told her I'd gone to the hospital so of course, she freaked and told my mother who freaked some more). Hopefully you got all that.

The doctor eventually came to see me after his surgery and said they have to take the whole gall bladder because the stones could just come back. Immediately afterwards, I won't be allowed any fatty foods (not a huge problem for me) but in the long-term my body will adjust.

(I am so glad the photo shoot happened before all this drama!)

So it's happening later today - 10-ish..... and in the meantime, I'm on a drip from hell.

It took 4 attempts to get the needle in (apparently I have thin veins - at least something is thin!) and I must confess, I cried like a baby.

I hate needles and the 2 IVFs have not dulled the needle hatred.

They also gave me a jab in the tummy (clexane) but this time (unlike the last laparotomy) I was clever and pinched some fat for them to jab into. Still burned like anything and again, I cried!

When the nurses left, I phoned D to cry some more.

Shame, I shouldn't because he feels powerless.
I really thought once I had the babies, my hospital days were over!



(Just phoned home and spoke to all 3 of them - lovely conversations with the kids "love you Mummy" and "Daddy took dummy" "fell on chin... Daddy kissed it better" - too darn cute!)

So that's me for now - hopefully, if I survive the op (yes, I'm melodramatic with these things), I'll blog again tonight.

The doc said hopefully they can get it out via laparoscope (please pray specifically for this) - that's a one-week recovery time as opposed to a proper cut which is MUCH longer (I didn't even ask but based on the last laparotomy, 6 weeks - it will kill me!).

So tell me something good happening in your life. I really want to know - cheer me up please!

PS I can't eat so am staring at my pack of Marie Biscuits longingly...