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muck_a_luckStill on Vicodin. Please excuse typos.
So Cellmate drops me off at the hospital, wishing me no gunshot wounds, knife stabbing victims, or heart attacks ahead of me. When they found out what was wrong with me, they wisked me back. Husband points out they were probably concerned about appendicitis.
After the nurses interviewed me breifly and put an IV in me, the emergency room doc came to see me. He poked and prodded me, then had me do a crunch.
Which, much to my complete shock, didn't hurt.
He said, "I don't like that at all." He really wanted it to be some kind of abxominal muscle strain to fit with the activities I had admitted to doign. He ordered me a CT scan while muttering things like diriticulitis and ovarian cyst.
I spent an hour drinking about 2 quarts of barium smoothie. Halfway through, I thought I must have sprung a leak inside or something because every swallow was followed by a stabbing pain. But the nurses (gently) insisted I needed to drink it, so I squirmed around and apparently found a sweet spot because suddenly almost all the pain went away.
They wheeled me back for the CT scan right around 10am. And yes, when they give you the contrast material, it really does feel like you pee you pants. And you really didn't. The radiologist assured me that I was not radioactive after the thing was over. I commented to him that I felt like Curious George and if it turned out to be a jigsaw puzzle piece I was going to be very annoyed.
Emergency Doc comes back and says, "Well, we know you're not pregnant!"
The CT scan showed a small umbilical hernia. Apparently there was a piece of "incarcerated" fat that was twisted around and causing all the pain. He said that since there was no intestine involved, it wasn't dangerous and that there were differing opinions about whether to fix these small, not-too-dangerous hernias surgically, but he had a favorite surgeon who was in the building and he was going to try to get him down to see me to talk about what would be best to do.
Surgeon appears and prods my belly button, making concerned frownie faces. He says yup, he can feel the little piece of fat and he can't make it go back where it's supposed to be just by pushing on it.
He seemed to like my theory about having gotten the thing from the pregnancy. He says he suspects I probably had a disposition or weakness there in the abnomen already, and the stress of the pregnancy probably wasn't good for that.
And here is the point in the day where everybody started telling me how healthy I am!
He said that it didn't have to be fixed, but basically anything I did was going to hurt until I did get it fixed. He said, "You're otherwise so healthy, you want to be able to do things." And seriously, he didn't need to sell me on this. I don't care how non-threatening the pain was yesterday morning, it was completely debilitating. In addition, he said that the small piece of fat would continue to draw in other tissue connected to it until one day the bowel might become involved. Also, as I had commented on my vanity and my loss of my beautiful inny belly button, he said, "Another benefit of the surgery is that you will have an inny again!" :D
Basically my only question was "Can you be done with me before the day care closes?"
And here yoga benefitted me, since I had not eaten, though the CT scan screwed me over a little because the anstehsiologists still wanted to do a general anesthetic because they felt they could better protect the airway. But I lived, so no biggie on that.
I consulted the surgeon at about 11:30. They scheduled my surgery for 1:30. He said they would make a small, circular incision around my belly button, push the trapped piece of fat back where it belonged, sew up the "defect" in my abdomen and reinforce it with polypropelene mesh. Whoo hoo! Thirty minutes of surgery, out by 4pm.
The ansethesiologist got in a compliment on my dental health. Also got another comment on how healthy I was generally as we discussed ansethesia options. At this point, I was feeling pretty normal, having found the magic move that got rid of the pain earlier, so all the nurses were busy being impressed by my attitude, health, bloodpressure and pain-free-ness. Either they spend so much time handling surgery for sick people that I was a real shock, or they were just being peppy to keep my spirits up.
I remember the trip to the surgical suite and moving over to the surgery table or whatever, but then I was out of it til I got back to the recovery area. I chatted a little with the nurses while they got me settled, then they told me to go to sleep. It was 4:05 pm! Go doc! Anyway, I kept setting off the alarm because my resting heartrate was too low. The nurses said, "Do you work out?" Then every time the alarm went off they told me what good shape I was in. *is amused*
I didn't throw up on them, I was alert and talkative, so they rolled me out to the secondary recovery room to sit in a chair, drink something, pee (required before I could leave), get dressed, and call everybody on my cell phone to tell them I was still alive and please come pick me up! While the surgical anesthesia was still on, my biggest symptom was the sore throat from the air tube during anesthesia.
