Blogocentric Formulations

The Whole Hospital Situation

So I'm back from the hospital, and since it was all so sudden, I thought I'd fill everyone in now that I have some time. Here's what happened:

On Thursday afternoon, I started to get pretty bad stomach cramps. I had sushi for lunch, so I assumed it was a bit of food poisoning, and nothing I hadn't experienced before. But through Thursday night, I could barely sleep as the abdominal pains got worse. By Friday at noon, the pain was almost unbearable, and I went to an Urgent Care facility to see what was wrong. After blood and urine tests, X-rays, and several examinations, they sent me right to the hospital emergency room to test for appendicitis; I didn't even have a chance to go home and get a change of clothes or anything. The surgeon on call (who also happened to be the hospital's Chief of Staff) asked a few questions and did a few exams of his own, and promptly scheduled me for surgery around 9:45 p.m. on Friday night.

Surgery only took about 45 minutes, and by 11:00 p.m., I was in a hospital room and recovering. I spent all of Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, and Sunday morning at the hospital, hooked up to an IV, being constantly monitored, and sustaining myself on a clear liquid diet of tasteless soup broth, Jell-O, and fruit juice. Apparently, my appendix was in pretty bad shape... the surgeon said that it was very close to rupturing or bursting, so it was a good thing I came in when I did on Friday night.

The surgeon came to visit me this morning, said I was actually recovering very well. No nausea from eating, the pain was manageable, etc. So he discharged me around 1:00 p.m. today and I've spent the rest of the day at home on the couch. It's going to be semi-solid foods (mashed potatoes, pudding, regular soups, etc.) for the next few days, and a gradual work up to solids. I'm stuck in bed or on the couch for the next week, at which point I'll go back and get the staples taken out of my incision, two weeks after that before I'm pain free... and in about a month, I should be able to exercise and get back to my normal life.

Everyone was great. The surgeon, nurses, doctors, and everyone at both the hospital and Urgent Care were attentive, helpful, sympathetic, and kind. It was my first real surgery (not counting wisdom teeth), and I know my family and my wife were worried. My mom flew in yesterday to stay through Tuesday and help take care of me so my wife can get back to work... and all the medical staff did a wonderful job of reassuring, explaining, and helping us figure out what I need to do for the next few weeks.

It was scary to have such an urgent surgery pop up so quickly and unexpectedly... but as far as surgery goes, this one couldn't have gone better. I'm home now and at least I have my laptop and WdC to keep me company on the long road to recovery.

I'm sorry if I worried anyone with my sudden status update, but as you can see, it all happened a bit quickly for me too!

Thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes and personal notes. It's good to know I have such wonderful friends who worry about me.