One less appendix
I had a once in a lifetime experience on Sunday. Something that, thankfully, will never happen again. I am now back home, feeling somewhat better, and recovering nicely. For those who don't want the full details, you can skip past them.
On Saturday I woke up and noticed that I had a stomach ache. Over the course of the afternoon the pain got somewhat worse and move to be lower in the abdomen. By about midnight it was firmly located on my lower right side, next to the top of my hip. It was bad enough that I had my doctor paged about 12:30am on Sunday.
After a quick phone call, he recommended that I go into the BWH Emergency Room. I grabbed a cab over, and arrived about 1:30am. After a few hours of tests and waiting, the doctors were fairly sure that I had appendicitis. They were going to give me a CT scan to do the final verification.
I had been waiting until a slightly reasonable hour to call steph_grrl to tell her that I was in the ER. While waiting for the CT scan, I went ahead and managed to call and wake her. For the record, getting her to answer the phone at 5:30am is no minor feat.
By 7:30am, I had the good and the bad news. The good news is that they knew why I was in pain, the bad news is that it was my appendix. I was to have it out in a couple of hours, about 10am. This was the news I was waiting for, so I called Steph back, and called my parents for the first time.
At this point my memory gets a little fuzzy, but I remember several more rounds of phone calls to Steph, my Mom, and my Dad, going down to pre-op, and making a couple final phone calls to get the telephone tree setup for the post-op update from the surgeon. The last think I remember is being introduced to the surgical team outside as they each stopped by my bed in pre-op to introduce themselves.
The next thing I remember is waking up back in the same room (used for both pre- and post-op) feeling really groggy and appendix-less.
By late afternoon on Sunday, I was able to walk around the hospital floor a little bit, and, according to the nurses, was making good progress. I was discharged from the hospital on Monday afternoon. After a quick stop at the drug store for pain killers, I've been at home alternating between sleeping, eating, walking around a little, and talking to people online and on the phone.
I'm not expecting to be back in the office until at least next Monday, and not traveling for a couple more weeks. So, if you were expecting me to be at a meeting or event before the 17th, I'm sorry. If you want to find me, please try me on either AOL Instant Messenger pzbowen, IRC (pzb on LinuxNET), or email me (pzbowen@gmail.com). I am much more likely to check these methods over the next few days than my normal corporate email/IM.
After all this, I owe big thanks to steph_grrl, Ryan, and Katey. All three of you have been lots of help in your own ways over the last few days.
On Saturday I woke up and noticed that I had a stomach ache. Over the course of the afternoon the pain got somewhat worse and move to be lower in the abdomen. By about midnight it was firmly located on my lower right side, next to the top of my hip. It was bad enough that I had my doctor paged about 12:30am on Sunday.
After a quick phone call, he recommended that I go into the BWH Emergency Room. I grabbed a cab over, and arrived about 1:30am. After a few hours of tests and waiting, the doctors were fairly sure that I had appendicitis. They were going to give me a CT scan to do the final verification.
I had been waiting until a slightly reasonable hour to call steph_grrl to tell her that I was in the ER. While waiting for the CT scan, I went ahead and managed to call and wake her. For the record, getting her to answer the phone at 5:30am is no minor feat.
By 7:30am, I had the good and the bad news. The good news is that they knew why I was in pain, the bad news is that it was my appendix. I was to have it out in a couple of hours, about 10am. This was the news I was waiting for, so I called Steph back, and called my parents for the first time.
At this point my memory gets a little fuzzy, but I remember several more rounds of phone calls to Steph, my Mom, and my Dad, going down to pre-op, and making a couple final phone calls to get the telephone tree setup for the post-op update from the surgeon. The last think I remember is being introduced to the surgical team outside as they each stopped by my bed in pre-op to introduce themselves.
The next thing I remember is waking up back in the same room (used for both pre- and post-op) feeling really groggy and appendix-less.
By late afternoon on Sunday, I was able to walk around the hospital floor a little bit, and, according to the nurses, was making good progress. I was discharged from the hospital on Monday afternoon. After a quick stop at the drug store for pain killers, I've been at home alternating between sleeping, eating, walking around a little, and talking to people online and on the phone.
I'm not expecting to be back in the office until at least next Monday, and not traveling for a couple more weeks. So, if you were expecting me to be at a meeting or event before the 17th, I'm sorry. If you want to find me, please try me on either AOL Instant Messenger pzbowen, IRC (pzb on LinuxNET), or email me (pzbowen@gmail.com). I am much more likely to check these methods over the next few days than my normal corporate email/IM.
After all this, I owe big thanks to steph_grrl, Ryan, and Katey. All three of you have been lots of help in your own ways over the last few days.