When we last left Nikki, she was tucked in to her hospital bed, I had relieved our sitter so that she could return to her husband and daughter, and I had finally crashed. I did not sleep well.

When the kids woke me up, I did my best to remain chipper and upbeat. I didn’t consider that me being chipper and upbeat was out of the ordinary enough to worry the kids, but hindsight tends to be 20/20.

They asked how Mom was doing, and I told them that she was still hurting, but the doctors were trying to find out why. It took me a while to get out of the house and back to the hospital. Peter had shown up to watch to the kids, but I had a strong sense that I was abandoning them when they needed me the most. Peter picked up on this, and shooed me out when I started to get unreasonable about it.

I went, and Nikki had been in and out of dozing for most of the night and morning. They had her pain mostly controlled, but she kept getting headaches from one of the meds. We found out later that they’d been giving her a medication that she was allergic to, despite having been repeatedly informed of the allergy. I still breathe a sigh of relief when I think about it. A headache was a mild reaction – it could have been much worse. Thanks to our previous night’s sitter, a nurse in training, for catching that one. At one point, Peter brought the kids by, and they were all happy to see Mom, and relieved that she didn’t look like she was in a lot of pain. It was hard for our oldest to go, but the younger ones got bored pretty quickly, so Peter took them back home.  For all of the medical drama that our family goes through, I am glad that they bounce back from it as quickly as they do.

By the end of the day, we had learned that there were several stones in her gallbladder, but the symptoms that she was experiencing were common for both an ulcer and a malfunctioning gallbladder. So, they scheduled a scope for the next day, to send a camera into her stomach and check out the terrain. She would be sedated, at least partially, for the procedure, so it was going to take place in the surgical wing of the hospital. Once that was done, they’d have sure footing from which to proceed with a plan of action. One more day off of work, and one more time that our friends stepped up to watch our kids.

I got up and got the kids around and fed, and Peter came over to hang out a bit before I left. Just after he arrived, I got a call from one of our friends that had watched the kids the first night. They were taking her in early, and I needed to get my butt there ASAP. Off I went, at warp speed, praying that I got there before they took her back for the scope. I couldn’t let her go in without knowing that I was there. I couldn’t. Our friend met me in the lobby, guided me to the surgical prep area with the quickness (he has one hell of a stride), and I was able to hold Nikki’s hand for a few minutes before they took her back.

I spent a couple of hours trying not to agonize by keeping as many people in the loop as possible. It went by quickly, and I was called back to speak to the doctor. She had no ulcer, and had no signs of ever having had one. Her increasing issues over the past seven years hadn’t been IBS or an ulcer, but a slowly increasing number of gall stones that were doing their best to shut the gallbladder down. They’d been quite successful, and so it needed to come out.

We went home that night together. Having a diagnosis and a plan of action helped, as did the prescription for painkillers. We’d have a week of holiday celebrations, and then Nikki would go in for an outpatient surgery, and be out and home the same day.

To be concluded.