my extended holiday break, part 1
it all started with a hungry feeling on friday evening. it was still there saturday night, but i still didn't think much of it. when i woke up on sunday, it had moved to the right side and was a bit more intense (but still not much worse than a hungry feeling). i thought that was kinda weird, so i looked up appendicitis on webmd. the only symptom i had was the "pain" (other typical symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, lack of energy, nausea, constipation, and back pain). i was worried enough to call a few people to see what they thought and also called the dr on call. he wasn't worried at all and suggested i come in the next morning to have it checked out. a few hours later, i had a slight fever and called mrs c to get her expert motherly opinion on whether i should make a visit to the ER. she convinced me to go in. i relented, knowing that i would have trouble sleeping that night if i didn't get it checked out.
i arrived at the ER around 6.45p on sunday. they tested my urine and blood and everything came up inconclusive (one indication of appendicitis is a high white count -- normal is something like 4000-11000 and mine was 13000). after a bunch of waiting they decided to do a CT scan. i'm allergic to the dye, so they gave me 2 bottles of barium to drink. some people say this tastes like liquid chalk. i would describe it as having the consistency of pepto bismal with minimal taste. the CT showed that my appendix was barely swollen. after a few hours of waiting, we finally knew something conclusive! the surgeon still didn't know if he would take it out that night or wait until the next morning. at around 11.10, he decided to get it over with that night.
for some reason, the ER makes patients walked around to do the different tests (even when i was really wobbly after having a concussion), but they put ya in a wheelchair to go to the OR area. either way, the anesthesiologist asked all me of his normal questions, they replaced my IV needle (the student who did the first one didn't do it quite right), and then i was finally wheeled into the OR. my other surgeries have all been on areas above my shoulders, so they have always buried me in blankets with my arms tucked in. for this one, they put my arms out on little wheeled tables and wrapped really warm towels around them. that was a wonderful feeling in the cold OR! they put the mask on me, changed my IV meds, and i was under at 11.30p.
to be continued...
it all started with a hungry feeling on friday evening. it was still there saturday night, but i still didn't think much of it. when i woke up on sunday, it had moved to the right side and was a bit more intense (but still not much worse than a hungry feeling). i thought that was kinda weird, so i looked up appendicitis on webmd. the only symptom i had was the "pain" (other typical symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, lack of energy, nausea, constipation, and back pain). i was worried enough to call a few people to see what they thought and also called the dr on call. he wasn't worried at all and suggested i come in the next morning to have it checked out. a few hours later, i had a slight fever and called mrs c to get her expert motherly opinion on whether i should make a visit to the ER. she convinced me to go in. i relented, knowing that i would have trouble sleeping that night if i didn't get it checked out.
i arrived at the ER around 6.45p on sunday. they tested my urine and blood and everything came up inconclusive (one indication of appendicitis is a high white count -- normal is something like 4000-11000 and mine was 13000). after a bunch of waiting they decided to do a CT scan. i'm allergic to the dye, so they gave me 2 bottles of barium to drink. some people say this tastes like liquid chalk. i would describe it as having the consistency of pepto bismal with minimal taste. the CT showed that my appendix was barely swollen. after a few hours of waiting, we finally knew something conclusive! the surgeon still didn't know if he would take it out that night or wait until the next morning. at around 11.10, he decided to get it over with that night.
for some reason, the ER makes patients walked around to do the different tests (even when i was really wobbly after having a concussion), but they put ya in a wheelchair to go to the OR area. either way, the anesthesiologist asked all me of his normal questions, they replaced my IV needle (the student who did the first one didn't do it quite right), and then i was finally wheeled into the OR. my other surgeries have all been on areas above my shoulders, so they have always buried me in blankets with my arms tucked in. for this one, they put my arms out on little wheeled tables and wrapped really warm towels around them. that was a wonderful feeling in the cold OR! they put the mask on me, changed my IV meds, and i was under at 11.30p.
to be continued...
posted by zippy @ 11:37 PM
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