Attack of the Killer Baby

I was going to title this post "Attack of the Killer Gall Bladder" but a call from my doctor today renders that one inaccurate. Apparently, my gall bladder is not the culprit behind the past two weeks of relentless pain, as we all suspected. Which means that now I'm placing blame on this sweet, innocent, not fully developed baby daughter of mine. She is not starting out on my good side.

For the past few weeks, I've felt pretty awful. Some of that was the flu. Some was fatigue. Some was frustration and stress. And some was this uncomfortable, and sometimes rather sharp pain in my abdomen. I chalked it up to having no waist, and therefore not much room to house a baby. I assumed my internal organs were protesting their new roommate. I toughed it out.

But by last week, it really hurt, and I feel like I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. I fancy myself a badass, you might say. I'm definitely not a wuss, or a hypochondriac. If I'm complaining of pain, something hurts. So I mentioned it to my midwife, who immediately said "gall bladder." I was told to watch what I eat, stay away from fat, and was sent on my way.

But the pain got progressively worse, and I found that there was less and less I could eat that didn't end up shredding my insides. Eventually, I called the doc again, and they ordered a sonogram on my gall bladder. While I waited for the results, I did some research and pretty much assumed I had a gall bladder problem - all the symptoms matched up, and it's a common pregnancy issue. I was anxiously awaiting the results of the sono because once diagnosed, they could fix me. They could make this pain go away, and I would be able to eat again without breaking into a cold sweat and suffering for hours afterwards.

The results came in today. And...nothing. NOTHING!!! With the exception of some "sludge" in my gall bladder, they saw nothing abnormal. Take Tylenol for the pain, they said. Don't eat fat. Rest. And if you can't stand the pain, go to the ER. Um, for what, exactly?! To flush more money down the healthcare drain?!

It looks like I will be getting no relief from the most relentless pain and discomfort I have ever experienced. I'm down to eating once a day with a couple of small snacks if I can stomach it. Hopefully that's enough to grow a healthy baby, but somehow I doubt it. Supposedly, this will get better after the baby is born, roughly 10 WEEKS from now. The thought of enduring what I've felt for the past week for another 10 is almost unbearable.