Emergecy Appendectomy
For those of you who haven't heard, I had an emergency appendectomy Friday. I'm doing reasonably well at this point. Possibly TMI behind the cuts. You Have Been Warned.
Thursday details -- getting sick.
Started getting sick about 8pm. Started with intestinal cramps that proceeded to travel down and throughout my intestines. Steadily got worse. Decided about 1:30 am that when I started having dry heaves that it was time to go in to the ER. I've had issues in the past with gluten giving me the same sort of intestinal issues, which is why I wasn't deeply concerned by the intestinal pain when it started. OTOH, when it was getting worse and when I started trying to throw up, that was the point at which to say, OK time to go see a doc.
Friday details -- ER and surgery
ER admitted me immediately from triage. That surprised me -- I've never been sick enough (even at 2 am) for the docs to admit me immediately, even without a five minute wait. Took a while for the doc to come see me, 'cause he was dealing with a cardiac patient. He decided that I probably had food poisoning or had had gluten ingestion, and prescribed a pain med and a anti-nausea/intestinal anti-pain med, and he decided to wait a couple of hours to see if things got better. Twenty minutes later, after the pain *increased*, and after singingnettle pushed, they decided to give me a cat scan. "Just to make sure that everything's OK." This was about 5:30 am.
At 5:45,they told me that my appendix was inflammed, and I should have it taken out. I agreed. They said that I would probably had to wait for the mid-afternoon 'cause the surgery schedule was set for the day. (Grr to the ER doc for not checking things out sooner.)
At 9am (or thereabouts, I'm not too sure,) the docs had apparently decided to switch things around and do my surgery then. Maybe it was because I told them that my appendix was specifically starting to hurt.
I regained consciousness about 11am (I think). I was up in my room by about noon, and singingnettle and miz_hatbox came up to visit for a while. About 1pm, they left & I slept for about 7 hours. scorchedmirth brought singingnettle back about 8:30pm, and singingnettle ended spending the night in the recliner next to me and dozing most of the night.
Saturday morning details
Was woken up about 7am,and talked for a while with singingnettle, and then, to my vast surprise, Jack (my team lead from work) showed up and we ended talking for about an hour. Had the catheter out about an hour after that. It looks like I'll be going home today. Well, faithful readers, you know when I get home, 'cause that's when I'll post this.
In any case, I'm feeling much better. Still can't bend over, but I'm getting definitely better. More later.
Saturday afternoon details -- spoke too soon
Perhaps I spoke/wrote too soon. I'm doing better as I write this, but this afternoon, as I was getting a lesson on how to self catheterize (I was not having an easy time peeing. More on that later. Maybe), when I leaned back I noticed a big (about 6x8 inches) splotch on my hospital gown. The nurse who was giving me the lesson helped me to take care of it, and we put a new bandage on. She told me to wait a few minutes, and then get up, clean myself up, and change my gown for one that wasn't so... bloody. Ten minutes later, I got up, and noticed that the bandage was full of blood, in fact it was sprinkling blood all over the floor. Not Good.
So, we got that cleaned up, and decided that it was in my best interest to stay another night. At which point, singingnettle decided to call in some of our friends and our naturopath. Our naturopath told us to use vitamin K and yarrow to help encourage clotting. Singingnettle went out to get those supplies, and while she was gone, scorchedmirth arrived. We talked for about an hour, at which point singingnettle got back with the supplies. When our friend C showed up at about 6pm, singingnettle and scorchedmirth headed out so that singingnettle could get four hours of real sleep (as opposed to the dozing she did last night). C (who is a acupuncturist and a naturopath) also brought an unpronounceable Chinese medicine that tastes remarkably like dirt to help with clotting and healing. I'm glad to get a chance to have talked with her for a few hours, and to get to know her better. I'm hoping that I will be able to continue our conversation at a later date.
wolfieboy and cindygerb showed up about 9pm to take over the Greenman watch from C. I've been doing very well tonight, so I told them to head home at 10:30pm so that cindygerb wouldn't be overtired for work tomorrow.
Sunday morning
Sunday morning turned out to be the most annoying part of the stay. Had this annoying tech, who at about 6 am burst into the room startling me -- this is not good, as I have a cut that at the time could have been still bleeding. Turns out later that it wasn't -- no thanks to this person. Grr... She then bursts in again (startling me ... again) at 8:15 chastising me because she didn't clear my roller table so that breakfast could be put on it. Then at 8:30 she shows up with breakfast.
(Insert sound of ominous thunder and a couple of cheesy b-movie lightning flashes.)
What do I see on my food? BREAD.
BREAD.
Yep that's right, BREAD.
Why is this so important, you may ask? I am highly allergic to gluten. Well, as far as I know, the hospital didn't have any GF bread, just wheat-free bread. There is a big difference.
The only way that I can convey how I felt is for you to imagine the following:
Imagine that you are awoken and a covered plate of food is shoved in front of you. You've just been startled awake, have plenty of adrenaline rushing through your body, and then the person who shoved the plate of food pulls off the top of the food, revealing eggs, hash browns and a LIVE SCORPION DRIPPING WITH GLOWING GREEN OOZE ABOUT READY TO STRIKE YOU.
Needless to say, I was Not Happy. I told the tech that the food was not acceptable, and she started arguing with me about it. I told her that I was signaling the nurse, and she snapped back at me "That's MY job". I talked with the nurse, and after a couple of go-rounds, we agreed to get another tray without the bread on it. The tech apparently decided that I was evil and started trying to tell other people about the "fact" that I was evil, and glared at us whenever she walked by. (I really think she needs to find a different line of work. Something not at all customer-facing.)
After that excitement, I took a shower, and discovered that I have a couple of hemotobas (sp) on my belly, and we had the doc look at them and pronounce as being not unusual for this type of surgery, and that it was time for me to go home.
