We had just changed to a high deductible health plan in January, so we were being cautious about going to the emergency room and having it cost us $1000 just because he had to pass gas or it be a $1000 kidney stone or something. After some thought, and more pain, off we went. The girls were still sleeping- but I didn't want to wake them and take them with us, so I woke up Laura and told her I was taking her dad to the hospital because he was sick. I told her to call on the cell phone if she needed anything. She said okay and went back to sleep. Not at all trusting that she would remember any of that, I wrote out a big note telling them where we were and to call if they wanted to and taped it to the outside of our bedroom door, just before going downstairs. There is no way they could miss it if they woke up. So, we get to the emergency room and he's just not feeling any better. We get checked in. There's about 5 or 6 people ahead of us. 2 of them were babies. Then, this guy comes in who said he almost cut his finger off. He was holding his hand in a glass with some kind of liquid in it. Didn't know what it was, and to be honest, didn't really want to look at it all that closely. Finally, they called us in to the room. They had him pee in a cup, they were thinking maybe a kidney stone. Then they did a blood test and that came back elevated (white cell count, I think). So, by this time it's about 1:30am. They wanted to do a CAT scan so he had to drink 2 cans of sprite with barium mixed in so it would give a contrasting picture of his appendix. Then, after drinking the sprite, he had to wait for an hour to an hour and a half before they could do the scan. If he couldn't keep it all down before the test, then he'd have to start over again. UGH! It was hard for him to get it down, but he finally did. They told me to go home and get some sleep, because now they just had to wait to get the test done. So, I went home and didn't get to sleep till around 3am- ish. John called at 5:30am and said it was in fact his appendix, and that they were going to squeeze him in the surgery schedule to get it taken out today. He was already admitted to his room when he called me.
So, I took the kids to school and went to sit with John at the hospital till they were ready for him. It was his first time being in the hospital and his first surgery. Wish I could say that!!! After his surgery was over, I went and got the girls to come to the hospital to see him. I think they'd been pretty worried about him all day and were relieved to see he was okay after all...
I was glad they were able to pinpoint what was causing him so much pain. He even said it hurt more than when he poked himself in the eye with the pliers or when he sprained his ankle. He has a pretty high pain tolerance, so for him to say it hurts, it must HURT. He did end up having a roommate (that did nothing but snore and be mean to the nurses). We all know you don't get much sleep in the hospital- this time it was due in large part to the chain-saw-snoring roommate. They finally got him to surgery at 1:30pm. He was done by about 3pm or so. Everything went fine- the doctor said it was good they got it out- it was pretty infected and she even used the word gangrene. Because it was so infected, they had to put in a drainage tube.
So, he went in late Tuesday night, had surgery Wednesday afternoon and they sent him home Thursday night. After realizing he couldn't get from a laying down in bed position to a sitting on the edge of the bed position without causing great pain, he was wishing he had stayed another night. Those adjustable beds they have are quite nice he has decided. He also said the food was great, except for some noodles they had on the last night he was there-and they just had no flavor. So, we went to the doctor Monday to get the drainage tube out. The nurse had mentioned that the tube was 4-6 inches long. When the doctor took it out, it was actually about 15 inches long!!!!!!!!!
YIKES! He said it felt MUCH better to have that out! So, he had the rest of the week off of work to rest. No lifting anything over 10 pounds for a few more weeks. Here's a picture of some of the bruising on his stomach (and the lovely drain tube again).
