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Get Well Soon, Mark the Homer!


E33Green

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Get well Mark. My appendix was about ready to burst 7 years ago. I was married to my wife for less than 1 year and I about scared her to death. I started feeling bad the Friday before Memorial day. Family finally convinced me to go to the hospital that Sunday Night and at 3 in the morning I was in surgery. I didn't have the classic signs of appendicitis (right side pain). It was all across my belly, like you had a stomach ache, but were constipated. The doctor in the ER called it "Recipral (sp) Appendicitis" where the appendix likes to hide the typical symptoms. I was in for 3 days and out of work for 2 weeks. Laproscopic surgery.

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Thanks all. I just got home.

I've never been in a hospital bed before, and now that I have, let me tell you, it's no cake walk. Besides the ordeal of the sickness and the pain, you've got all sorts of hospital things to deal with. You have something in your nose blowing pure oxygen up your nostrils. You have an IV in your arm and that's hooked up to a machine that monitors how much drip it feeds you - which is a Gatorade like clear liquid which is your only nourishment early on. You've got a blood guy that comes in every morning at 5 and draws your blood to keep track of white blood cell count. You've got them feeding you antibiotics orally and by the IV, plus pain medication (motrin, percoset, morphine) on a regular basis. And then they're stabbing you in your fatty tissue with blood thinner medication too, to reduce the risk of blood clotting. Plus every four hours 24/7 they come in and take your vitals (pulse, blood pressure).

As in my case, if your abdominal area has been contaminated with a burst, they flush your insides with antibiotics, but afterwards, they will often leave a tube and a little clear bag connected to your belly to allow the fluid to drain a couple days. The nurse comes in and empties it occasionally.

Little things like taking a leak aren't so simple. The easiest thing is just to pee in the plastic container they give you while you're in bed. It's a little awkward at first, but you get used to it. I'm now an expert. Movements aren't a problem early on because you usually haven't eaten anyway lately because of the pain, so you don't need to deal with that.

As your condition improves, you can take short walks, but you have to drag that IV machine around with you, which is on wheels. It's got a battery in it.

The nurses take good care of you. There's a buzzer you can hit and they'll come and help you with anything. As a whole, my nurses were great. But as in everything, some were excellent and some were a little absent minded.

You can adjust your bed to lots of different positions. And you can control various lights in the room too.

Of course, this is way more detail than anybody wants to read, so I'll stop.

Thanks again for your kind thoughts! Let's get back to football.

Mark

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We missed you on Draft Day for sure!!

I can't wait for the full MTH hospital report.

I can hear it now. ;)

When I checked in they tried to give me this gown with rubber instead of cloth string closures. It was clear to me it was a cheap Korean knock off allowing way more southern exposure than an authentic made in the USA gown with the cloth strings. Then when they put me in my room I could see the helipad, but you could only see it after it had lifted off. My insurance was paying full price for this room and no way was I going to settle for and obstructed view room!!! We corrected this mistake promptly. I'll be making a thread soon with all the info you need to know about a hospital stay, just click my link to check it out.
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We missed you on Draft Day for sure!!

I can't wait for the full MTH hospital report.

I can hear it now. ;)

:ols: :ols: :ols:

Now that's funny.

See - I knew posts like this were inevitable, so trying to be a good mod I closed this thread right after my summary post-release report on page 8, but wouldn't you know, Jumbo went in and re-opened it on me :pfft:

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