Well, these last few days have been something else. I'll start a few days back, on Monday evening. Ideally I'd start in the evening and tell you all about a Tamil film we watched called Sivaji which was also something else, but that is really irrelevent to the state of Gwen's gallbladder, unless of course I were to mention that we snacked on some sort of fried treat covered in gravy during the course of the three-hour long filmfest. So anyway, let's start at around 11:00 that night. Gwen and I were settling onto and into our respective mats and sheets. From beneath her blue mosquito net she turned to me and commented about a sharp, concentrated pain in her right side, underneath her rib cage. As time progressed, so did the pain. She tried standing and the pain was magnified. She was most comfortable kneeling with her head down, but she wasn't comfortable at all. I made several treks across the veranda, having to go through the rain to get to Nate and Ashley's room. My first visit was to obtain ibuprofen, the second to ask Nate to come and give a blessing and the third to borrow the cell phone. Nate ended up joining us at that point rather than have me wake him every 15 minutes. The ibuprofen didn't stay in Gwen's unsettled stomach for long, and the pain didn't leave until we were getting into a midnight taxi in the pouring rain. We used the cell phone to call an organization called SOS International which has 24 hour medical call centers and offers advice and will front hospital fees and goodness like that. They listened to Gwen's symptoms and indicated that it was likely a gallbladder stone or a ...oh, what is it called...oh, and ulcer. And they recommended she go to the emergency room and gave us then name and address of a hospital in Coimbatore: the Kovai Medical Center & Hospital. So we woke up Mathew to fill him in, he called the rickshaw and Gwen, Nate and I headed to the Hospital. The drive took 2 hours, 350 rupees, and was the bumpiest ride of my life. And it sounded like I was a sitting atop a combination lawnmower, tractor, with bike spokes with playing cards in them. On the bright side, the winshield of the rickshaw said "Praise the Lord", and for some reason that just made everything better.
ANYWAY...we arrived at the hospital at around 2am and Gwen and I went and waited for the nurses and doctors in a sanitary but dirty space with lots of bugs. The nurse took her blood pressure, the doctor came and listened and recommended an ultrasound. So before long we headed to another wing of the hospital, which is actually a pretty decent looking facility. She had that done, we were led back to the ER, I was led to take care of some paper work, and then the doctor came and shared the results: a gallbladder stone and an infection. Not good. He recommended her being admitted to receive antibiotics for at least the next three days. Somewhere around this time Nate and I decided to dismiss our Taxi driver, which took the help of a translator...and we saw a rat the size of a cat in the parking lot...and then a fly the side of a beetle in the waiting room. Anyway, at around 5am Gwen was admitted and she and I went to her room. She slept for most of the morning...I slept until 8:00. I took off and took care of a few errands (charging the cell phone and putting minutes on it, picking up something clean for Gwen to wear, etc.) And then spent the rest of the day at the hospital.
Now, rather than continue with the play-by-play descriptive approach, I'll just summarize the latest on the situation. As soon as I finish this blog, I'll head to the hospital to relieve Ashley who spent last night with her. I'll stay tonight and we'll take turns making sure she doesn't have to be alone.
Gwen has a very difficult decision to make. It sounds like surgery has to happen, and the big decision is whether to do it here or to go home to the US. There has been a lot of conflicting information that makes it more difficult to make the choice. The doctors and surgeons here have advised that she go home, but when questioned, it seems that their rationale for that advice is so that she would have her family with her. They said that they could potentially only need to do a simply laproscopic surgery and recovery would only take about 3 days time. But, if the infection has spread, it would require invasive surgery and take 2 weeks to recover. Gwen was feeling good about having the laproscopic surgery here, and if the bigger surgery were necessary, then go home.
However, after she'd resolved on this as her course of action, she recieved a call from a doctor from SOS who very, very, very strongly discouraged surgery here, and said that if she wanted to do it in India that they could find a more suitable place in Delhi or Singapore (which, let's be honest, isn't in India). That would require days of travel and wouldn't be worth it...if that were necessary, she'd go home. After talking to an SOS nurse in another call, Gwen was told that laproscopic surgery isn't even an option if the gallbladder is infected...it would have to be invasive. So she was pretty sure she'd have to go home. And then she called Vinu.
There have been a lot of blessinsg in the timing of everything. It is a blessing that she had the pains when she did rather than while were we travelling in a foreign place. It is a blessing that she is no longer homesick and wants to stay. It is a blessing that she has been calm and collected and composed throughout this entire situation. It is a blessing that the group is pretty much done with research and don't have any travel arrangements finalized and can and did arrange to spend an extra week in the village, and can stay longer if need be. And it is a blessing that her friend, mentor and supervisor at the Ashram, Vinu, a respected physicial who happens to know her surgeon, just arrived home from a month abroad yesterday. Today Vinu is going to visit the hospital, talk to the surgeon and the administration and then meet with Gwen and give her advice and perspective.
And that is pretty much where we are at. I'd better sum up. Gwen's gallbladder is coming out sometime in the relatively near future. Gwen wants to stay and have it done in India, but only if it is the laproscopic, easy-to-recover-from surgery. She's not sure if that is an option here, even though the surgeons claim it is. She will likely make her decision of where to have surgery (aka whether to stay in India or go home) tonight after counseling with Vinu. Gwen has such a great attitude through all this. I am so impressed. She is great.
Well, I'm going to go and see her now. So, to whomever reads this, keep her in your prayers. Thanks. I'll post an update on either Saturday or Monday.
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