What a way to start the week

The good news: I get the week off from work.

The bad news: it required uninsured surgery to get the week off from work.

I got to make a trip to the hospital yesterday morning with severe abdominal pain which turned out to be appendicitis. Things started out with just a bloated, gassy feeling on Sunday morning which I treated with Pepto, Alka Seltzer, Gas-X and tried to coax along with coffee and carbonated drinks all to no avail. The day went on without getting more uncomfortable until about 6:00 that night when the lower right side of my abdomen started feeling tender. By the time Amy got home from Bible study, I was feeling quite a bit more discomfort but decided to try to wait it out.

I tried going to sleep, but could find very few positions that offered any comfort. I wound up sleeping on the floor of the family room so Amy wouldn't have to deal with me tossing and turning. By about midnight, the pain was getting fairly intense, but I still wasn't running a fever so I would alternate between five or ten minute increments of sleep, tossing and turning and tryin to use the bathroom hoping that a good b.m. would bring some relief. Finally, about 3:30 a.m. I threw up which helped ease the pain for about 20 minutes before I was back into the same state I was in before. I may have gotten an hour and a half of sleep, but probably not quite that much.

I got up around 7:00 and went to lay in bed once Amy was up and getting Xander ready for school. Shortly after she left the house, the pain intensified quite a bit. I rolled myself out of bed, called work and then called Amy to let her know that we were going to need to take a trip to the emergency room. I then got Maia up so she'd be ready to leave the house when Amy got back.

Maia was not the least bit sympathetic. She sprang up the stairs, climbed into her chair and yelled, "Daddy, I'm hungry." She told me this probably three times as I crawled up the stairs and said, "I know baby. I'm coming." I told her she needed to eat fast because Daddy wasn't feeling very good and we were going to have to go to the hospital. After she ate, I told her to use the bathroom. She wanted to use the bathroom upstairs, but I figured she would need help and didn't treasure the thought of crawling more stairs, so I told her to use the one off of the piano room. Of course, she still needed help turning the light on. I started to crawl across the room. Maia watched and said, "Get up!" as though I was crawling as a stall tactic.

Amy got home and I hauled myself out to the car while she got a bag put together for Maia to keep her entertained for the day. By this point, every breath was an exercise in pain and I was fairly convinced that we were dealing with appendicitis. Every bump in the road between the house and the hospital was a challenge for Amy to negotiate between keeping the ride smooth yet fast. We finally arrived at the hospital at about 8:30 a.m. and I hauled myself into the ER, wincing with every breath and slumped over step.

By now you may be wondering why we waited so long to get to the hospital. A lot of it came down to money. We've been uninsured since I left Citibank almost a year and a half ago simply because we couldn't afford insurance. When I started in the bike shop, the insurance plan through the store would have cost us over one third of my monthly income, and as that was our only income at the time, I didn't have much choice but to go without coverage. Rent, house payments on the Indiana house (which we still own) and deferred student loans meant that we couldn't take on any more at the time. When the end of the year rolled around last year and I had the chance to sign up for the program again, we were doing a little better, but I was still working in the shop and our income wasn't enough to take on the insurance. Two months later I was starting in sales with better income and could actually take on the insurance premiums, but I have to wait until the end of the year to get on the program. So, needless to say, we wanted to be certain that a trip to the hospital was necessary before throwing our money away.

I don't know how many doctors, nurses and other hospital staff we met over the next few hours, but all were very gracious, helpful, professional and understanding when it came to keeping costs down and helping us get the best care without unnecessary expense. Early on, the ER nurses were thinking either appendicitis or kidney stones. The docs narrowed it down to appendicitis pretty quick but because it is more common before age 30, they wanted to do a cat scan to be certain. We played the uninsured card again and after consulting, they let us skip the scan and proceeded to set me up with a lap-appy (laparoscopic appendectomy).

The pain had subsided a bit as I waited in a prep room in a prone position over the next few hours and I even managed a little more sleep. By about 11:00 they finally gave me something for the pain. They continued giving me meds as they moved me to a pre-op room and went over medical history for what seemed like the fifth or sixth time that morning. They then wheeled me out and the girls went to the waiting room while I went in for surgery.

The appendix didn't burst but did finally perforate when the doc went to retrieve it, so they did have to irrigate a little bit and I'm on a pretty healthy dose of antibiotics. Apparently, the appendix is usually about three and a half inches long and not very wide. Mine was over five inches long and huge by the time they took it out. I've got a picture of it after the surgery and it looks like a the front half of a bald rat. Pretty gross. I thought about posting the pic, but probably won't.

I don't remember much after going into the operating room, but woke up some time later in a large recovery room, still pretty well out of it. About the only thing I do remember from recovery is getting some ice chips which I appreciated a great deal.

They then wheeled me to a private recovery room where I met up with the girls again, had some toast and water and generally felt a whole lot better. They wanted me to eat something without incident and go for a walk without dizziness before they would let me go. As it turned out, I was able to leave at about 4:30 p.m. which was a bit surprising to me. I thought they'd keep me until later in the evening with the goal of getting me out before they would have to charge us for another day's stay.

The girls were great. Amy was on top of handling the paper work, making sure to keep costs down and providing prayer and comfort. Maia played very well, colored and covered herself in stickers which she then insisted on sharing with Amy. I hated to make them waste a day at the hospital, but was glad they were there. Xander went home from school with Isaac and got to hang out at his place until about 8:00, so I think he had a pretty good day too.

When we got home, I put in a DVD of the 2005 Tour and fell asleep for a few hours. Marilyn came to help out with the kids while Amy went to a meeting and I finally got myself up at about 7:30 to have something to eat and to be sociable.

After a good night's sleep and a restful day, I'm feeling pretty good. A little sore and sluggish, but nothing really to complain about. I'm taking a week off from work (thanks to vacation and sick days that were sitting there) and am hoping to get a good deal of rest, have a birthday and maybe take in some of LifeLight this weekend.