Gallbladder… what the heck does that do anyway?

UPDATE: 8:20 p.m. - Aimee is out of surgery and everything went well!!!

So for those of you who don’t know, here is a little biology lesson. Bile is a digestive liquid continually secreted by the liver. Bile contains water, cholesterol, fats, bile salts, proteins, and bilirubin. Remember the blue “bili light” Brenna was under two weeks ago? The function of the gallbladder is to remove the water and other substances from the bile and to serve as a reservoir until bile is needed in the small intestine. If the liquid bile contains too much cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin, it can harden into gallstones.

And that short lesson brings us to yesterday evening when Aimee discovered that she had too much bilirubin in her system. When I say discovered, I mean she walked into the house crying and said “take me to the E.R. because I think I have too much bilirubin in my system” or was it “take me to the E.R. my abdomen is cramping worse than when I had preeclampsia and for once I’m sure there is no way I am pregnant!” Anyway, off we went to the hospital in Kyle and quickly discovered that Aimee had developed gallstones caused by elevated bilirubin levels due to her body attempting to recover after the preeclampsia and C-section.

The Kyle staff was great and transferred us to Seton main last night so that Aimee could have her surgery (scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today) and recovery in the same hospital as Brenna. As long as the surgery goes as planned, Aimee should be released sometime in the next 48 hrs, but for now, Daddy will be sitting bedside with Mom and best of all, taking advantage of Mom being knocked out on Dilaudid to steal a little extra kangaroo time with Brenna!