Well, while everyone else in Vancouver was experiencing a "Hockey final to remember" and splashing their vitriolic oppinions about regarding the post-game antics of the less "mentaly enabled" denizens of the city, I was having a far more "internal" experience...
I dont suppose you recal my "Judgement" post of a couple of years ago??.... Probably not, It wasnt that special :) But I sure as eggs do!
...And thats because Ive just had a rather indellible reminder of it.
To refresh peoples memories, that old post was about a spontaneous gastro-intestinal "blockage" that I had and that lasted several days before "clearing" by its self.
Well, two and a half years later, more or less the same thing happened again, but this time it didnt "self clear", and after a week of discomfort (but no seriouse pain or disability), I went to see the doctor....
.. By that time, Id had a while to think about it, and I told the doc' that I figured I probably had appendicitis...
The doc prodded and poked and asked questions and listened carefully to my responses and said he figured it wasnt appendicitis for the moment and then sent me off to get blood and urine tests.
So, I let the labs have some of my fluids and I went back home and , well, waited... and waited...
But things didnt clear themselves, so after a few more days I went back to the doc' and said "something is definitely wrong"... which he agreed with and promptly sent me off to get an X-ray and some more blood tests... and they also set about scheduling some more "imagery" in the form of a sonogram, and a barrium meal and followup x-rays, and a CT scan... I have to admit that I had no faith in either the blood woork or the X-ray since they have never shown anything on me in the past for obscure illnesses, but of course they have to be done.
Now, saddly, it all takes a while to schedule for this imagery (about three months for the Barrium meal, and about six months for a CT scan... assuming of course I survived that long while ot being able to eat!!), but the sonogram was only a couple of days of waiting... So, again I waited and things continued to "not clear themselves" and at the duly appointed hour I turned up for my scan...
And the sonographer did his thing and when he was scanning away in the lower abdomen, he made a couple of "hmmm" type noises and then excused himself from the room for a short while and returned with another person,.. a doctor, and they both looked at the screen and pointed and "hmmmd" and had a bit of a conversation (the screen was not visible to me though), and then they included me in the discussion and said that they were seeing stuff that looked consistent with an accute appendicitis... to which I said that I didnt think the little guy was in the least bit cute and that I would be quite happy if we set about removing it as soon as possible!
So, agreement was reached, and they said I should go straight back to my doctor and they expected Id be off to the emergency room pretty much immediately!
But, I had something else I needed to do for an hour before I did that...
I had that great big slab of wood being delivered to my house in half an hour!
So I hopped on my motorbike and rode home to meet the guys on the big truck... And from there, we (me and three other guys) man-handled this slab of wood up the back stairs to my house... OK, OK it probably wasnt the greatest idea Ive ever had... hefting a massive lump of wood about while I am nursing a seriously inflamed appendix... But, it all worked out OK and the slab of wood is now safely stashed under my back deck.
After that I went to the doc' again and was then dispatched to get a small bag of personal effects before heading down to the hospital emergency department at about 2:30pm
From there it was about an hour wait to move through the ER process (it was a quiet day it seemed) and then they prepp'ed me for surgery...
And then at 6:30pm, I was wheeled into the OR and they put me under...
... and I woke up a few hours later with a sore tummy and no appendix!
So, now I think I know what it was that I was suffering from over two years ago, and Im pretty sure that that particular issue will not be back!
... and for the time being, It only hurts when I laugh! :)
p.s. good thing that I got all the stone work completed in the house just the day before, cos I really cant do any heavy lifting for a few weeks now :)
Oh, and I got a new paint job done for the motorbike project, though I havnt had time to put the bodywork on the bike yet.
... and its been Prawn season in Vancouver, so Ive been enjoying a couple of "feasts with friends" ...yum yum :)))
