Answers...Finally!

We have made 3 trips to the emergency room in the past year for Kevin's severe abdominal pain.  Everytime, they rule out his heart and go to acid reflux.  The GI cocktail they give him provides enough relief for him to feel better, so they send him home with a diagnosis of GERD and instructions to follow-up with his doctor.  Everythings fine for a while, then we repeat the process.

On Black Friday, after a day of fun and shopping, the pain became unbearable again.  Since we were in Lafayette, Kevin decided to go to one of the hospitals here, rather than our small (and "troubled") hospital in Crawfordsville.  Immediately upon hearing his symptoms and feeling his belly (which was tender to the touch on the right side), they wanted to investigate his gall bladder a bit.  Thankfully Camden was able to bed down at Aunt Carole and Uncle Ric's because we knew it was going to be a long night in the ER.

An ultrasound of his liver, pancreas, and gall bladder showed, "too many gall stones to count."  The ER nurse said she had never heard that said before.  As was probably the case in the previous incidents, one stone had apparently gotten out and blocked the tube to the gall bladder AND the pancreas.  He had gallstone pancreatitis...a VERY painful condition.  The levels in his pancreas & liver that they use to diagnose this were very high.  One was to be below 100 and it was over 1000; the other was to be below 50 and was over 100.  The stone would pass, the pain would ease (as it had the other times), but we would be back another time if the gall bladder was not removed.  We could wait for another day, if we wanted, but there was no guarantee how long before the next of the many stones would set up this situation again.  The surgeon on call strongly recommended it come out NOW.  So he was admitted and surgery set for the next day.

Camden came up on Saturday morning for a visit before the operation.

It was so wonderful to not have to worry about our baby girl.  Camden was showered with wonderful love and attention.  Aunt Carole did some beautiful things with her hair...

...and Uncle Ric taught her all kinds of new silliness.

The surgery was a success and afterward the surgeon confirmed that it was the right decision to have the surgery today.  He said the gall bladder itself was very "sick" and would have continued to be a nasty problem...and sooner than later.  We stayed one more night to make sure the levels had returned to normal and the pancreatitis had subsided.  Kevin is off work for 2 weeks, resting and getting bored!