During the night of 3/10 into 3/11, I experienced high-severity abdominal pain, and heart arrhythmia acted up. I took the meds to control the PVCs, they calmed down but the pain didn't go away. I tried resting on and off the work hours, until the late afternoon time, I decided to get medical care.
I called the Premeria nurse consultation line, and thought I should get get some advice for OTC medicine. Not helpful.
I called the Primary Care Office, and the advice given was to go to the ER or the Urgent care. Not helpful.
I drove in a rainy day to the Overlake Urgent Care at Redmond. Was seen immediately and did urine test, EKG, 3 ultrasound. Suspecting 1) fibroids 2) appendix. Helpful. By then, I realized that the pain could be coming from acute appendix disease.
I was told to get to the ER immediately. So I drove, yet again, in the rain, to the Bellevue Hospital ER. Was seen in a reasonable time, and had more tests, and importantly the CT scan. It confirmed appendicitis, and this goes to surgery.
I was led to a unit in ER, blood in a culture. Dr. Johnson, took me as inpatient care, and explained the procedure.
I was transferred to a formal room in ER. The nurse is Anji, and she settled me through the evening, with constant blood pressure measurements, and woke me up for the pre-op preparation.
I told mom that I am leaving, and no cell phone is allowed. I went over the pre-op instructions, saw the surgeon, Dr. Raafat. She explains things in a calm manner, and there it started at 725am.
I woke up at 850am, had three holes in my belly, and one of the longer incisions had a lot of pain, but because of the anesthesia residual, it was tolerable. I felt dizzy, and went back to sleep quickly. I was able to get into the bathroom, and ordered food at 4pm, chicken noodle soup, mashed patato and a small wheat roll.
Anji is back on her 7pm duty and asked me to walk around the corridor at 10pm to get the intestines moving around. That was the first time for me to see the inpatient area, not a lot of patient, it's high end, single room only. The hospital bill is probably going to be $30,000.
I drove myself home, the 5min drive was more tiresome than what I imagined, recovery needs time in both physicals and emotions. The 36 hours was so fast, and so downpour and lifechanging. I suspect the appendix inflammation had happened for some time, but I was ignorant and didn't care for myself. In any case, it wasn't the worst and I am back in the states. It is pushing the limit of my travel plan, and in the midst of the work chaos, not sure what I had done to deserve these difficulties.
In the weekend, but the time goes too fast.
- Breakfast, oatmeal plus flaxseed, a croissant
- Lunch, chicken soup with carrots
- Afternoon snack, yogurt
- Dinner, avocado and two slides of daikon paste