So, I am at long last, home.
Thursday details -- getting sick.
Started getting sick about 8pm. Started with intestinal cramps that proceeded to travel down and throughout my intestines. Steadily got worse. Decided about 1:30 am that when I started having dry heaves that it was time to go in to the ER. I've had issues in the past with gluten giving me the same sort of intestinal issues, which is why I wasn't deeply concerned by the intestinal pain when it started. OTOH, when it was getting worse and when I started trying to throw up, that was the point at which to say, OK time to go see a doc.
Friday details -- ER and surgery
ER admitted me immediately from triage. That surprised me -- I've never been sick enough (even at 2 am) for the docs to admit me immediately, even without a five minute wait. Took a while for the doc to come see me, 'cause he was dealing with a cardiac patient. He decided that I probably had food poisoning or had had gluten ingestion, and prescribed a pain med and a anti-nausea/intestinal anti-pain med, and he decided to wait a couple of hours to see if things got better. Twenty minutes later, after the pain *increased*, and after singingnettle pushed, they decided to give me a cat scan. "Just to make sure that everything's OK." This was about 5:30 am.
At 5:45,they told me that my appendix was inflammed, and I should have it taken out. I agreed. They said that I would probably had to wait for the mid-afternoon 'cause the surgery schedule was set for the day. (Grr to the ER doc for not checking things out sooner.)
At 9am (or thereabouts, I'm not too sure,) the docs had apparently decided to switch things around and do my surgery then. Maybe it was because I told them that my appendix was specifically starting to hurt.
I regained consciousness about 11am (I think). I was up in my room by about noon, and singingnettle and miz_hatbox came up to visit for a while. About 1pm, they left & I slept for about 7 hours. scorchedmirth brought singingnettle back about 8:30pm, and singingnettle ended spending the night in the recliner next to me and dozing most of the night.
Saturday morning details
Was woken up about 7am,and talked for a while with singingnettle, and then, to my vast surprise, Jack (my team lead from work) showed up and we ended talking for about an hour. Had the catheter out about an hour after that. It looks like I'll be going home today. Well, faithful readers, you know when I get home, 'cause that's when I'll post this.
In any case, I'm feeling much better. Still can't bend over, but I'm getting definitely better. More later.
Saturday afternoon details -- spoke too soon
Perhaps I spoke/wrote too soon. I'm doing better as I write this, but this afternoon, as I was getting a lesson on how to self catheterize (I was not having an easy time peeing. More on that later. Maybe), when I leaned back I noticed a big (about 6x8 inches) splotch on my hospital gown. The nurse who was giving me the lesson helped me to take care of it, and we put a new bandage on. She told me to wait a few minutes, and then get up, clean myself up, and change my gown for one that wasn't so... bloody. Ten minutes later, I got up, and noticed that the bandage was full of blood, in fact it was sprinkling blood all over the floor. Not Good.
So, we got that cleaned up, and decided that it was in my best interest to stay another night. At which point, singingnettle decided to call in some of our friends and our naturopath. Our naturopath told us to use vitamin K and yarrow to help encourage clotting. Singingnettle went out to get those supplies, and while she was gone, scorchedmirth arrived. We talked for about an hour, at which point singingnettle got back with the supplies. When our friend C showed up at about 6pm, singingnettle and scorchedmirth headed out so that singingnettle could get four hours of real sleep (as opposed to the dozing she did last night). C (who is a acupuncturist and a naturopath) also brought an unpronounceable Chinese medicine that tastes remarkably like dirt to help with clotting and healing. I'm glad to get a chance to have talked with her for a few hours, and to get to know her better. I'm hoping that I will be able to continue our conversation at a later date.
wolfieboy and cindygerb showed up about 9pm to take over the Greenman watch from C. I've been doing very well tonight, so I told them to head home at 10:30pm so that cindygerb wouldn't be overtired for work tomorrow.
Sunday morning
Sunday morning turned out to be the most annoying part of the stay. Had this annoying tech, who at about 6 am burst into the room startling me -- this is not good, as I have a cut that at the time could have been still bleeding. Turns out later that it wasn't -- no thanks to this person. Grr... She then bursts in again (startling me ... again) at 8:15 chastising me because she didn't clear my roller table so that breakfast could be put on it. Then at 8:30 she shows up with breakfast.
(Insert sound of ominous thunder and a couple of cheesy b-movie lightning flashes.)
What do I see on my food? BREAD.
BREAD.
Yep that's right, BREAD.
Why is this so important, you may ask? I am highly allergic to gluten. Well, as far as I know, the hospital didn't have any GF bread, just wheat-free bread. There is a big difference.
The only way that I can convey how I felt is for you to imagine the following:
Imagine that you are awoken and a covered plate of food is shoved in front of you. You've just been startled awake, have plenty of adrenaline rushing through your body, and then the person who shoved the plate of food pulls off the top of the food, revealing eggs, hash browns and a LIVE SCORPION DRIPPING WITH GLOWING GREEN OOZE ABOUT READY TO STRIKE YOU.
Needless to say, I was Not Happy. I told the tech that the food was not acceptable, and she started arguing with me about it. I told her that I was signaling the nurse, and she snapped back at me "That's MY job". I talked with the nurse, and after a couple of go-rounds, we agreed to get another tray without the bread on it. The tech apparently decided that I was evil and started trying to tell other people about the "fact" that I was evil, and glared at us whenever she walked by. (I really think she needs to find a different line of work. Something not at all customer-facing.)
After that excitement, I took a shower, and discovered that I have a couple of hemotobas (sp) on my belly, and we had the doc look at them and pronounce as being not unusual for this type of surgery, and that it was time for me to go home.
So, I am at long last, home.