So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Zombie_61]

All good wishes for a speedy and thorough recovery Miss Lizzie.

They yanked my appendix out 41 years ago. I woke up one Friday morning in severe pain, and paid a quick visit to my doctor who sent me to a local hospital. I was admitted by 10:30 a.m., wheeled into surgery at 4:00 p.m., and was back in my room by 7:30, failing at my attempts to sleep off the anesthesia; the nurses waking me up every two hours to take my temperature and blood pressure didn't help.

The next day the pain from the surgery was so bad that I couldn't stand up straight. The nurses insisted I walk up and down the hallway, so I did so bent over and using the IV pole for support. That afternoon they moved me into another room where my new roommate was recuperating after being treated for a gunshot wound to the abdomen; he said he was cleaning his pistol and thought it wasn't loaded. That night a friend called to see how I was doing, and before long I found myself, my friend, and my new roommate laughing hysterically at whatever turn the conversation had taken. I was doubled over in pain from the surgery, but I honestly can't remember ever laughing that hard again in my life. The next day I woke up and felt no pain whatsoever, so I got out of bed, walked to the nurse's station, and asked if that was normal. The head nurse remarked that she'd never seen anything like it, but suggested I return to my bed. 20 minutes later the surgeon paid me a visit, inspected the wound, shrugged, and instructed the nurses to send me home. He also told me that my appendix was so inflamed that it would probably have burst if they'd scheduled my surgery 30 minutes later.

The saying "Laughter is the best medicine" was certainly true in my case, but I can't say I'd recommend it as recovery therapy for everyone recovering from surgery; the surgeon was surprised my stitches hadn't popped.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

What traumatizes me is the embarassment of having to be helped out of cars and walked thru stores like I'm 150 years old. We had to stop at the store and get groceries this afternoon on the way home from the hospital, and parked in the "for moms to be" parking space, and when some guy gave me the side-eye, I just stuck out my bloated gut and swanked right past him. Or as swank as one can do while wincing in pain with every step.

Don't overdo it Lizzie, you wouldn't want to pop those stitches.

 

[Trenchfriend]

All best wishes, Lizzie!

 

[ChiTownScion]

They said I caught mine early -- I noticed I was unnaturally bloated when I went to work yesterday morning and had no appetite, which is unusual for me. It wasn't until I still wasn't hungry and started feeling sharp pains when the matinee let out at three when I decided I'd better get to the ER. I had felt really exhausted over the past weekend and I'm wondering if that might have been an advance sign of it.

I'm feeling OK enough to sit up, which is better than I was last nite, but the pain and the bloating are still there, so I'm thinking I'm going to stay off work the rest of the week. I've given the kids detailed instructions for everything they need to do to keep the place going until I'm back, but I hope it's not going to be longer. I really don't like not working.

I had a surgical procedure involving Female Issues twelve years ago that made this one seem like trimming a hangnail -- that one kept me hospitalized for two weeks, and I was pretty much stir crazy by the time they let me out.

Hope you're on the mend really soon, Lizzie.

I had mine taken out the night of the day my wife was awarded her MBA (a sheepskin she's never used... but that's another story for another time). My in laws were in town from out of state, and naturally, they're the type that expect to be waited on hand & foot. The dishwasher was broken, so I was clearing the table and washing dishes by hand when my ever increasing abdominal pain had me bent over. My wife (a nurse practitioner) issued the order that we were going to the ER at once. Good thing. The appendix ruptured just as they opened me up. Had I decided to not be a wimp about it and just "grin 'n bear it," I might have paid for my macho idiocy with my life.

Wasn't all bad news, though. Our (adopted at a few weeks old) baby was about 4 months old at the time, and he set the record I believe for being at the oldest age (18 months) for a kid first finally deciding to sleep through the night. (Fatherhood for the first time at age 35 was rough enough, but he really put us both through the sleep deprivation wringer: I still think that I can warm a bottle and change a diaper in my sleep!) We were up every 3 hours with him, and it was not one of those situations where Daddy was too good to help with child care. I was so sleep deprived at that point in my live I'd have gladly confessed to war crimes for 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Five days in a private hospital room with terrific pain killing medication was better than winning the lottery, hands down.

The "baby" now is 26.... and I think that he could sleep through a nuclear detonation... but that appendix incident was quite an episode.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Thank you for the kind words, all. In my last surgical experience it was the first couple days after the operation that were the roughest, and I have a feeling that's going to be true this time as well. I usually fall asleep on my back and roll over on my side, but last nite's experience demonstrated that such is going to be out for the duration. I also just fell over trying to feed the cat, and she gave me a very baleful look. "BE SICK ALL YOU WANT BUT DON'T FALL DOWN ON YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES."

I looked out the window just now to find that the kids had somehow retrieved my car from the ER parking lot. Since none of them knows how to drive a standard, I am quite impressed with whatever ingenuity they demonstrated during the night....

