I think it is about time I told you all about why I recently had an operation. To put it quickly, I had gallstones and they were causing me quite a lot of pain and discomfort. Today's post is going to be all about my gallstone problem, starting from when I first experienced symptoms right through to now, where I am just finishing recovery. I forewarn you - this is going to be a very long post!

I first felt gallbladder pain (not knowing what it was) on Halloween 2013. I finished teaching early for the day, because my teaching room is at the front of the house and I would just be constantly interrupted by Trick or Treaters who would be able to see that I was in! I think I finished lessons at 5pm, and so I went and got a McDonalds Cheese Quarter Pounder Meal for my dinner. After eating, I was answering the door to kids (and also promoting my teaching business aha) but after about 30 minutes I started to get abdominal pains. These were building up in intensity, right up to the point where I was in the foetal position on the sofa holding my stomach, and my Mum had to take over Halloween duties and I went to bed at about 7pm.

After a few more weeks I was still getting these pains, especially after I had eaten. So, I took it to the doctors who were useless. I eventually had to 'diagnose myself' online and take my findings to my GP, who agreed to send me for an ultrasound scan. I had an ultrasound somewhere around the end of November 2013, and gallstones were confirmed. I cut out all fatty foods - I found that McDonalds burgers and Hot Dogs were the worst offenders.

Fast forward now to just before New Year. I had been living with gallstones for 2-3 months and was just taking as it goes. I was learning how to change my diet to minimise the attacks and the attacks had decreased. It was the evening of the 28th December and I was eating some chips from a chinese takeaway (I don't eat chinese meals you see). Now, I believed I would be ok with these - they're just chips right? I ate the chips fine and I didn't have an attack immediately after eating them, which is what would happen if my gallbladder was having a problem with it.

I woke up about 5am with a strong feeling of nausea. I ended up vomiting all of what I had eaten - nothing had digested at all. This was also alongside the worst pain I could imagine coming from my gallbladder, and spreading all across my abdominal area. My parents rang NHS Direct who booked me an appointment at an Out Of Hours GP, at something like 8am. I was still being sick whilst waiting to go to the appointment, but the most irritating thing that happened in the appointment was the doctor believed it was my appendix. I told her that it possibly couldn't be as I had been diagnosed with gallstones and I had a grumbling appendix a few years ago - I knew that it wasn't my appendix. I was referred onto the hospital, and me and my Mum had to make our way there with me struggling to walk and still being sick (I distinctly remember in a bus stop, how classy). As it was a Sunday morning, there was virtually no one around to help, and the one person who was around told us we couldn't use a lift because it was 'goods only' - my Mum nearly let rip at him because of the condition I was in. Alas, we had to go find another lift to get to the ward I was booked onto.

So we got to the ward and I wasn't allowed to drink in case I was sent for surgery, but I extremely dehydrated from vomiting so much. The said they would put me on a drip, which they ended up never doing. I also had to go back the following day for another ultrasound scan as they couldn't find the results of my November one. I had the scan the next day and lo and behold, gallstones were confirmed. We had to wait the whole day for the results in the ward waiting room where people were coming in after me and being seen before me, until my Mum went to the nurses desk and started kicking off as I was deteriorating and they couldn't care less. A nurse who was a gallstone specialist took us into a separate room and told us that I had a few stones but I would need my gallbladder removing, so I was to be put on a waiting list and would be contacted within 6 weeks.

So it got to middle of March 2014, and I still hadn't heard anything about my operation date. By this point I had cut out all junk food and all red meat. The only meat I as eating was chicken and fish. I was barely eating things like chocolate, and if I did it was a small amount. I eventually had to get one of the receptionists at my GP's surgery to chase it up, and I was given a pre-op assessment for the 10th March, or somewhere around that date. The hospital rang me a few days later and booked me in for my operation on the 15th April, however I changed the date to the 30th April as I was seeing McBusted on the 29th and there was no way I was missing that!!!

So, I went to my pre-op assessment in March, where basically they just confirmed that was fit for surgery, talked me through what would happen and answered any questions I had - it was pretty quick and stress-free considering how hospitals can be! After this it was just a case of keep doing what I was doing with my diet and wait until April 30th.

