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For a few days, there was no pain at all -- more of a discomfort in my gut, as if some gas was blocked up, knotted in a kink of my colon. Only unlike gas, it never moved from that one spot in my lower right abdomen. No fever, no problems with bowel movements. But the discomfort slowly grew.
Late Sunday night, it started to hurt. Not a sharp pain, more like a steady pressure from someone's knuckle. Still in that one place, and firm. Hard. Significant. So in the morning, I called in sick, and when it opened went to the nearest urgent care center, where the nice doctor took two looks at me and ordered me off to the emergency room down the road: "likely appendicitis." At the hospital, a CT scan agreed -- "likely appendicitis." A surgeon was assigned, an operating room put in for, and waited for, and waited for -- the OR was backed up by a string of emergency cases. Finally, just after midnight, I was rolled into the OR, was shifted over to the table, started to say something, and woke up around dawn, slightly incoherent.
Slightly.
Three incisions: two on the left side, just below the ribs and closer to the groin, and a smaller one a little below my navel -- none of them near the place that no longer has a red, inflamed appendix, or indeed any appendix at all. Laparoscopic surgery is fascinating. As is the bloating from the air they pump in so the camera and tools have space to move around. Though that interest is less intellectual and more ... personal.
Pain can be hard to judge. Through the day, I reported 5 on a scale of 0 to 10, even though actually it kept growing. Because, well, it still felt about halfway to the worst pain I could imagine. A little after sunset, I finally gave in and accepted the offered morphine -- and then a minute later, an anti-nausea drug to counter that.
I'm napping less than the first few days, but still taking it slow. The day before yesterday, I actually left the house. I am starting to get restless, though. Not bored though, or not yet -- I have a virtual stack of novels by Dumas père to entertain me. At some point when I feel I can stay for a full day, probably next week, I'll return to work. But no rushing.
In fact, another nap sounds good right now.
---L.
Late Sunday night, it started to hurt. Not a sharp pain, more like a steady pressure from someone's knuckle. Still in that one place, and firm. Hard. Significant. So in the morning, I called in sick, and when it opened went to the nearest urgent care center, where the nice doctor took two looks at me and ordered me off to the emergency room down the road: "likely appendicitis." At the hospital, a CT scan agreed -- "likely appendicitis." A surgeon was assigned, an operating room put in for, and waited for, and waited for -- the OR was backed up by a string of emergency cases. Finally, just after midnight, I was rolled into the OR, was shifted over to the table, started to say something, and woke up around dawn, slightly incoherent.
Slightly.
Three incisions: two on the left side, just below the ribs and closer to the groin, and a smaller one a little below my navel -- none of them near the place that no longer has a red, inflamed appendix, or indeed any appendix at all. Laparoscopic surgery is fascinating. As is the bloating from the air they pump in so the camera and tools have space to move around. Though that interest is less intellectual and more ... personal.
Pain can be hard to judge. Through the day, I reported 5 on a scale of 0 to 10, even though actually it kept growing. Because, well, it still felt about halfway to the worst pain I could imagine. A little after sunset, I finally gave in and accepted the offered morphine -- and then a minute later, an anti-nausea drug to counter that.
I'm napping less than the first few days, but still taking it slow. The day before yesterday, I actually left the house. I am starting to get restless, though. Not bored though, or not yet -- I have a virtual stack of novels by Dumas père to entertain me. At some point when I feel I can stay for a full day, probably next week, I'll return to work. But no rushing.
In fact, another nap sounds good right now.
---L.