I could try and call myself an illness skeptic, but like climate change deniers, I refuse to believe in something, even when all of the evidence proves me wrong!
Last week I was sick. I had pains in my belly from Monday mid-morning. But I was busy teaching all week. I'm currently working on four classes, over four days of the week. Plus committee meetings, organising postgrad events, and trying to do my own research. I didn't really have time to go to the doctor until at least Friday, so I remained optimistic that my pains would disappear on their own. They didn't. Wednesday I consulted briefly with Dr. Google, just enough to find that my pains could be from anything. Thursday I had a bit of spare time between classes and spent more time with Dr. Google. The diagnosis was most likely appendicitis, but I thought it was unlikely, and anyways, I was still busy. But I did try to make an appointment but my usual doctor (and a few others), who were booked out. Andy suggested the emergency room, which I repeatedly refused -- I'd been in pain since Monday, so surely it wasn't an emergency, right?
But Friday morning I was still hurty, so I rang around and got an appointment at a GP Super Clinic for first thing in the morning. The doctor there sent me to the ER straight away, where I was diagnosed with probably-appendicitis. I laid in bed in the ER for 10 hours, hooked into saline and antibiotics, waiting for surgery. But my symptoms weren't quite convincing -- I was feeling slightly better on Friday, and my white blood cell count wasn't that high -- so I had to keep waiting. They eventually moved me upstairs, to a more permanent bed, and I waited for surgery there. I was starving, and didn't want surgery, and was in pain, and was generally cranky. But first thing Saturday morning, they wheeled me down to the operating theatre and found my appendix had already ruptured, was fairly badly infected, and so I had to lay around hooked in to antibiotics for a few more days. And eat terrible hospital food. Seriously, I've never eaten so unhealthily in my whole life.
I'm not looking for pity (though a little would not be rejected), but just wanted to explain my absence. And also to say that if you have pain in your lower-right abdomen, don't just assume it will go away. Now I've got a few days on the couch ahead of me, so I should be able to catch up on a few old posts, and get up to date on what you've all been doing on your blogs!
14 comments:
Theresa! You didn't let on that it was this bad! You poor thing :( At least you now have "horrible hospital food" stories of your own... no wonder you were so thankful to Andy for bringing you bagels and snacks!
Feel better soon
xoxo
That sucks. :( I had my appendix out when I was in grade one, so I don't remember too much of it. I hope you are feeling better soon... and enjoying some delightful non-hospital food. Is your kitty helping?
that's horrible! hope you're feeling better soon. i'm an illness denier too. i kept trying to go into work one week when i was confused how i could possibly be sick for more than a couple days in a row. a week later i found out i had pneumonia (and ended up having to spend 2 more weeks at home and another few weeks before i felt really well again).
What a bummer! Hope you are feeling stronger soon, and able to come back to uni.
I'm so sorry to hear about your surgery. hopefully you can have a relaxing few days of recovery! And now you never have to worry about appendicitis again :)
You poor girl! I feel your pain, I HATE surgery! I hope you rest a little and give yourself time to heal before going back to your crazy work schedule. I hate going to the dr too, so I always wait until the last possible moment and only if it's super serious. I broke my back and bagged my friends not to call the ambulance because I didn't need one. Lucky they did though! Feel better mama :o)
Oh no!!! How are you doing now? That all sounds super serious! Same thing happened to a friend of mine a couple of months back too.
I think I'm similar in terms of going to the doctor...I have to, well, basically be dying before I'll go! Otherwise I just think it'll go away!
I'm the other way around - I'm always convinced that I have appendicitis or something else (lucky I always have a med student around, eh?)....
Glad to hear you're okay. :)
I'm fine now!
Hannah - Andy's efforts were massively appreciated, especially on the day that my dinner was cold salad + cold, tinned baked beans. And an apple.
Susan - Nacho likes to lay on my belly when I sleep, so unfortunately we've had to shut the door at night. So we're having extra couch snuggles to make up for it!
Everyone else - thanks for the well wishes. I really am doing much better now, just feeling a bit sheepish -- If I had gone to the doctor much sooner, I would have been home in a day. Because I waited, it turned into a much bigger deal!
OMG! this sounds terrible. You must have very high pain tolerance because I understand appendix hurts like hell. I hope you are much better and that is a lesson learned, I am also a big time illness denier. Also, thanx for your comment, I added your blog ;) Hope you are feeling much better now.
Wow! Glad you're doing better now. It must have been a very uncomfortable week. Look after yourself, Theresa!
Yikes! That's a little scary. Glad you're okay now...!
Oh dear! This is terrible. My mom almost died from a ruptured appendix as a child - I know this can be serious. Glad everything turned out ok and you're feeling better, and wishing you a full and speedy recovery.
Oh you poor, poor thing! My friend couldn't sleep one night due to really bad pain in her abdo and it occurred to her hours later that it might be her appendix and it was, she had to wait 24 hrs for surgery but recovered well.
xox
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