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 hapens. 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.
2 comments
I am a long time reader of your books and admire your work. I know it may be presumptuous or annoying of me to offer you my opinion on your health. And I am not a doctor in any way, and you have to make your own decisions about things. It’s just that if I have some knowledge that could ease your suffering, I want to share it.
So I’d like to point out to you Hulda Clark’s recipe for flushing gallstones out of one’s body without surgery. (Available for example here http://www.curezone.com/cleanse/liver/huldas_recipe.asp and here http://www.drclark.net/en/cleanses_clean-ups/liver_cleanses.php ) I myself have followed this procedure, and flushed out stones, though I was not suffering from acute pain from that region. I don’t agree with Hulda Clark’s general views on disease and it is not necessary to do so to make use of her recipe. Similar recipes by other people exist and are posted on the internet in various places too.
Anyway, you can do your own research and decide for yourself whether you’d want to do something like that. I just wanted to bring it to your attention in case you weren’t aware of it. In any event, I wish only good things for you, and hope you get better and feel fantastic soon.
I was in lots of pain for a long time and my Dr told me to have my Gall Bladder removed, but after a lot of investigation on the internet, I instead went on a low saturated fat diet and i”ve had know pain since, that was a year ago. Sorry I lie, I had two attacks by over-doing it on Tira Misu, but I’ve definitely learnt my lesson now. Low fat, try it. No cream, no cheese etc. Very low on the SATURATED fats.
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