So remember that time I was complaining about my gallbladder? Well you all convinced me that I needed to get it checked out. Soooo I went to the doctor, who said, “sounds like it’s your gallbladder.  Go have an ultrasound.”  So I did.  But after waiting almost a week for the results, I found out that the ultrasound didn’t show anything wrong.  Yet, I am still having these classic gallbladder symptoms.  So, as you read this, I will be preparing for a gallbladder SCAN.  Which, will be expensive AND require me to lay still on my back for TWO HOURS.  And hopefully show something if there is something to see.

I am totes freaking out about the two hours thing. The idea of it just flips me out!!!  I am taking my phone and my headphones and have downloaded an audio book to listen to. I hope it works!

But anyhoo, when I was endlessly waiting for my ultrasound results, I decided to take matters into my own hands and do a natural gallbladder “cleanse”.  I know, I’m totally nuts.  But my crunchy friend Laura kept telling me to do one involving drinking olive oil and grapefruit juice, and I got so desperate from the pain and the waiting that I DID it.

I cannot believe I did it.

Not just because it’s weird, but because I am a total wimp.  And yet, I drank THIS:

8 oz of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice and olive oil.  It took me about 10 minutes to get it all down! I really cannot believe I did it.  The worst part was drinking two 4-0z glasses of water mixed with Epsom salts before hand.  That stuff was NASTEEEEEEEE.

It definitely cleansed a whoooooole lot of stuff, but unfortunately it was not the cure-all for the ol’ gallbladder.

So it’s off to the hospital I go for the scan.

And hopefully, some answers.  Wish me luck!

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So what are you doing with your Friday?  (If you need something to do, why don’t you go take our survey and enter to win a $25 Lands’ End gift card!?)

My earliest memory, which plays jerkily in my head like an old 8mm filmstrip, is of going to see the house where I grew up as it was being built.  I remember sitting in my parent’s car in front of the house, seeing wood framing with that black paper in between the wood.  You know what I mean?  I was only three.  Yet, I remember it very clearly.

Do you know what else I remember about being three?  Nothing.  So I think that one memory of that one year of my life is kind of a cool one.

Joshua and Sophie love it when I tell them stories from my childhood, and I try to think up the really exciting ones, like when my Dad saved an injured bird on a pond one day when he took us kids fishing, or when my brother Andy locked me in the garage (in the dark) when we had a babysitter over.  You know, the epic snapshots of my childhood.  I could tell my kids a couple dozen or so of those stories, but then I’d run out…it’s simply amazing to me how much we can experience and not remember.  How much of my life is lost in this way?

Some of my the childhood memories I savor are of my mom rubbing my back when I was sleepy, playing outside on Silverbell Court with my friend Erin, the sun-warmed pavement so hot beneath our bare feet.  I remember spending the night at Grandma’s with Emily and Anna, making up dances and playing lots of rummy. I remember going fishing with my Dad and “helping” him build a deck on the back of our house.  I remember going to Disney World when I was six, but the only thing I remember about it is that Captain Hook scared the bejeebers out of me and my dad was about to deck him, and that it took forever to wait for my brothers to ride Space Mountain (sorry, Em.)  I remember meeting my friend Sheila on the first day of kindergarten.  I remember being baptized.  I remember my dad returning from a fishing trip and cleaning fish in the garage, GROSS.  I remember always making a huge mess out of the patch of dirt on the edge of our driveway that I’d stir into a giant mud puddle when it rained.

Maybe I remember more than I think.  Maybe I have no idea.

When Bobby and I were first married, for 14 months we lived in an apartment on the 7th floor of a building near downtown Dayton.  I spent my first year of marriage there and yet I remember almost nothing about living there.  It was like a “blip” – it went by so fast.  It’s just so weird to me that I don’t have more specific memories from that time.  I feel the same way about Sophie’s first year of life – really almost her first two years.  I guess I was a little  incredibly overwhelmed by the transition from one kid to two, from working part time to staying at home, and from starting the blog during that time.  I know I was exhausted, as she didn’t sleep well until she was 15 months old.  I look at pictures and they jog memories, but her babyhood is pretty much a blur to me, and it makes me sad.  But she was so crazy and I was so worn out  - all those  months of sleep-deprivation were detrimental to my memory for sure.  Momnesia definitely set in.

Since Jonah’s my last baby, I want to try and re-mem-ber as much as I can about these times.  About us as a family of five.  I want to take the time to recognize a moment and say, “Oh! I have to remember this!”  and then do it.  And I want to give my kids those special memories…will Sophie remember me rubbing her back at night?  Will Joshua remember making fun science crafts with me on spring break? Will they remember seeing their baby brother in the hospital when he was born? I hope so.  I hope that most of all, even if some of the details slip away, they’ll remember what I remember most about my childhood…being happy, loved, and secure.

What’s something you’re so glad you remember, or something you wish you remembered more clearly?

About three weeks ago on a Monday night, I went to bed as soon as Bobby got home from work.  I had this weird pain in my side that had been plaguing me all day.  The next morning, I felt better – for a few minutes, and then it came back.  It wasn’t super-bad (trust me, I am a MAJOR WIMP), but it was annoying and uncomfortable.  I knew it couldn’t be my appendix because I gave that organ the heave-ho when I was 18.  I began to suspect kidney stone, gall stone, or cancerous tumor (see: post category, Jenny is Neurotic.)

Six days later, on a Sunday, I decided to go to Urgent Care because a) Bobby was home with the kids and b) the pain was so persistent I had really psyched myself out that a terminal diagnosis was forthcoming.  So off I went, with super-high nervous blood pressure brought on by my wild imagination as well as my symptoms.

At Urgent Care, the doctor asked me a few questions, pressed around my abdomen, assured me I did NOT have a tumor, and upon learning I also did NOT have an appendix, told me I most likely was experiencing a gallbladder attack. I was relieved and not really surprised. I had expected that, if I wasn’t to soon me on my deathbed, it was probably my gallbladder.  My mom had hers out when she was younger than I am now, and my BFF Luanne just gave hers up in December.  My friend Lori had hers out just after having a baby (or were you pregnant, Lori?)

The good doctor told me (in heavily accented English and using the phrase, “ok, cool” a lot) that I could go get a liver function blood test and an ultrasound at the nearest hospital if I wished.

I thought about it and decided to pass.  That sounded expensive!  The past two weeks I’ve been treating my symptoms  by drinking ridiculous amounts of water (previously unheard of for me) and taking herbal supplements to promote gallbladder health.  And, it’s really helping.  I can still feel that gallbladder telling me it’s there sometimes, but not nearly as much as before, and it really is not painful, it’s more of a nag.  I’d really like to try to avoid surgery, because who has TIME for surgery, I’ve got a fabulous trip to Miami to plan for! (However, see above, I AM A WIMP – if it gets excruciating, I will head to the nearest hospital and demand they operate.)

But then.  This week, for some reason the gallbladder PLAGUE has hit all of my Facebook friends!  THREE, count’ em THREE people I know (two I actually KNOW, like, in real life) have gotten their gall bladders removed THIS WEEK!!  One is only 21 years old, the other two both have babies that are less than two months old.

What’s the deal, gallbladders of the world?  Is there like a general uprising going on?

So, have any of you dealt with this?  Any exciting remedies I should know about?  I am using one that has like, a million fab herbs for liver & gall bladder function in it.  I got it from Health Foods Unlimited, so you know it has to be the cure-all. Ha.

Give me your best advice or gallbladder stories!  Save the gallbladders!