First a little back story...
I was admitted to the hospital in Novemeber with pancreatitis. After 5 nights, 6 days, and many tests, they decided that I needed to have my gall bladder removed. I returned for out-patient surgery the following week. After that surgery, I was good for about 3 weeks. Ironically, I had been having issues before my surgery about every 3/4 weeks.
From early December to April, I was having pretty severe upper left abdominal pain. I followed up with my GI Doctor as advised. As the months progressed, the pain increased in frequency. Instead of 3-4 days per month, it was becoming 2-3 days per week. In early February, I had an upper GI that didn't really answer any questions. After another visit with the GI doctor and serious conversation referring to comments made about my bile duct during all of the tests in Novemeber, he suggested that I had a spasming sphincter in my bile duct. The solution for this problem is a procedure called an ERCP (had one in November to ensure no gall stones in the duct before my gall bladder was removed). This time, the ERCP would include snipping the sphincter to allow continual flow of bile instead of the sphincter 'getting stuck' in the closed position. Imagine cutting the elastic on a sleeve when it's too tight on your arm.
April 21 at 2:00 PM, my dad drove me to this procedure because it required sedation and intubation. After about an hour delay, my procedure was started. My procedure was complicated. The doctor was unable to enter the duct because the sphincter was closed too tightly. He had to stent another portion of the duct system (you can see his ink marks on the photo above) to relieve enough pressure to get into the targeted duct. The 20-40 minute procedure (according to the pamphlet) turned into a 90 minute procedure for me. But in the end, he was able to snip the muscle and and release the backed up bile. That was a win because it indicated that we finally found the real problem.
Because my procedure was so complicated and I was in such pain afterward, it took longer to get me on my way. Several nurses asked if I was being admitted for an overnight observation. I was not. Honestly, at that moment I was glad to be going home.
We went to mom's house to get the girls. After lying on their bed for about 30-45 minutes, I was in excruciating pain. I knew that pancreatitis was a side effect in 3-5% of ERCP patients. I just wanted to go home. However, as I tried to walk to the car, I realized that I couldn't. Daddy encouraged Chad to call the doctor because of the multiple warnings about pain as we left the GI lab a couple of hours before. The GI doctor returned Chad's call and said to take me to the ER.
I left my parents house crying, barely able to walk and in pain like I've never felt before. I'm pretty sure my 3 kids were terrified. I know some of them were crying too.
On the way to the ER, the pain subsided, and I talked about going home instead of wasting thousands of dollars on an emergency room visit. Fortunately, after my dad had encouraged Chad to call, Chad insisted that we follow through.
I was quickly taken back and put in a room. From that point on, everything took four forevers. They brought me a six gallon cup of contrast to drink for a CT scan. Maybe it wasn't that much, but it was as large as a sonic route 44! I drank and drank and drank. I was so discouraged trying to tell them that I could not drink all of that contrast. I finally got in for the CT scan. The ER Doctor came back and said they saw 'some free air in my abdomen and possibly some fluid'. I was definitely developing pancreatitis, and they wanted to admit me to 'wait and see' on the abdominal situation. Finally, about 3:30 AM (we got to the ER about 8 PM) as they prepared to move me to a room, I sent Chad to his parents' house for sleep. At that point, I had dilaudid and felt no pain. I was ready for sleep.
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