Gall Bladder Surgery

Personally, I hate big lengthy posts but I figured I better write down everything about Hunter and his gall bladder while I can remember. Skip to the pictures if you don't want all the boring details!

My favorite boy had his gall bladder out last Friday. Let's hope and pray this is the answer to all of his sickness. A few weeks ago he was really complaining about his stomach hurting. He had a virus with headache, dizziness, and stomach pain. After a few days the headache and dizziness went away but the stomach aches didn't. We took him to the Doctor and after an abdominal scan they determined he was extremely constipated. We started giving him miralax daily and then started a "clean-out" over the weekend. We did a magnesium citrate drink that gave him major diarrhea to help clean him out. He was still nauseated and sick to his stomach so he didn't keep up on drinking. Unfortunately the following week when he was in more pain I talked to the doctor and he wanted me to do more of a clean out and this time we did milk of magnesia. The problem was that Hunter got super dehydrated that night and started having even worse stomach pains. Then he got a rash all over his body and started running a fever. We were back and forth to the doctor and on the phone with him trying to figure out what was going on. Our doctor, who we love, told us he felt like there was more going on but couldn't put a finger on it. They checked his urine twice for a UTI and did a CBC but nothing was showing up. Finally they decided because his white blood cells were slightly elevated that they would start a broad spectrum antibiotic. We were also watching him for a possible appendix problem. After a few days, Hunter wasn't able to drink and was super nauseated so the doctor had him come in and decided he needed to be admitted for an iv and further blood work to see if we could figure out what the problem was. He spent 3 days in the Heber hospital and they discovered that he had elevated gall bladder and liver enzymes. We were relieved that at least we had an idea of what was happening. After two ultrasounds, a 48 hour fast to rest the bowels, lots of iv fluids, blood work 3 times, etc. they determined that Hunter needed to be seen at Primary Children's for a Hida scan on his gallbladder. We went there and met with a general surgeon after the hida scan and were told that his gallbladder was full of sludge and needed to be removed. Pretty unusual for an 8 year old skinny guy! His surgery went well and the doctor told us that his gall bladder was double the size it should have been. The pain has been a lot worse than Hunter ever imagined but he has learned so much and been really brave. He is still recovering and says his tummy still hurts but we are hoping in time he will feel better. Thanks for all your support, love and prayers!

Now that we look back over the past few months, we can remember times when Hunter felt super sick after he ate a fatty meal. The first time was when we went to Sacramento during fall break. He had a krispie kreme donut in the airport and then a cheeseburger later that day. He go SO sick and puked his guts out in the hotel and was fine the next day. A month ago we went to In and Out Burger for FHE and a few hours later he got super sick and barfed. I guess he has had a bad gall bladder for a while.

Waiting for the nurse to see him!

Playing Angry birds on mom's nook.

Not loving the outfit!

Almost time.....the surgery was delayed by an hour and Hunter was ticked off. He was soooooo hungry!

He is trying to figure out why the socks are so weird!