And now for a word about my gall bladder

[dduane]

But only because all you nice people keep asking. (If you don't want to read a few paragraphs of what my mother used to refer to, in other people, as "the organ recital", for Ghu's sake look away now.)

Short version: I'm ok, and improving as we get control of the situation. I am no longer incapacitated / bedridden / completely useless.

Longer version: Tom Lehrer was right to call the gall bladder "one of the more important technological advances since the invention of the joy buzzer and the dribble glass." Especially in its predictability once it starts acting up.

It's pretty much a given, now, that I've got gallstones, and that my gall bladder is having trouble with them. The ultrasound and Xray to determine how many / how big the stones are is still a week off.  Right now the situation is being managed with rigid diet control (particularly of fats) and drugs for pain relief. (Nothing fancy, fortunately.) While I sit around being alternately amused and annoyed at myself for having spent the last year or year and a half thinking that this was a recurrent back problem which would go away by itself, or (sometimes) after taking an aspirin.

If there's an ongoing frustration, it's that it is sometimes hard to tell what'll set off an attack (which involves 6-10 hours of extreme internal discomfort, accompanied by bloating, cramps and other minor joys). I am, as it were, my own test tube: put something in, hold your breath and see what happens. What can't I put in? Oh, nothing much, just most of the foods I really like. Any significant amount of butter, full-fat cheese or sour cream. [Which I couldn't have anyway until I get some Lactaid in here, as I am now also at least lactose-maldigestive if not entirely intolerant.] Chocolate. Eggs. Some red meats. Yes, but which ones? Argh, there goes another 6-10 hours. And so on.)

(sigh) Enough of that. I'm getting caught up on book shipping (for those of you who're curious, I'll be mailing you today / tomorrow with tracking numbers, etc) and other work (yes, The Big Meow) and all the things I ought to be doing rather than lying in bed groaning.

Anyway, folks, thanks for your concern, it's been much appreciated.

 

(Also: check here for the source of the icon quote, and a charming moment at the bottom where one of the writers apparently gets a little confused about the difference between the gall(stones) of animals and the oak-galls used to make ink.)