I'm pretty bleary-eyed as I sit here typing this, mainly because I got almost no sleep last night at all. I'll spare you the gory details, but at 10:30 last night I was in sudden, instant, excruciating pain unlike anything I've ever felt before. (I haven't had the experience of labour, but I figure this was a close second.)
At around midnight, when symptoms had clearly worsened (and I learned first-hand that my lunch had not been digested yet), I realized that it probably was more than just really bad gas, and not the onset of the stomach flu. By 1:00, I was calling the 1-800 "Do you think I should go to the hospital?" number, and by 1:45, I was in the emergency room.
The strongly suspected cause of my misery? Gallstones.
They took blood, and gave me some pretty serious pain-killing tablets (Percocet can be a beautiful thing), and somewhere in one of the brief moments of clarity that occurred while we waited for the test results, I suddenly remembered hearing about a connection between weight loss and gallstones. When I saw the doctor again, just before being released into the wild, he confirmed it. The bad news: Yes, there is a strong link between weight loss and gallstones. The "good" news: Obese people also have an increased risk of developing gallstones. All in all, if I have to have the little buggers, I'd rather be skinny at the time. :)
I'm really fuzzy-headed at the moment (lack of sleep, Percocet hangover, or both), but I did manage to find a few links on this. I'll bookmark them here, so I can read them more closely later.
Dieting and Gallstones
Gallstones, Obesity and Fast Weight Loss
The Gallbladder.
Everything I've looked at thus far seems to say that losing weight too fast is the big concern. I'm averaging 2.5 lbs a week, which is just slightly more than the 2 pound rate they recommend, so I don't think that's it. I'm still getting plenty of fat in my diet (in fact, WW requires it), so that's not it either.
I guess it was just Fate. But at least now I know the origin of the saying, "You have a lot of gall."
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2 comments:
Hey. I saw you were on the board just a few seconds ago.
Its 11:19 and I want to chat. If you're around email me and I'll tell you which page to meet me at.
OH NO! I know what that feels like - I had an "episode" too a while ago - before this WW time. I had spent the weekend eating a lot of greasy foods (that wasn't my norm) in Halifax and on the drive home was in pain - and I must say - it was worse than labour!! They gave me a perscription, cant remember the name and I took a couple but have never had another "attack". HOpe you feel better!
ML
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