The Number Field

Whenever a problem has come up during the pregnancy, we've hoped for two things: that we could manage it during the pregnancy, and that it would go away after Sunflower arrived. We've had very few problems so far, but that has changed. Jenny's experienced some episodic pains in her ribs the past few weeks, so our doctor ordered an ultrasound for Jenny's internal organs (not for the baby). It detected sludge in her gall bladder, and our doctor diagnosed that as the the source of the problem. She prescribed some medicine to treat the problem, and referred us to a surgeon.

Yesterday we visited the surgeon. He confirmed what our doctor had told us, and added that it is too late to perform surgery, so we'll have to wait until after the baby arrives to take action. Until then, we can manage the pain best by limiting Jenny's diet; she's not allowed to eat any fat at all. On the plus side, he said that there's no reason why spicy foods should be a problem. We asked about the chance that the problem would go away once the baby came, since it is only sludge, not gall stones. In no uncertain terms, he said that Jenny should have her gall bladder removed not long after delivering the baby, because even if the pain went away, she would be at high risk for similar problems if she were to get pregnant again.

I went to the grocery store today and took care only to buy low fat and no fat items. This seems to be working, as Jenny has been able to manage without medication today. But on top of it all, she has a cold, and has been coughing all day (and all of last night, too). So to the best of our ability, we're taking it easy, which is not all that easy to do.