Who needs a gallbladder?

Not me, apparently!  Aaron and I were absolutely delighted to find out that I need gallbladder surgery!  About 10 months ago, around the time the disk disease in my back was diagnosed, I also started having cramps in my chest, underneath my ribs.  It totally scared me the first time, but after a few seconds, I realized I could still breath just fine and just needed to muddle through the pain for a couple minutes.  It went away-no more symptoms-totally weird, but we chalked it up to whatever else might be going on in my back.  A few months later I had another.  A few months later, 2 more in the same night.  Then we come to January and I had one each of the first three Sundays.  The first one was small just like previous ones-I usually end up in tears by the end of those 2 or 3 minutes, but whatever.  The next Sunday, it woke me up at 3:30am out of my dream and lasted about 15 minutes.  The next morning we decided it was time to take action and, not really knowing where to start, made an appointment with a family doctor in town.  After hearing my random stories and realizing the pain was concentrated in my chest she ordered bloodwork, an EKG, and an echo-cardiogram (oh yeah, she also heard a heart murmur-no biggie tho).  The bloodwork revealed I might have a bloodclot, so we added leg ultrasound, chest x-ray and chest CAT scan to the list.  We are so thankful to my doctor for getting the ball rolling so quickly-all of this was done within 4 days of seeing her initially.  However, nothing came back positive, so we decided to go back in the next week for more bloodwork.  Over the weekend, my body decided to do it's thing again, 45 minutes this time.  And I finally felt like we needed to go to the ER.  Through all the other episodes I felt very calm but this time seemed different so we headed in.  Because of all that my doctor had been able to rule out, the ER doctor was able to look at some other possibilities.  More bloodwork pointed to my gallbladder being irritated and one gallbladder ultrasound later, we had our diagnosis!  It was honestly a relief!
The surgeon that was recommended to us was busy, to say the least.  We thought we'd have it out by the end of the week, but if we wanted the good doctor (and after hearing how common it is to nick the wrong thing) we decided to wait.  I was truly scared of having another attack before I could get in for surgery, especially since they'd been increasing in length, so I tried to cut back as much fat as possible.  And with some divine help, I am pleased to say it worked.  I sure got sick of cereal and rabbit food after a month, but it was worth it to avoid the pain.
Apparently gallbladder disease is genetic, but much more common among women, especially those who have had babies.  My Dad had his out when I was in high school.  His mother had hers out long ago and my sisiter just had hers out early last year after she delivered her little boy.  I guess I was doomed and you better believe I'm going to be reminding Jane of these odds her entire life--poor girl!

Everything went well-and now, on to recovery.  Bring on the treats!