In the last post I said Leslie was tentatively scheduled for surgery on Saturday, Feb. 3. Didn’t happen. Her surgeon, Dr. Bench, didn’t like her test results, He preferred to wait until she recovered more fully from acute pancreatitis, which is what landed her in the hospital. And by the way, Dr. Bench was busy saving someone’s life in the ER for most of Saturday morning.
So Leslie was released from Sharp Memorial Hospital on Sunday, Feb. 4. We’re bunking with our daughter Stephanie temporarily. Leslie’s gall bladder removal is now set for Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 13. If there’s no further delay, we should be able to resume our travels in early March.
Another update post-surgery…
With Leslie out of the hospital, we were able to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary Feb. 6 at Bluewater Boathouse Grill on Coronado Island. She looks great, doesn’t she?
“Mom, if you wanted to stay with me longer all you had to do was ask,” said our daughter Stephanie as she and I hovered over Leslie’s bed in the emergency room.
No, we’re not in Costa Rica. There’s been a slight delay and we’re still in San Diego. But while I’m staying in Stephanie’s guest room, Leslie is a patient at Sharp Memorial Hospital on the city’s north side. I’ll try to make a complicated story as concise as possible.
After suffering with abdominal pain all day Monday (Jan. 29), Leslie asked me to take her to Urgent Care on Tuesday morning (Jan. 30), just to make sure she was OK to get on an airplane to Costa Rica the following day. Urgent Care did some tests and sent her to the ER at Sharp Memorial, where she was admitted with acute pancreatitis — probably caused by passing a gallstone Monday (hence the pain) — as well as pneumonia.
Just one of the devices Leslie has been hooked up to. She would not agree to pose for a photo.
Since then they have pumped her full of antibiotics and other meds. As of Friday (Feb. 2) afternoon, her condition has improved to the point where a surgeon may be able to remove her gall bladder Saturday morning, tentatively at 9:30 a.m. The gastroenterologist who treated her in the ER said her gall bladder was “full of sludge” and she might have more stones in the future. We agreed that doing the surgery now will help avoid the possibility of throwing another gallstone while we’re on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
There are some positives here. First, we’re in San Diego where Stephanie can be with her mom, and where doctors and nurses speak English. Second, Leslie’s room is on the seventh floor of the acute care wing with an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. Well, it’s several miles away, but you can see it if you look closely. And the sunsets are super!
The view from Leslie’s hospital room. That’s California Highway 163 in the foreground. Across the freeway is the Kearney Mesa area of San Diego, and the ocean is in the distance.
We have cancelled the first part of our trip to Costa Rica, the house in Atenas, but everything else is unsettled. We hope to rearrange accommodations in the beach town of Jacó so we can arrive March 1 and leave April 10. That way we can still evaluate Costa Rica as a possible retirement location, but give Leslie plenty of time to heal and still take the cruise to Europe.
Ex-pats in Mexico 