ETA1: Cellmate picked me up again at the end and we rescued The Barbarian from day care. Cellmate dropped me off at home with threats about how I was to do nothing for the rest of the evening or... well, actually she threatened to put me out on the side of the road, which seems counterintuitive... :D
It was a bit of a rough evening for The Barbarian, who seemed to understand that I couldn't pick her up, but who may have been feeling a little unhappy about lack of Mommy attention. But we finally got her to settle down and sleep. Then my night went OK til the pain meds finally died at about 2am. But I was able to take more Vicodin and not barf, so yay again!
I let that does run out completely so that I would definitely be able to drive The Barbarian to school. No point taking the day off to care for myself if I had to chase her all day. Even with no drugs, and walking around and driving, I was only uncomfortable, not in agony or anything.
So now, I am safely back home and have taken two Vicodin. Gonna sleep as much as I can, back off the drugs again for the pickup of The Barbarian this evening, then probably take two more before bed. Then hopefully, back to work tomorrow.
Not sure that is all I wanted to write, but too spacey now to think of any more.
ETA: OH! The thing I forgot! CELLMATE IS THE BEST!!!!! And Boss and AG33 and Husband are pretty darned good, too! The Barbarian gets a hug. :D
So Cellmate drops me off at the hospital, wishing me no gunshot wounds, knife stabbing victims, or heart attacks ahead of me. When they found out what was wrong with me, they wisked me back. Husband points out they were probably concerned about appendicitis.
After the nurses interviewed me breifly and put an IV in me, the emergency room doc came to see me. He poked and prodded me, then had me do a crunch.
Which, much to my complete shock, didn't hurt.
He said, "I don't like that at all." He really wanted it to be some kind of abxominal muscle strain to fit with the activities I had admitted to doign. He ordered me a CT scan while muttering things like diriticulitis and ovarian cyst.
I spent an hour drinking about 2 quarts of barium smoothie. Halfway through, I thought I must have sprung a leak inside or something because every swallow was followed by a stabbing pain. But the nurses (gently) insisted I needed to drink it, so I squirmed around and apparently found a sweet spot because suddenly almost all the pain went away.
They wheeled me back for the CT scan right around 10am. And yes, when they give you the contrast material, it really does feel like you pee you pants. And you really didn't. The radiologist assured me that I was not radioactive after the thing was over. I commented to him that I felt like Curious George and if it turned out to be a jigsaw puzzle piece I was going to be very annoyed.
Emergency Doc comes back and says, "Well, we know you're not pregnant!"
The CT scan showed a small umbilical hernia. Apparently there was a piece of "incarcerated" fat that was twisted around and causing all the pain. He said that since there was no intestine involved, it wasn't dangerous and that there were differing opinions about whether to fix these small, not-too-dangerous hernias surgically, but he had a favorite surgeon who was in the building and he was going to try to get him down to see me to talk about what would be best to do.
Surgeon appears and prods my belly button, making concerned frownie faces. He says yup, he can feel the little piece of fat and he can't make it go back where it's supposed to be just by pushing on it.
He seemed to like my theory about having gotten the thing from the pregnancy. He says he suspects I probably had a disposition or weakness there in the abnomen already, and the stress of the pregnancy probably wasn't good for that.
And here is the point in the day where everybody started telling me how healthy I am!
He said that it didn't have to be fixed, but basically anything I did was going to hurt until I did get it fixed. He said, "You're otherwise so healthy, you want to be able to do things." And seriously, he didn't need to sell me on this. I don't care how non-threatening the pain was yesterday morning, it was completely debilitating. In addition, he said that the small piece of fat would continue to draw in other tissue connected to it until one day the bowel might become involved. Also, as I had commented on my vanity and my loss of my beautiful inny belly button, he said, "Another benefit of the surgery is that you will have an inny again!" :D
Basically my only question was "Can you be done with me before the day care closes?"
And here yoga benefitted me, since I had not eaten, though the CT scan screwed me over a little because the anstehsiologists still wanted to do a general anesthetic because they felt they could better protect the airway. But I lived, so no biggie on that.
