Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

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AnotherFairportfan
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Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by AnotherFairportfan »

You may have noticed that i haven't been around much the last couple days.

You may even have wondered where i was, or what happened to me.

Well, if my tablet could handle Northeast Georgia Medical Center's WiFi, i'd have told you.

It's like this:
 
=================

As i've mentioned, after a scary event involving blood coming out where blood should not, Dr Fogarty decided i should have a colonoscopy.

So, last Monday (7/14/14), i spent the day not-eating and the night and subsequent morning prepping for the fun of having someone poke a fibre-optic scope up my butt and scrutinise my insides.

Which they did, and discovered that i had some polyps (which they snipped off and sent for biopsy) and diverticulosis. Great.

So i went home, waited a while for everything to settle down, and had some mac and cheese in the late afternoon, stayed up most of the night playing on the various boards and such i frequent online, ate some pork chops (about 5AM) read for a while, and went to bed. (Now we're up to Wednesday morning, 7/15.)

Woke up about 11AM, did the usual morning things, noticed a slight soreness in the lower-right quadrant.

Kate came home from work about 3PM, not feeling well herself. I mentioned the soreness. I said "What if it's appendicitis?" she said "Have you got a fever?". I checked. No, i didn't. Probably something from the colonoscopy she said.

She called her mother, who's had more than one such procedure, and asked if she had had any residual pain. Her mother siad yes she had. We decided i'd check with Gainesville Gastroenterology the next day.

But the pain kept getting worse. I called Gainesville Gastro, got the on-call doctor (not the one who had done the procedure), who pulled up the records, and said that, as they had cauterised the polyp sites there was some chance of damage or possibly even perforation, and that i should probably go to Northeast Georgia Emergency Room, get some tests and imaging done, and have them contact him with the results. (It's 9PM Wednesday.)

So, Kate drives us to the Emergency Room. We fill out another bale of paperwork to complement the paperwork we did Tuesday, they give me one of those hospital gowns that are designed to check your resistance to death-by-embarrassment, and they wheeled me into the depths* of thehospital. A few hours pass, with some of the same questions being asked again (and again) by different people, blood drawn, pain meds being pumped into me, periodic blood-pressure checks, etc.

Eventually, (a bit past midnight - it's Thursday, 7/17 now) the doctor who caught my case came by, looked me over, prodded me some, listened to my lungs and heart (and my liver, for all i know) and said that he felt that the possible badnesses that Dr Kalarickal had outlined were quite possible indeed, so we were going to see what the CAT scan revealed.

So they gave me two pints of fake-orange-flavoured "contrast" fluid for the imaging.

After i'd drunk all that, about 1AM, they hauled me off to Imaging for the CAT scan.** The attendant pushing me was in a hurry. I had two thoughts as i watched the ceiling tiles whiz by:

1. This reminded me all too much of the hospital sequence in Jacob's Ladder***.

and

2. I have not suffered from motion sickness in the last thirty or forty years (that i can recall), but i was awfully close to it then.

I felt like i was being launched into the Time Tunnel. All it would have needed was blinking red and green LEDs mounted on the sensor ring that was visible as it spun around inside the arch. On the arch were two smiley-face/Pacman type symbols that lit up in sequence - one showed holding your breath, one showed breathing again.

Back to the ER area, and a bit past 2AM, the doctor came in and announced he'd never seen anyone with my kind of luck - Tuesday i had the colonoscopy, Wednesday i had appendicitis.****

About 3AM the surgeon came by - he couldn't stay long, since he had a patient on the table already, and had another scheduled after that, but we talked about what was going to happen.

I signed more consent forms - one for the surgery, and one to give me blood if necessary.

They wheeled me off to my room - North Tower, room 6722, an amazing trip through a maze of corridors******, very fast again, with Kate trotting along behind trying to keep up.

Kate went home to reassure Helen, wait until they told her i was in surgery before coming back (and to get my BIPAP and the charger for my tablet******).

Somewhat after 6AM it was chocks away and they rolled me into the surgery prep area, where i consulted (for the second time, forgot to mention the first time) with an anestheologist. And signed more consent forms.

