I'm an illness denier.

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!