Last year in June I had my gallbladder removed. It was a “simple outpatient surgery”. Thousands of people have this surgery every day. I went in at 8:00am and was home by noon. I was super nauseas that day and in pain, but I was told that was normal. Over the next two days I did not eat much, did not drink much and because of that I became dehydrated. On Wednesday night I went to the Urgent Care to get some IV fluids thinking that would change the way I felt. Well, it did not. On Thursday I got much worse. The pain and nausea were unbearable, so I went to the ER. They did lab work and admitted me because my liver enzymes were abnormal.
The next few days I had several tests done on my abdomen and a couple of procedures to look at my digestive system. After 5 days I was sent home. The next few days were filled with doctor visits, blood tests to monitor my elevating liver enzymes, and still no real answers about what was wrong with me. I was very blessed that Brock was able to take care of the girls during all of this because I was worthless. We did not understand why months earlier he was laid off at his job, and why God would allow that to happen. We later realized that God knew that our family would need him at home during this time in our life.
Several weeks later I went to another doctor for a liver biopsy. I was told that if they saw something while they were doing the biopsy that they wanted permission to fix it. I, of course, gave my permission knowing in my heart that everything would be fine. Boy, was I wrong!! Turns out the surgeon left a clamp on my common bile duct during my gallbladder surgery, which stopped bile from exiting my liver. To shorten this long story, my liver created it’s own opening and sprung a leak into my abdomen. It pretty much goes down hill from there! I spent most of the summer in the hospital.
Now, 10 months later, I am still suffering from one person’s mistake. I’ve been feeling sorry for myself lately because of the nausea. It has made me think a lot about life. Everyone makes mistakes. All of us sin. But sometimes our mistakes and our sins will affect others. Sometimes our sins can cause pain, heartache and confusion for those around us. Who knew that after 20 minutes in the Operating Room 10 months ago would change my life forever? What an incredible lesson God has taught me through all of this.
One doctor left a surgical clamp in me after surgery. This one mistake has snowballed into so much more. This is something that I will probably have to deal with for the rest of my life. Isn’t sin just like that? One tiny sin leads to a little bit bigger sin, and so on and so on. Sometimes God has to knock us upside our head to get our attention and teach us a lesson. This is one of those times in my life.
karasawyer 