title deleted due to spammers

Originall title of this post was "removed".

Never did understand the depth of the word till now. I mean recovery, rehab, but conv - alescence? (for some reason I do keep having the bold image of James Bond, wheelchair bound and lakeside in Casino Royale though).

So if you hadn't heard, I've had the unfortunate experience of acute appendicitis. I've been working up to writing this awhile but sitting in a chair isn't a good thing right now.

The weekend of the 20th started out innocently enough. got home from work and just didn't feel the greatest, Saturday not much better. Sunday seemed OK if a bit week. Mushtaq and I kinda crossed it all off to accumulated work stress. Like most folks in the US, the work environment is a bit stressing.

Late Sunday night I woke up with bad stomach pain and pretty much knew right away it had to be the stomach flu again (I wrote about it back in Jan). Every thing rolled along just like that time. A long sleepless night with waves of nausea accompanied by tearing stomach pain and bloating. Yep, eventually Herculean hurling and all. This time seemed a bit slower going and by Tuesday morning I had the new symptom of extreme full body shivering to the point I thought I would pull muscles. Temp spiked to 102.6 shortly thereafter and started coming right down. At this point I hadn't eaten or drunk anything. Early afternoon I was able to take a shower and figured I was on the upswing.

Abruptly at dinnertime I began to get severe stomach pain and cramps with severe nausea sweats. Like before but much, much worse and building. Thank goodness Roberta hadn't left yet for her evening class (she had just got home from work).

After a half hour of listening to me moan and pant like a Lamaze class possessed, she forced me into the back of the truck and took me to emergency. and I remember ever minute of the ride and every bump it seemed like she was aiming for.

After that, the days all get a bit fuzzy.

They did the requisite CAT scan, took one look and rushed in the on call surgical team.



Seems that the brief afternoon of feeling better was when the infected appendix had begun leaking it's pus all into my abdomen and around my stomach. The leak caused the lack of pressure according to Mushtaq and the fact that my stomach hurt so much from the infection masked that it was ultimately the appendix.



Fortunately it hadn't actually ruptured but the leaking caused them to treat everything the same with the exception that they didn't need to do the large cut to clean up, they could use the laprascope. I've got a nice smiley face scar blow my bellybutton and two additional small ones to add to my lifetime tally. But ultimately an easier recover vs the large scar.

My brother/partner Chris even came up to seem me the next morning, gotta love him.

Only had to spend two days in the hospital and made it home late Thursday on alot of vicodin. Man I wished they could have sent me home on the morphine they had been shooting me with but I don't miss the tag along IV stand.

so at this point I was told to walk as much as possible if you can believe it. Everything was repaired, we just had to keep an eye on my temp if an infection developed.



With the appendicitis, the digestive system dilates, gets lazy and starts to shut down. So actually, Walking stimulates everything to start working again.

But by Saturday, things had gone downhill. My stomach was so bloated, I simply couldn't eat anything. There just wasn't room. and because I wasn't eating, I started to become too week to walk much. Not a good spiral. I ate maybe all of 200 calories on Saturday.


Finally called the surgeon on Sunday and he explained that all the vicodin was shutting down my digestion and allowing the natural gasses to accumulate in my stomach and took me off it. So finally Monday I started to feel better again.



And so, here we are. Each day just a little bit better than the day before. After each walk, the digestion is just a bit better than the day before and the abdominal pain that hits after just a bit less painful. I realized yesterday too, this really could have gone down a much more dangerous path. I'm thankful for that but the other thing is, there's no rhyme or reason why it happens. it just does. But I've had plenty of time to think and measure my time.



I'm hoping by Monday the Dr will clear me to go back to work. I'm being paid at 2/3 salary on sick leave so that sucks. Turns out the morning after my surgery they had another round of cuts and the guy in the office next to me who was covering for me was let go too. No wonder he didn't answer my calls from the office.



I am down about 14lbs now too.



I'd like to thank everyone who kept calling and worrying. I'm sorry I was just to weak and hoarse to take your calls.