6 weeks later and operation day had arrived! I had to be at the hospital for 7.30am, and my Dad and boyfriend came with me to drop me off. Now, I had a laparoscopy (keyhole surgery for people who have medical terminology just go over their head) a few years ago in the same place and I was in a little bay for about 2 hours whilst I waited for my operation. This is what I expected again, especially as at the pre-op my blood was taken in one of these little bays (they only just fit a bed in, that's how small they are). But in fact - I had a room all to myself! This is what the bed area looked like:


The room was completely private, and I could lock my valuables away in the cupboard by the bed if I wanted to (even though the room would be locked whilst I was in theatre). On the other side of the bed (left side of the picture) was my own bathroom, with shower, which was as big as my bedroom! There was also a television that could be moved around to suit me. I had to change into the hospital gown and put on flight socks and then wait for the surgeon and anaesthetist to come and see me.

I hadn't even got my Sherlock Holmes book out of my bag to read when they both came to see me at the same time at about 7.45am. The anaesthetist basically just confirmed that I wasn't allergic to anything but the surgeon had to go through a bit more, like the operation itself and that I was first into theatre! I also asked about the severity of my gallstones, as I had never actually been told, apart from that I had a few and the biggest was marble-sized. He told me that I in fact had roughly 10 stones, all marble-sized and the wall of my gallbladder was only 2mm thick. Now, I was told that your gallbladder when normal is about the size of your thumb, but now imagine this with 10 marbles in, it's no wonder the wall was only 2mm thick! He also said that it was pretty much ready to burst, and it could do just that whilst I was in theatre, but he would make sure he would clear everything up should that happen.

So, I walked up to theatre with my nurse at about 8am, who was telling me about a guy she looked after not long ago, who when he was coming out of theatre and was still under the influence of the anaesthetic was talking about getting someone to feed his fish. Turns out he never owned a fish in the first place! I don't think I was like that, I just wanted to sleep!

I can remember going to sleep before the operation, but I can't remember waking up, like I did last time. I can sort of remember being wheeled back on the bed, but it was about 1pm I woke up properly and ate some toast and went to the bathroom. I surprisingly felt alright, compared to last time where I really struggled to move. My Mum and boyfriend came to pick me up about 2.30pm and I was wheeled out of hospital and taken home, where I slept some more. Anaesthetic makes you incredibly sleepy!

So here I am now, just over 3 weeks since having my gallbladder removed. It's only just now I've been able to start eating what I want again (burgers taste AMAZING right now) and my wounds aren't scabby anymore,  but I am still getting aches where my gallbladder used to be. I'm now using Bio-Oil on the wounds that are completely healed over to help minimise the scarring. My belly button is completely mangled now after 2 surgeries, but what can you do, they are my battle-scars :) Another downside is I haven't been able to sing properly since the operation, as I have a wound right above my diaphragm!

It's also probably worth noting how much weight I lost with gallstones. In October I was slowly trying to lose weight as I was nearly in the overweight category for my BMI, I think I was about 9st 4lbs. After gallstones were diagnosed I immediately went onto the gallstones diet, and went down to 8st 11lbs, which is what I was pre-surgery. In the few days after my operation I was down to 8st 6lbs, but obviously I wasn't able to eat like I usually would and 10 marble sized gallstones would probably weigh quite a bit themselves! I've now put on a few pounds, I think I'm currently 8st 8lbs. It's not the way I wanted to lose weight and I do want to lose a bit more, but I am going to get back into doing Gym, Aqua Fit and start Pilates when I feel I am ready to go back!

If you've read through all of this post, thank you so much for taking the time to do so. It's taken me about 2 days to write all of this, so I apologise if that is why I've disappeared for most of the week! If you've had any experience with gallstones or gallbladder problems, please feel free to comment below and share your story, I would be really interested in reading about it. Also if you have any questions for me, feel free to ask below :)

I couldn't find a picture of the bottle itself, but this is what the colour looks like!

This looks like the colour I have, it has quite a lot of pink tones

I can't believe I am starting teaching again tomorrow, it's crazy. I'm only teaching for 1 hour on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then have Thursday to Monday off, but it's just mad how quickly my time off has flown by.

So far I have managed to tidy up the music room ready for tomorrow, I just have some admin jobs to do now which can be done over the next few days. I've been putting them off all week as I HATE admin, haha.

Anyway, this is only a quick post as I wasn't really sure what to write and I haven't posted since Tuesday! I'm also hoping to get another Youtube video uploaded in the next few days.


Remember to donate towards my fundraiser for M.E! http://www.justgiving.com/Rebecca-Oldham4

Click here to view my JustGiving page!

Please, please, donate for a wonderful cause. Let's get M.E/CFS known and help fund the much-needed research into this illness!

So I posted about this on my Tumblr a few weeks ago and got no response, so I'll try again on here!

Today is M.E/CFS Awareness Day, and this is a day that is very close to my heart as I have M.E myself. I wanted to take part in 'The Big Sleep' event to fundraise for M.E/CFS but because of my gallbladder operation I have been unable to do so!

