Oil and Water

Being pregnant has some physical quirks. Having gallstones has some physical issues, as well. Both are tolerable, but together they are not a good mix.

For example, when I'm feeling a little queasy from the pregnancy, I would normally go for a ginger ale or maybe even a Coke, but those are about the worst things you can drink when you have gallstones. One of the best things you can drink when you're suffering from a gallstone attack is apple juice with a bit of apple cider vinegar mixed in, but just the thought of that makes me want to puke now that I'm pregnant.

Since I started having gallstone attacks (this past summer, finally diagnosed in October), I have severely changed my diet. It was absolutely atrocious...I ate junk food most of the day, with rarely anything healthy thrown in there, so I definitely deserved some kind of bodily protest. I now regularly eat fruits and vegetables, I no longer drink soda of any kind, and I avoid foods high in sugar and fat, so really, having gallstones was a blessing (in a serious disguise).

I thought it would be the candy (chocolate!) that I would miss, but really it's been fatty foods, like pizza, that I've missed the most. And especially the past couple of weeks, I've REALLY wanted pizza! I have cheated a couple of times; for example, I brought my friend a couple of pizzas for lunch when I went to visit her on Monday (she just moved back after being gone for 11 years). I tried to limit myself to one slice, but Shaya left most of a second slice that I finished off for her. And then, for my birthday dinner on Tuesday, I decided that I wanted pizza. We made a healthier kind, on whole wheat english muffin halves. I piled mine high with onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms, but I also put quite a bit of mozzarella cheese on top. They were so good that I ended up eating four of them (stuffing yourself is also bad when you have gallstones), along with a lot of fresh fruit that Robert bought for me. So, sure, relatively healthy, but way too much.

I spent the last three hours of my birthday (and into the next morning) suffering from a gallstone attack. Oh, and because I'm pregnant, I can't take the pain medication that was subscribed to me. Tylenol just doesn't cut it...it takes the edge off, but the pain is still there. It's so not fun. I am hoping that whatever cravings my pregnant body decides to have in the future, that they coincide with a good, healthy, non-gallstone-attack-inducing diet. Like cucumbers. I hope I crave cucumbers.

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What a nice week this has been! My kids have been home all week from school. I've pretty much been in my PJs for the past three days. We've all just been lazing around, spending a bit of time playing in the snow, but also watching movies, reading books, and playing computer games. I have become a homebody, because I really like being lazy these days.

There wasn't any school on Monday, due to President's Day. On Tuesday we woke up to quite a bit of snow on the ground, with messages from the district delaying school for a couple of hours and only having buses on limited transportation. Limited transportation is a huge pain for us...the regular bus stop is right in front of our house; the 'emergency bus stop' is 2 miles away. Two miles of un-plowed, limited use, twisty, hilly roads. Neither Robert nor I feel all that comfortable driving in snow in the first place, but our road is always difficult to drive on when there's any snow at all. Limited transportation means 4 trips on our road, and since more snow was being forecasted, we just decided to let the kids have a snow day. Wednesday and today were both officially school closed (due to snow) days. I'm thinking tomorrow might just be a stay-at-home day, too, even if it isn't official...we'll just round off the week and have some more relaxing family time :-)