8.31.2006
Time to catch up around here.
I'm in my second week of life without an appendix. Weekend before last we were in GA visiting family. Sunday morning I got up, drove into Gainesville and ran 9 miles around town. I got back to Aunt Rexie's house and ate breakfast and shortly after my stomach started hurting. Since running and my GI system don't always co-exist peacefully, I figured it was just some post-run discomfort and it'd be gone soon enough. It came and went for the first hour, but by about 11:30, halfway through church, it was getting pretty constant. Between 12:30 and 1 we found a Walgreens and I took a couple doses of Maalox. That never brought any relief and Mom and Dad started talking about the ER. I was thinking, "Ain't no way I'm paying $200 to go to the ER and be told I have gas." So, we drove 20 miles or so out to the Cracker Barrel where most of the family was meeting to celebrate Aunt Rexie's birthday. While we were driving the pain began to localize in a couple of spots on my right side. When we arrived at the restaurant, I talked to my cousin who has had a lot of gallbladder problems and that was what really made me think maybe I should be checked out. We had already decided we weren't going to be able to stay to eat, unfortunately, and so we headed out for the 20 mile drive back to the hospital. I think we got there around 3, and by that time I was pretty doggone sure I'd never had gas like this before.
My time in the ER was fairly uneventful, I guess. I ended up having CT scans and an ultrasound of my gallbladder. They diagnosed early appendicitis (even after the ER doc told me several times that he wasn't impressed with my belly, which in my state of pain sounded like a personal attack rather than a comment on the fact that I didn't howl when he pressed on my abdomen). It turned out that a surgeon who has operated on several of my family members was the one on call for his practice, so we opted for him to be the one to do the procedure. He showed up to examine me and boy, was he a sight for sore eyes! Dr. Handsome agreed that it was appendicitis and said we could be in surgery in about 30 minutes.
This was the only other time I'd ever been in the hospital other than my own birth and Emma Kate's. I was a little nervous about the idea of being knocked out and operated on. My last thought in the OR was of too many Reader's Digest articles I've read where patients receive anesthesia and can't move or talk but are still awake and aware of what's going on. Fortunately that didn't happen to me and I woke up in a rather talkative mood some time later. It must have been midnight when I got to my room - so it was a long evening for my parents. I was discharged the next morning, so all in all I wasn't even there 24 hours. Pretty amazing.
My surgery was laparascopic instead of the open incision, so my healing hasn't been that difficult. I did a lot of walking that next morning. We made the trip back home on Tuesday. I went for my first post-surgery run on Wednesday of this week (3 miles). I don't have any pain and the incisions seem to be healing OK. Now I just need to get my fitness level back up where it was. It stinks, because I had achieved sort of a jump up right before this happened... now I've got to rebuild. I'm a little uncertain how to go about getting back on my marathon training schedule, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel so I'll just have to figure it out.
Let's see, what else is going on? Let me give a garden update. The cucumbers have died, the squash is still producing just a bit, but the beans have come on in full force, and the tomatoes aren't doing too badly either. Even the bell peppers have decided to get in on the act. Today I went to the seed store and got leaf lettuce seeds - I decided to plant them for fall/winter in the space previously occupied by the cukes. I think I have been bitten by the gardening bug. Our freezer is full of pickles and squash. I have been eating oven-fried squash, cream of squash soup, squash bread, squash casserole, you name it. This morning I froze my first batch of green beans. It's pretty cool - I like being self-sufficient.
I'm in my second week of life without an appendix. Weekend before last we were in GA visiting family. Sunday morning I got up, drove into Gainesville and ran 9 miles around town. I got back to Aunt Rexie's house and ate breakfast and shortly after my stomach started hurting. Since running and my GI system don't always co-exist peacefully, I figured it was just some post-run discomfort and it'd be gone soon enough. It came and went for the first hour, but by about 11:30, halfway through church, it was getting pretty constant. Between 12:30 and 1 we found a Walgreens and I took a couple doses of Maalox. That never brought any relief and Mom and Dad started talking about the ER. I was thinking, "Ain't no way I'm paying $200 to go to the ER and be told I have gas." So, we drove 20 miles or so out to the Cracker Barrel where most of the family was meeting to celebrate Aunt Rexie's birthday. While we were driving the pain began to localize in a couple of spots on my right side. When we arrived at the restaurant, I talked to my cousin who has had a lot of gallbladder problems and that was what really made me think maybe I should be checked out. We had already decided we weren't going to be able to stay to eat, unfortunately, and so we headed out for the 20 mile drive back to the hospital. I think we got there around 3, and by that time I was pretty doggone sure I'd never had gas like this before.
My time in the ER was fairly uneventful, I guess. I ended up having CT scans and an ultrasound of my gallbladder. They diagnosed early appendicitis (even after the ER doc told me several times that he wasn't impressed with my belly, which in my state of pain sounded like a personal attack rather than a comment on the fact that I didn't howl when he pressed on my abdomen). It turned out that a surgeon who has operated on several of my family members was the one on call for his practice, so we opted for him to be the one to do the procedure. He showed up to examine me and boy, was he a sight for sore eyes! Dr. Handsome agreed that it was appendicitis and said we could be in surgery in about 30 minutes.
This was the only other time I'd ever been in the hospital other than my own birth and Emma Kate's. I was a little nervous about the idea of being knocked out and operated on. My last thought in the OR was of too many Reader's Digest articles I've read where patients receive anesthesia and can't move or talk but are still awake and aware of what's going on. Fortunately that didn't happen to me and I woke up in a rather talkative mood some time later. It must have been midnight when I got to my room - so it was a long evening for my parents. I was discharged the next morning, so all in all I wasn't even there 24 hours. Pretty amazing.
My surgery was laparascopic instead of the open incision, so my healing hasn't been that difficult. I did a lot of walking that next morning. We made the trip back home on Tuesday. I went for my first post-surgery run on Wednesday of this week (3 miles). I don't have any pain and the incisions seem to be healing OK. Now I just need to get my fitness level back up where it was. It stinks, because I had achieved sort of a jump up right before this happened... now I've got to rebuild. I'm a little uncertain how to go about getting back on my marathon training schedule, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel so I'll just have to figure it out.
Let's see, what else is going on? Let me give a garden update. The cucumbers have died, the squash is still producing just a bit, but the beans have come on in full force, and the tomatoes aren't doing too badly either. Even the bell peppers have decided to get in on the act. Today I went to the seed store and got leaf lettuce seeds - I decided to plant them for fall/winter in the space previously occupied by the cukes. I think I have been bitten by the gardening bug. Our freezer is full of pickles and squash. I have been eating oven-fried squash, cream of squash soup, squash bread, squash casserole, you name it. This morning I froze my first batch of green beans. It's pretty cool - I like being self-sufficient.
8.14.2006
Emma Kate is getting to be quite the artist. I'm curious whether others will know what this is.
IMG_2434
Originally uploaded by shaverfamily.