 

[Fading Fast]

Lizzie, the best for a full and speedy recovery - so sorry that it happened to you.

For the two surgeries I had, they practically slid me out of the operating room onto the street - crazy.

Glad the kids are looking after you because, as you said, the first few days after (not the day of or even the first day after) are normally when your body "wakes up" fully and says "what the heck just happened to me." After that, it's normally a slow but noticeable improvement from there every day.

Hang in there, my best wishes - and obviously many others' here as well - are with you.

 

[Fading Fast]

So trivial...how come every single store - clothing, pharmacy, supermarket, convenience store - in my neighborhood can keep the line at the register down to a few people almost all the time. And stores like the supermarket and drug store call more cashiers on if the line gets to four or five, but the Post Office routinely has lines 20 and 30 people deep?

Just today, I had to mail an large package (won't fit threw the automated machine) and was on a 15 deep line (I know the best time to go - believe me, that is short for our Post Office) and there were three windows open that mysteriously became only two open even as the line grew. When I left about 25 minutes later the line was approaching 25. Never, not once, have I gone into another store in my neighborhood and been on a 15 deep line let alone 25.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Around here the post offices are woefully understaffed. I have a friend who's a postal worker and she doesn't work just at one post office, but at several -- they keep the staffing down by rotating employees among different post offices in the area -- sometimes she works mornings in one town and afternoon in another town twenty miles away. There appear to be only two people working in our post office -- one out front, one out back, at any given time.

Adding to this problem is the use of the post office as a passport offices. With passports now required for travel to Canada there's a lot more passport action than there used to be -- and each one is a long and time-consuming process.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ Agreed, horribly understaffed here as well. And how much business do they lose to UPS and Fed Ex because of it? I go to UPS when I have very limited time (as the line is almost always one or two people at most) but I try to support the PO so I usually wait in line. It's crazy to be that understaffed when every other business in my neighborhood can figure out staffing - customer levels.

 

[GHT]

Know what really yicks me off? Having to drop everything in the middle of a busy week for an emergency appendectomy.

Oh dear Lizzie, I'm so sorry that I missed this post. Wishing you a rapid recovery and back in good health soon. I do hope that the medics have left your caustic wit untouched.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Around here the post offices are woefully understaffed. I have a friend who's a postal worker and she doesn't work just at one post office, but at several -- they keep the staffing down by rotating employees among different post offices in the area -- sometimes she works mornings in one town and afternoon in another town twenty miles away. There appear to be only two people working in our post office -- one out front, one out back, at any given time.

Adding to this problem is the use of the post office as a passport offices. With passports now required for travel to Canada there's a lot more passport action than there used to be -- and each one is a long and time-consuming process.

Please, don't export these things to Germany!

 

[HudsonHawk]

Get well soon Lizzie.

I had mine out on Christmas Eve, 1985. Worst. Christmas. Ever. Story though...a few hours out of the recovery room, and the nurse said "now you've had an IV for several hours, so soon you'll have to go to the bathroom. That's a good sign, so don't hold it." So in the middle of the night, I had to go. I fought my way upright, somehow managed to reach over and lower the rails on the bed, got up, walked around to get my IV pole, went to the head, walked back, climbed back in bed and went back to sleep. The next morning, the nurse comes in and says "I can't believe you haven't have to go yet." I said "Oh, I went". She asked who helped me, and I said "what do you mean...you said to go when I had to go, so I got up and went." She nearly hit the floor.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Interactive theme park attractions that involve the audience. Funny because I happen to be on holiday at Walt Disney World as I write this.

 

[GHT]

Interactive theme park attractions that involve the audience. I mention this as I'm on holiday at Walt Disney World as I write this.

I'm not quite sure how you are defining audience participation. Do you mean the escaped mice that brings on screams from the audience? There's a little tube, under each seat, that release air and gives the impression of mice tails?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Look up "The Blow-Hole Theatre" at Coney Island's lamented Steeplechase Park. Now that's audience participation.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Look up "The Blow-Hole Theatre" at Coney Island's lamented Steeplechase Park. Now that's audience participation.

I found this on You Tube:

 

[Paisley]

@lizzie, at least your surgery was necessary. My mother went through an appendectomy only to have a healthy appendix removed.

 

[GHT]

Nowadays, ultrasound testing helps with diagnosing abdominal pain. In years gone by, an appendectomy happened when the real cause, a twisted fallopian tube, was missed.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

theme park attractions .

Never seen the attraction of theme parks myself & thankfully my daughter didn't either, so I shall kick the bucket with my theme park virginity intact.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Nowadays, ultrasound testing helps with diagnosing abdominal pain. In years gone by, an appendectomy happened when the real cause, a twisted fallopian tube, was missed.

Luckily I had my fallopian tubes removed six weeks after conception, so I'm safe there.