So instead, I had the idea to 'Disneybound' for a whole month in June to fundraise and bring awareness to this illness. The picture above is a picture of me from when I went out in the evening for my university graduation (flat hair because of wearing a graduation cap all day haha) and I Disneybounded as Dory from Finding Nemo! On Disneybound's website, it is described as;

"Disneybound is meant to be inspiration for you to pull together your own outfits which work for your body and wallet whether from your closet or local mall."

In a nutshell, to 'disneybound' is to base an outfit on any Disney character of your choice - to be Dory I chose a cobalt blue strapless lace dress from ASOS, a black blazer from Next, a yellow bracelet that I picked up in a charity shop and I also wore my plain black heels from Topshop. I found this really fun to do and really look forward to doing this!

I plan to start a Just Giving page in the next few weeks and will link it onto here, so you can all donate for a worthy cause! I won't Disneybound everyday, just because I would like to have a few days off and I don't teach everyday of the week. Also if anyone has any character requests, let me know in a comment below! I'll aim to post as many outfits as I can on here :)

Oops...I really should control my spending a little bit, but I went ahead and bought the yellow version of the pink dress I got earlier this week.

Yesterday was my first 'proper' shopping trip out since having my operation, and I managed to persuade my Mum to let me look at the make-up section! These are the two bits I bought (alongside DVDs and books and all that jazz).

The first is Maybelline's Color Show by Colorama in '46 Sugar Crystals' and I bought this as the colour is absolutely gorgeous. I think it will only work over a neutral base though. It wasn't a bad price either at £2.50.

Secondly was Collection 2000's Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Liner in 'Le Freak 5', which is a lovely blue colour, which compliments my orange hair quite nicely.

Also today I finally got around to trying my Benefit testers which I got when I bought the 'Gimme Brow' - see my April Favourites 2014 video as it features there! The first was 'Triple Performing Facial Emulsion', which is a moisturiser. Now, I usually don't use moisturisers but I probably should! It's made my skin feel really nice and smooth, and the SPF 15 is an added bonus (especially on my pale skin) but I'm just not sure that I would like to spend £21.50 on a moisturiser that I probably wouldn't use all of the time...I don't even use the one I already have!

My other sample was Benefit's new Big Easy foundation. At the moment the only liquid foundation I have is the Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow! which I loved at first, but now I've found there are a lot of orange-tones that don't really do anything for my complexion! Has anyone else found this? Anyway, this Big Easy is a BB Cream, which I have never used, and to be honest my skin is getting pretty dry lately. I haven't found the coverage brilliant, but then I haven't really used very much as you don't get much in the sample or applied powder over it. It retails for £27.50 which is £1 more than the Hello Flawless but I'm going to have a think about it.

This morning I received my ASOS package! I ordered this last week as I tend to have a habit of buying things online when I am sick. I absolutely love ASOS and I buy from them every few months. I just thought I would post a review about what I bought and my thoughts on the clothes!

I've been um-ing and ah-ing over what to write about today, and I still don't really know! I know over the next few weeks I'm going to be posting everyday seeing as I'm not working or doing anything else with my time.

I've just got back from the doctors as I was getting a bit concerned about one of my surgery wounds - turns out it was a false alarm and I'm ok. The nurse was really pleased with how they are healing and they shouldn't show up too much when the cuts are fully healed.

I will probably do a long post about my Gallbladder story in a few weeks time when I am completely healed, so I can take some pictures of my scars without scaring too many people! At the moment I am still under a week from having the operation so it still looks a bit icky and glue is still everywhere, and people don't really need to see that!

I've just also had my very first piece of chocolate (Feast ice cream) since the operation so I'm hoping it will go down ok. I'm just on Nurofen now for the achy pains I'm getting where my gallbladder was. I am thankfully Tramadol freeeee!!! So I won't be going wappy anymore :)

Hello!

So, I'm sitting here in bed still recovering from my gallbladder operation last week, and just trying to find things to do! The picture above is what I spent last night doing - my Grade 5 Music Theory book! Unfortunately there is only so much you can do before your brain starts to melt...

I used to blog a fair bit when I was at school, and then I got out of the habit of doing it (and possibly also because of online trolls), but I want to get back into doing it! I have had blogs on Wordpress before, but I found the site quite difficult to use, so thats why I'm trying out this one. For now I will probably just write about anything really until I find my niche.

So please follow and if you want to comment me with some blogging tips! I'm aiming to start posting videos on my Youtube a bit more as well :)