God's Grace .... It wasn't my acid reflux!

I am writing to inform everyone that God has awesome Grace. Seriously, His grace on me this week has been amazing. What is grace? We hear it all the time. But can we define it? Merriam-Webster defines grace as 1 a : unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification b : a virtue coming from God c : a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace. God has definitely had grace on my situation of sickness this week. I know He will continue to do so with the upcoming decisions to be made regarding this situation.

My Sunday morning post talked about how sick I woke up being. Well it continued until Monday night and I finally couldn't handle it any longer. Michael took me to the ER and they ran tests and gave me pain meds (which knocked me for a loop since I've never even had a sip of alcohol in my whole life!) They found out that I'm having gall bladder attacks and I have a bacteria in my stomach. So now I am having to take a pain med and Phenegran every 6-8 hours plus a Prevpack with 3,000 mg of antibiotics and stomach acid medication. I have had to call in to work today (our first day back) in order to go have an ultrasound on my gall bladder. I have a doctor's appointment on Friday at 1pm to get my results. Even though it sounds nuts, I am hoping that they have to remove it so that I don't ever have to go through this again. However, God's will will be done in the situation.

It's amazing how God works. I could have went down with this sickness while I was out of town or while I was watching my niece and nephew, but He helped it to hold off until the right time. Grant it, I would never wish this pain on ANYONE, but pain is a part of life and is a sign from one's body to let them know something is wrong. I guess we will soon see what exactly is wrong with my body.

I request that each of you reading this remember me in prayer. I am so up in the air with what to do right now. I have saved up days at work for the past few years just so that I could have a child down the road and I really hate having to miss days upon days. I am in limbo because I feel a lot better than I did Monday night, and I feel ok with my pain medication; however I don't know whether to go on to work tomorrow or to just wait it out. If I do end up having surgery, the receptionist said that it would probably be next week, so I hate missing all these days before having that done and then having to miss even more after it is done. But, as confusing as this situation is, God will guide me through it and everything will work out the way that it it suppose to work out.

I am including below various information about the gall bladder and its attacks and symptoms. I had no clue this was what was hurting me for months and someone reading this might just be in the same boat. So here ya go:

What are the symptoms of a gallbladder attack?

Symptoms may include one or more of the following: chest pain in the right side (caused by stones in the bile duct or inflammation or swelling of the gallbladder itself). Nausea or queasiness, vomiting and gas are frequent. There may or may not be belching or burping. The gall bladder, which sits just below the rib cage to the right of the stomach, is very tender to touch. It can be so painful that it takes your breath away.

You may not be able to walk without bending over. Sometimes the pain radiates through to the back shoulder blade on the right side or in the middle between the shoulder blades. This is pain from the gallbladder being referred to the back of the shoulder. This back shoulder blade chest pain is one of the most common yet unknown symptoms of a gallbladder disorder. This can come and go or be constant. It may be sharp, excruciating or dull. It may also occur especially at night.

An gallbladder attack will typically last for one to four hours.

What causes gallbladder attacks?

The pain can come from a stone making its way down the biliary duct (or bile tube) toward the (duodenum) small intestine. It can also be caused by a back up of bile in the gallbladder (with or without stones) that causes it to swell from fullness causing discomfort. Or it can come from an infected gallbladder itself that becomes inflamed (cholecystitis).