Breathing Just a Little

 I am three days post surgery, and recovery is going ... patchily, but I am getting there. I had my gallbladder removed and an umbilical hernia repaired on Monday at a public hospital near my home. The Australian public health system waitlist, for anyone unfamiliar, often moves slowly, but once it gets going, it goes for gold. I got a call last Thursday to tell me my number was up for Monday, and the whole process cost me around $70 out of pocket (for my discharge medications). We are incredibly lucky to have access to quality care that doesn't bankrupt us in this country. The hospital staff were, without exception, lovely - professional, kind and thorough, and really helped me manage my anxiety effectively . They listened properly to my concerns and my underlying health interactions and as a result, the increased congestion, asthma and nausea I feared were either avoided or minimised. The anaesthetic doctor in particular was wonderful, painful bruised arm notwithstanding (not her ...

So one of the new annoying things that has happen in my already extremely annoying body in the past three months is that I have been diagnosed with chronic gallbladder disease. This means that, while the situation is not currently acute (ie I am not in epoch-annihilating amounts of pain and I'm not yellow), I have a gallbladder that is distended, well below functional, and, to quote my ultrasound report verbatim, "full of calculi (stones) and sludge". Yes, sludge. Apparently this is a medical term for the detritus that will eventually form into stones. Charming, isn't it? I am on a fairly long waiting list to have this rectified surgically (ie by removal), so in the meantime, I am trying to do my best to nurse things along so I don't have an acute event. This has meant pretty sharp alterations to my diet. My main  symptoms were pain and nausea after eating, frequent and painful toilet action, and sudden weird-arse cramps. Since I have modified my diet, all but the...