{"id":699,"date":"2022-12-18T03:48:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T03:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/2017\/01\/22\/tammy-wynette-and-the-pain-of-gall-bladder-disease\/"},"modified":"2022-12-20T22:58:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T22:58:18","slug":"tammy-wynette-and-the-pain-of-gall-bladder-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=699","title":{"rendered":"Tammy Wynette and the Pain of Gall Bladder Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 158px; height: 173px; float: left;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/FamousDeaths\/wynette2.jpg\" alt=\"Tammy Wynette\" \/>Tammy Wynette rose from poverty in rural Mississippi to become one of the most famous female country music singers. \u00a0She sold more than 30 million records, had 57 Top-40 country hits between 1967 and 1988, won two Grammy Awards, three Country Music Association awards, eight Billboard awards and 16 BMI songwriter awards. \u00a0In 2003, five years after her death, her &#8220;Stand by Your Man&#8221; was voted \u00a0the top country song of all time. However, her incredible success as a singer was marked by severe intestinal problems, multiple surgeries, depression and addiction to narcotic pain killers. \u00a0She married five times and her hit songs often described her own loneliness, divorce, sadness and \u00a0pain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong>Early Years<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">She was born in a small town in Mississippi to cotton-farming parents. \u00a0Her father, who was very musical and played a guitar as a hobby, died of a brain tumor when she was nine months old. \u00a0Her mother sent her to live with her grandparents in a house that had no indoor plumbing or electricity, and she was sent into the fields to pick cotton. \u00a0 At age nine, she taught herself how to play simple melodies on her father&#8217;s guitar. \u00a0She sang gospel music at her local church and joined another church just to be able to sing more. \u00a0 She was a very aggressive and hard-working child. \u00a0Through grit and determination she became an all-star basketball player in high school and got a chance to sing on a local radio station.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f2KP9fYZUWA\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong>She Outworked Everyone Else<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">A month before she was to be graduated from high school, she married an often-unemployed construction worker. \u00a0They moved from one rental place to another and she worked as a waitress, barmaid and even as a shoemaker in a shoe factory. \u00a0At age 21, she became a licensed hairdresser. \u00a0In spite of her incredible success later as a country singer, she never forgot her early life in poverty and continued to renew her cosmetology license yearly for the rest of her life. \u00a0She worked days fixing women&#8217;s hair and tried to get jobs singing in clubs at night. \u00a0With two children and pregnant with a third daughter, she left her husband because he would not support her singing ambitions. \u00a0At age 23 she sang in her first television show, which was followed by an appearance with Porter Wagoner. \u00a0She moved with her three daughters to Nashville, changed her name from Virginia to Tammy and got her first recording contract. \u00a0By age 27 she had climbed out of poverty as an established singer and had recorded five top songs, including &#8220;Stand by Your Man&#8221; and &#8220;D-I-V-O-R-C-E&#8221;. That year and for the next two years, she was named the Country Music Association&#8217;s &#8220;Female Vocalist of the Year&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong>More Marriages<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">After her unhappy first marriage, she married singer-songwriter Don Chapel and they divorced one year later. \u00a0 At age 27 she sang a duet with her childhood idol, George Jones, and she was instantly smitten with him even though he was 11 years older. \u00a0They married and had a daughter, Tamala Georgette, who grew up to be a successful country music singer. \u00a0The couple recorded several duets including &#8220;We&#8217;re Gonna Hold On,&#8221; &#8220;Golden Ring,&#8221; and &#8220;We&#8217;re Not the Jet Set.&#8221; \u00a0However, he drank too much and disappeared for long periods, and they both stated publicly that they argued all the time. \u00a0In 1974, after five years of marriage, they separated and the newspapers reported that the woman who wrote &#8220;Stand by Your Man&#8221; was getting a &#8220;D-I-V-O-R-C-E.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">She rebounded from an affair with actor Burt Reynolds and married a real-estate broker, Michael Tomlin, but that marriage lasted only 44 days. \u00a0At age 36 she married singer-songwriter George Richey who also managed her career and businesses. \u00a0They remained married until her death.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uHycUpawWh0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong>Multiple Health Problems and Death<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">In 1970 at age 28, \u00a0after having her fourth child, Wynette had her uterus removed. \u00a0A resulting infection caused terrible scarring and she suffered painful intestinal symptoms for the rest of her life. That same year she developed an obstruction in her bile ducts that damaged her gall bladder and after that, she suffered chronic and recurrent intestinal obstructions and infections. She also had surgeries on her kidney and had nodules removed from her vocal cords. She tried to control sometimes overwhelming abdominal pain by taking narcotic pain medications. The addiction caused terrible depression and she was treated with electric shock therapy. During tours, she could not perform without narcotics and often needed a backup singer to sing most of her parts. \u00a0In 1986, at age 44, she entered the Betty Ford Center to be treated for her addiction. \u00a0In 1993, at age 51, she lay in a hospital bed for five days in a coma caused by a bile duct infection spreading through her body.