MY STORY

Part 8

I had a gallstone attack October, 2018. I went to the doctor and she determined that I had had a gallstone attack. After being diagnosed , I realized that I had had a gallstone attack several months earlier but didn’t know what it was. Because this was my second attack, I decided that I would have my gallbladder removed. Glen and I were going to Kauai, Hawaii in January and I didn’t want to risk having an attack on vacation. The doctor told me it would be an elective surgery. I scheduled the surgery for November 6, 2018.

My surgery was scheduled for 3 pm. Because my surgery was elective, I waited for an opening in the doctor’s schedule. Four o’clock came, 5 o’clock came, 6 o’clock came and went. I was getting anxious. I was asking the nurses, “What was taking so long?” I said, “The doctor will be tired when she gets to me.” The nurses said, “She’s a machine. Her part only takes 20 minutes. You’ll be fine.” She was working on me at 10 pm.

I went home with pain killers and an antibiotic. Because my mother had an appointment on my one week out from surgery date, I schedule my post-op appointment ten days instead of one week out.

I laid around getting sicker and sicker. I was supposed to be my husband’s driver for his back surgery. That didn’t happen. I was still laying around when he left for Salt Lake City on Friday. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to take my mom to her doctor’s appointment either.

My sister, LaRae, came out to help us. She took me to my appointment. She told me later that my eyes were yellow and my skin was yellow. I also looked like I was six months pregnant because of the swelling. LaRae asked the doctor about my being yellow. All the doctor said was I was constipated. I needed to poop. She told me to do a couple of enemas. If I hadn’t improved in 24 hours, come back in. LaRae went home. Twenty-four hours later, I had not improved.

Glen headed to the city for his back surgery. I had my son take me to the ER. The ER doctor pulled 2 ½ liters of bile off my belly and transferred me to Utah Valley Hospital. My daughter drove me to Utah Valley Hospital. I was taken right in to surgery when I arrived. Dr. Garry found that my common bile duct had been cut. He created me a new bile duct out of my small intestines.

I received a small settlement for the neglect of the doctor. NOTHING to cover what I was to go through in the future.

The makeshift bile duct the doctor created for me blocked off with scar tissue in June, 2019. I crawled into Ashley Regional Hospital with excruciating pain. The doctors did not know what was causing me such distress. Their MRI did not show a block. I called Glen and told him to get me out of here!!!. In the meantime the doctors called Utah Valley Hospital where they determined I had a block in my makeshift bile duct. Glen took me to Utah Valley Hospital. The team of doctors did three different surgeries to open up my makeshift bile duct. The third surgery worked. The doctors put a stint in my bile duct to hold the duct open while it healed around the stint. I had the stint for 2 ½ months.

I spent 2019 in and out of the hospital with excruciating belly pain.