Megan&Marcus Co.

January 10, 2009
As most of you already know, and if you haven’t already figured out by the baby ticker, Marcus and I are expecting baby #4 at the end of July. Aside from the fact that I have gallstones, this is the easiest pregnancy thus far. I went and saw a general surgeon about my gallbladder on the 5th (yes, our anniversary, no, I didn’t make the appt.) and to my surprise he said it was the perfect time to operate, that it didn’t look like my symptoms were getting better, and he would advise me to have my gallbladder removed. I was a little apprehensive, I was expecting him to say for me to control it with diet (*tbbhhhhh*) (that's a raspberry sound) and have it removed after delivery, that's what my OB and the ER Dr. told me. They scheduled my surgery for the 23rd @ 5am. (!)
I had my 2nd OB check up yesterday and My Dr. thought I was saying my surgery was scheduled 2 weeks after I had the baby and was not happy when he learned it was for January 23rd. He called his good friend & general surgeon, who just happens to be my general surgeons boss, and made an appt. for me to go talk with him. Basically he told me that 14-17 weeks was IDEAL for surgery on a pregnant mom. But he didn't advise surgery on a generally healthy young woman who was perfectly capable of controlling her pain with correct diet and a little exercise. He then told me that the risks of doing the surgery were quite low because it was laparoscopic and up so high on the abdomen. He told me that in the 3rd trimester you don’t want to do any surgery, but if I started getting a fever, signaling infection, they would have to do the big surgery, a 3 or 4 inch cut to remove it. But it was really and unnecessary risk to have the surgery now and that I should really just try to control it with diet and have regular check ups since I was so close to the hospital (?). I told him about my mom being a LDRN and how she said they take gallbladders out of prego ladies where she works all the time, and how I also know that my Dr. who I also know and trust was telling me he really doesn’t recommend it so I was feeling pulled in both directions. He told me I would have to decide for myself but he really didn’t recommend it either. Basically I was super confused when I left and now feel quite depressed. Do I want to have the surgery now because im selfish and don’t want to have added unconfortable-ness during my last trimester? Or because I don’t want to add another 4 inch scar to my person and have to possibly recover from major surgery with a 2 year old twice in just a few months? Or should I stick it out and deal with it, I do have great pain killers after all. *sigh* Why do I always have to have unnecessary drama during my pregnancies?
Anyway, I have an appointment to go see a perinatologist next Wednesday, we'll see how it goes. Marcus is going with me this time so I can get the questions asked that need asking instead of me sitting there nodding my head with my eyes burning, my throat swollen and my nose dangerously close to running.