In 2017 and 2018, I often
had painful gallbladder attacks. The
first time it happened, I thought I had food poisoning from the tuna fish I had
eaten that day in 2017. Endless pain across
my mid-section and shortness of breath were my symptoms and the discomfort went
on for hours. When I couldn’t stand it
any longer, I called the paramedics. They
took many tests in the hospital including an electrocardiogram because I
thought I was having a heart attack due to trouble breathing. I was also given a cat-scan with contrast and
a sonogram on my middle section and the gallbladder area. They then informed me of the many stones in
my gallbladder that may cause me to have more attacks later on. The fact that my gallbladder wasn’t diseased,
is the reason they sent me home and with prescriptions for pain and gas pills. I was just happy that the pain had finally
gone away.
I had been very busy in
2017 with packing up my belongings and preparing to move into a rented duplex
the first of 2018. Luckily, I didn’t
have any gallbladder attacks to slow me down.
Unfortunately, after almost a year in the rental, I wanted out. It was too small and the view was awful. I decided I wanted to live in an adult
community in a small manufactured home and so I found the community and
purchased the home.
In September I began
packing again and one early evening after bending over about 50 times to tape
up my boxes, I felt a funny pain on my middle left side. I knew it wasn’t my gallbladder because that is on
the right but after being so busy with my sister in bed for a year and selling
the house, I never gave my abdominal aorta aneurysm a thought. In other words, I never thought about it being
time to get a check-up by a vascular doctor.
Anyway, when I bent over the 60th time, I heard an unusual
noise like a tear or a rip which was definitely a strange sound. I quickly retrieved a medical magazine I had
received from Bethesda West hospital and which included an article about a
newer less invasive way to repair an abdominal aorta aneurysm. After a few phone calls, they said I should
go to that particular hospital because that doctor was on call that night. It was a Friday.
When she came into my room,
I was surprised to see how young she was.
The picture of her in the magazine was even younger looking but I
figured it might be an earlier picture.
After we talked about my reason for being there, I wondered if she was
laughing on the inside when I told her I think my abdominal aneurysm was
getting ready to rip open. I of course
mentioned the tearing sound I had heard earlier. She then wanted to know how I even knew I had
an aneurysm since symptoms don’t usually appear until they burst with lots of pain. I explained the sonogram I had gotten several
years ago that revealed I had one. She
then wanted to know why I hadn’t kept up with a vascular doctor and so I told
her the doctor I saw wasn’t worried about it at the time and said I should come
back when I’m in my 80s and maybe I’d be ready for an operation. I then told the young lady doctor that I
haven’t called him yet because I’m not 80, I’m 73. She smiled at that one and then ordered a
C-scan with contrast.
The first sonogram years
ago of my aneurysm measured 3.2 centimeters.
The second sonogram from the same people measured 4.3. The last one at the hospital dated 15 years
from the first one measured over 6.0 so it only took a short time that night before I was
rushed to the operating room. After
seeing the scan, the doctor wasn’t going to chance putting me in the ICU for
the night. That’s where I woke up though
some several hours later. My son was
asleep in a chair and happy to see me when I woke up. I told him I couldn’t move my legs so he
moved them for me and then the feeling came back. They had been crossed at the ankles and just fell
asleep on me. Whew!
After a couple of days of
therapy and several walking tours around the hospital, I was released after 5
days. A nurse came to the house for about
two weeks to change my bandage and a physical therapist visited to put me
through some exercises. I wasn’t allowed
to lift anything strenuous for awhile so my packing was put aside until after
my follow-up doctor visit. I heal pretty
fast so by November 1st I was packed and moved into my new home
where I spent my first Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Once I got situated, I got
back to sorting through tons of papers from my sister’s files and also from
mine. It was nice to come across some
things I had wondered what happened to them and there were many copies of
papers filled with good information that we both had printed from our
emails. One was titled “Cinnamon and
Honey”….Must Read so I had set it aside to read later which turned out to be a couple
of months later.
In the meantime, I had one
more gallbladder attack, a real doozy and plans to have my gallbladder removed
by my vascular doctor fell to the wayside when I failed a stress test. That test evidenced that I needed a triple
by-pass to handle built-up calcium in my heart arteries instead. After
dealing with that and then getting back to my paper sorting task, I once again came
across the above mentioned “Cinnamon and Honey” email from 2012. My by-pass was in April of last year, 2019, so
sometime after that, probably May, I started to sip on Ceylon Cinnamon and Raw
Honey tea and I will continue to drink it. I wish I had started drinking it earlier then
possibly I wouldn’t have needed by-pass surgery. The tea might have gotten the calcium
lessened.
I have not had a gallbladder attack since
January 3, 2019 and my latest A1C readings related to my Type II diabetes were
5.3 and 5.5 instead of 6.1. My cholesterol good and bad are also in better
ranges as well as my triglycerides. I
have no doubt that Ceylon Cinnamon and Raw Honey have played a huge part in my
fantastic readings and I also eat anything I want without fear of my gallbladder
kicking up a fuss!
If you should Google Honey
and Cinnamon you will see many listings for similar articles like I have linked below. Who
knew there were so many good uses for a combination of Ceylon Cinnamon and Raw
Honey? Not me but now I do! FYI do not use regular cinnamon which is high in coumarin.