And then they pumped the Good Stuff into my IV and it was lights out.

Somewhere around 11AM (remember, this is Thursday, 7/17), i woke up in the room.

I now had four incisions in my belly - three down low they had used to pump in the CO2 to inflate me and one at my belly button where he did the deed with the laparoscope.

{{That's it for now - i'll type more later}}

===================

*I just fought down the temptation to say "bowels".

** I resisted the temptation to ask where the cats were; the radioligist didn't look like he'd appreciate that joke, even if he hadn't heard it a few thousand times.

*** Not a good thing to be reminded of.
 
**** I did not resist the temptation to engage in a round of "I told you so" with Kate.

***** Which turned out to be superfluous.

****** The ER is in the South Tower.
 
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TazManiac
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by TazManiac »

Dude!
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Dave
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Dave »

Man, oh man. It sounds as if Someone decided that you were sitting at the focal point of a cosmic convergence zone, and should therefore have to undergo several lifetimes' worth of invasive innards-tinkering all at once. :(

I do hope they had the good sense to just go ahead and change your timing belt while they had the engine open! ;)

Get better soon! I understand that the ice cream they prescribe for kids who just had their tonsils out, is more widely available if you ask for it. Just remind your doctor it's an acceptable off-label use and that double-chocolate fudge ripple isn't quite addictive enough to require a triplicate prescription.
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MerchManDan
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by MerchManDan »

Ah yes, appendicitis sans fever. I can sympathize, since that happened to me just over 10 years ago; a similarly interesting/surreal experience.

Anyhow, glad to see you're recovering & hopefully feeling better. :)
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shadowinthelight
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by shadowinthelight »

What the hell, FPF? Did your warranty just run out? That is when things tend to fall apart.
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Atomic
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Atomic »

So get well soon and all that, eh?
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Dragonaur
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Dragonaur »

Yes, get well soon!
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Leak
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Leak »

Whoa - I guess your body is going to need a stern talking to to stop doing that to yourself... :(

Hope you get well soon.
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jwhouk
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by jwhouk »

Dude.

I mean, dude.
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Jabberwonky
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Jabberwonky »

This has certainly stopped my gretching about a couple of days of rain curtailing my extra-residential wanderings. Take it easy and get better fast!
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Bookworm
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Bookworm »

I don't see why it's THAT much of a surprise. If the appendix was marginal, going through the cleansing/purging cycles would have irritated it, and then stress of the colonoscopy on the immune system would allow it to proceed rapidly.

"You know how you had this hole down here, and we shoved something the wrong way into it?"

"Yeah"

"Well, now we get to make some new holes."
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AnotherFairportfan
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by AnotherFairportfan »

Actually (i plan to do another installment) it's worse than that.
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Dave
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Dave »

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Actually (i plan to do another installment) it's worse than that.
:shock: :(
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jwhouk
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by jwhouk »

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Actually (i plan to do another installment) it's worse than that.
...Ohhhhhh no.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
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Aed
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Aed »

Which power-that-be have you ticked off and how do you make amends?

Wishing you a speedy recovery.
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AnotherFairportfan
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by AnotherFairportfan »

jwhouk wrote:
AnotherFairportfan wrote:Actually (i plan to do another installment) it's worse than that.
...Ohhhhhh no.
Well, it WAS worse than that.

All better now.
Proof Positive the world is not flat: If it were, cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.
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Jabberwonky
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Jabberwonky »

It just proves you should always pay the pun jar....

Hoping your hienie is feeling better.
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Boxilar
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Boxilar »

Hope you get better soon.
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AnotherFairportfan
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by AnotherFairportfan »

Wednesday (30 July) i get to go be unstapled!
Proof Positive the world is not flat: If it were, cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.
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Dave
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Re: Where have i been and what's been doing itself to me?

Post by Dave »

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Wednesday (30 July) i get to go be unstapled!
Cause for celebration! :D Best wishes for a swift and entirely uneventful recovery.

Here's a song in honor of all of those who, like you, have suddenly found themselves in need of some unexpected cutting and re-fastening.
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