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">At age 55, after more than 30 operations, almost 30 years of severe intestinal symptoms and taking addicting pain medications, she died while sleeping on her couch when a clot formed in her lungs to block the flow of blood through her heart.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong>Her Adult Life of Pain<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">After Wynette had surgery to remove her uterus at age 28, she never was well again. The surgery itself or an infection following surgery could have caused the damage to her gall bladder. \u00a0She had terrible belly pain that no surgery or other treatment could cure. The pain was so severe that she spent the rest of her life taking narcotics in an effort to control her misery and allow her to function. I have not seen her medical records, but I can explain the life-long misery and pain that can follow gall bladder surgery.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 239px; height: 250px; float: left;\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/FamousDeaths\/gallBladder(1).png\" alt=\"gall bladder\" \/>What Is Your Gall Bladder?<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">Your liver removes old blood cells and breakdown products of metabolism and concentrates them into a green-yellow fluid called bile. \u00a0Bile travels from your liver to be stored in a balloon called your gall bladder. \u00a0When food enters your stomach, your gall bladder squeezes bile from the balloon along tubes called the cystic duct and common bile duct into your intestines. \u00a0Bile works to break fats down into smaller particles that can be absorbed into your bloodstream.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong>Gall Bladder Problems and Symptoms<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">Bile usually causes no problems in your intestines, but if bile ever backs up to get into your stomach, and then backs up to your esophagus, it can cause severe burning and paralyzing chest and belly pain. \u00a0To prevent bile from refluxing back up to your stomach, a large pyloric sphincter muscle is located at the end of your stomach. \u00a0This is supposed to keep bile from backing up from your intestines into your stomach. Bile reflux can be caused by surgical complications that damage the pyloric sphincter, removing the gall bladder or any type of gall bladder surgery, or gastric bypass surgery.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">Cholecystitis means that the inner linings of your gall bladder are raw and swollen because the ducts that carry bile from your liver to your intestines are blocked by scarring from surgery, infection or bile stones. \u00a0The obstruction can build up so much pressure that the extra bile can rupture the tubes to cause a surgical emergency.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">Symptoms of gall bladder disease include:<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">\u2022 Right upper belly pain radiating to the right shoulder in front and shoulder blade in back. \u00a0Initially the pain comes and goes and eventually you feel pain all the time.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022 Nausea, vomiting and fever that can come and go.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022 In 15 percent of patients, there is a yellow color in the eyes that indicates jaundice.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><strong>Lessons from Tammy Wynette&#8217;s Painful Life and Death<\/strong><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">\u2022 Childhood poverty and deprivation can drive some people to work very hard and achieve great success. Yet no amount of financial gain, fame or adulation erases those painful memories.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">\u2022 Wynette spent her entire life working harder than everyone else to be the very best in her field, but her success and fame could not protect her from an unhappy life, multiple divorces and estrangements, and a very young death.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">\u2022 Her addiction to narcotics can be explained by the pain and misery she was trying to control. \u00a0Her uncurable gall bladder disease overwhelmed everything else in her life.<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">\u2022 Frequent use of narcotics, even when taken for legitimate medical reasons, has been associated with heart muscle damage and premature death.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tammy_Wynette\">Tammy Wynette<\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">(Virginia Wynette Pugh)<\/div>\n<div id=\"cke_pastebin\">May 5, 1942 &#8211; April 6, 1998<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EkyTMf-GTpU\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tammy Wynette rose from poverty in rural Mississippi to become one of the most famous female country music singers.  She sold more than 30 million records, had 57 Top-40 country hits between 1967 and 1988, won two Grammy Awards, three Country Music Association awards, eight Billboard awards and 16 BMI songwriter awards.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1194],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-histories-and-mysteries","tag-gall-bladder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}