I consulted the surgeon at about 11:30. They scheduled my surgery for 1:30. He said they would make a small, circular incision around my belly button, push the trapped piece of fat back where it belonged, sew up the "defect" in my abdomen and reinforce it with polypropelene mesh. Whoo hoo! Thirty minutes of surgery, out by 4pm.
The ansethesiologist got in a compliment on my dental health. Also got another comment on how healthy I was generally as we discussed ansethesia options. At this point, I was feeling pretty normal, having found the magic move that got rid of the pain earlier, so all the nurses were busy being impressed by my attitude, health, bloodpressure and pain-free-ness. Either they spend so much time handling surgery for sick people that I was a real shock, or they were just being peppy to keep my spirits up.
I remember the trip to the surgical suite and moving over to the surgery table or whatever, but then I was out of it til I got back to the recovery area. I chatted a little with the nurses while they got me settled, then they told me to go to sleep. It was 4:05 pm! Go doc! Anyway, I kept setting off the alarm because my resting heartrate was too low. The nurses said, "Do you work out?" Then every time the alarm went off they told me what good shape I was in. *is amused*
I didn't throw up on them, I was alert and talkative, so they rolled me out to the secondary recovery room to sit in a chair, drink something, pee (required before I could leave), get dressed, and call everybody on my cell phone to tell them I was still alive and please come pick me up! While the surgical anesthesia was still on, my biggest symptom was the sore throat from the air tube during anesthesia.
ETA1: Cellmate picked me up again at the end and we rescued The Barbarian from day care. Cellmate dropped me off at home with threats about how I was to do nothing for the rest of the evening or... well, actually she threatened to put me out on the side of the road, which seems counterintuitive... :D
It was a bit of a rough evening for The Barbarian, who seemed to understand that I couldn't pick her up, but who may have been feeling a little unhappy about lack of Mommy attention. But we finally got her to settle down and sleep. Then my night went OK til the pain meds finally died at about 2am. But I was able to take more Vicodin and not barf, so yay again!
I let that does run out completely so that I would definitely be able to drive The Barbarian to school. No point taking the day off to care for myself if I had to chase her all day. Even with no drugs, and walking around and driving, I was only uncomfortable, not in agony or anything.
So now, I am safely back home and have taken two Vicodin. Gonna sleep as much as I can, back off the drugs again for the pickup of The Barbarian this evening, then probably take two more before bed. Then hopefully, back to work tomorrow.
Not sure that is all I wanted to write, but too spacey now to think of any more.
ETA: OH! The thing I forgot! CELLMATE IS THE BEST!!!!! And Boss and AG33 and Husband are pretty darned good, too! The Barbarian gets a hug. :D
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-21 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-21 03:21 pm (UTC)see? incarcerated fat! hmmm, wonders if this will work out nicely as a bit of a tummy tuck for you.
ummm, can I tell you how crazy (and momlike) you are that you wanted the surgery done before daycare let out??!!
{{{{hugs you gingerly}}}}
no subject
Date: 2009-04-21 04:32 pm (UTC)Yes! I think the surgeon was actually mildly confused. He kept trying to talk about the surgery, and I was already sold AND totally not suprised about the diagnosis, so all I could think and talk about was when can I leave and how to coordinate getting the monkey. I actually apologized to him and said, "Sorry, I'm thinking about other stuff!"
no subject
Date: 2009-04-21 03:44 pm (UTC)I'm surprised they were being so la-di-dah about have the surgery or not. Spikes of 9 level pain are not acceptable! Nor is the danger of leaving it open for bowel to come through! Weird.
So, you got a screen patch in your belly. :D And in innie, again! \o/
I'm so glad you are fixed up! And recovering well.
Hey, did you know you're in great shape?! Really! :D
no subject
Date: 2009-04-21 04:44 pm (UTC)Regarding teh la-di-dah, I don't know what to take away from that. He started by saying, it's not dangerous we might not operate, then turned around and said, "I want a surgeon to talk to you" practically without taking a breath. I think he clearly saw the pain I was in when I arrived and everybody who talked to me knew it happened while I was playing with my kids and doing yoga, stuff I was probably going to want to do again. Also, I'm pretty sure mine sat around inert for almost three years. Since it does require surgery to fix, maybe it's one of those things where they only deal with it when they need to.
*flexes muscles* *but biceps, not abs* :D
no subject
Date: 2009-04-22 12:11 am (UTC)