I had a lap chole on 7/15 and woke up from the anesthesia in excruciating pain. Unable to get my pain under control, instead of going home that afternoon, I was admitted to the hospital until 7/17. After being discharged still in pain, I went home. On 7/20 I was still in an extreme amount of pain, and was telling myself that it was only in my head, and that if I could just get out of bed and walk around, the pain would subside. After looking at my yellowing abdomen, my mother decided to call my surgeon who instructed us to go to the ER. In the ER we were informed, after an ultrasound, that there was fluid forming in my abdomen though they couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. They scheduled me for an ERCP the following day and admitted me as an inpatient. Unfortunately the doctor who normally does these tests was not in town, so I would have to wait another day in order to have the test done. By this point, I had not eaten in 6 days, other than Jell-O. Upon waking up from the ERCP I was informed that I have too many ulcers in my stomach for the doctor to get the tube through to the bile duct. Our next step was to try an abdominal CT scan, which the oral prep caused elevated blood pressure and heart rate. The CT scan showed that indeed I did have a bile leak (as the ultrasound 2 days before had also stated) though they still could not tell where it was from. I was scheduled for a HIDA scan in nuclear medicine the following day. After the HIDA scan I received a call to my hospital room from my original surgeon who had been out of state at a conference. She stated that due to the amount of bile leaking into my abdomen, I would need to be transferred to a hospital in a different state where a specialist could take a look at me and surgically fix my leak. I was flown to another hospital the next morning where I sat around for 2 days until another ERCP could be performed. After that ERCP I was informed that the doctors were able to find the origin of the leak and cut a hole in the muscle next to it, hopefully giving it a chance to heal on its own without surgery, as a stent was not possible due to anatomical abnormalities. Another CT showed how much bile was in my abdomen (as the 35 lbs of weight gain and my yellow-protruding abdomen weren’t evidence enough!). It was after the CT that I started having chest pains and had to be on a constant heart monitor and oxygen for the next 2 days. The day after the ERCP, a drain was placed in my lower abdomen, and 4L of fluid drained out of my abdomen in the first few hours. The drain stayed in for about 10 days, and was removed a few days after returning home. After 7 days in the hospital in another state, and 11 days total, I was released to go home. I spent the next two weeks at home attempting to get better. Two days after returning to work, I suddenly came down with uncontrollable vomiting and abdominal pain. I went to the ER where I was told I have diverticulitis and to take antibiotics. The antibiotics prescribed to me, I turned out to be allergic to so I was admitted to the hospital for another 5 days so I could get IV antibiotics while being monitored. I also have terrible veins and had had numerous problems with IVs while being in the hospital so a central line was placed in my upper arm. Thanks to the central line, I now have a DVT (blood clot) in my arm and have to give myself injections twice a day for the next 10 days. I am nearly 8 weeks post-op and still can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.