Appendicitis
As many of our loyal readers know, I had an emergency appendectomy 10 days ago - the night before we were supposed to leave on our cruise. I came down with a terrible belly ache (among other miserable symptoms - I'll spare you) and after about 14 hours, I realized the pain had localized in the area of my lower right area of my abdomen. I believe I've clearly expressed my disdain for the hospital here in previous posts (it's really not a good sign when a nurse warns you "I'm a little messy" as she's about to draw blood - this really happened to me here and, well, she was right). At the same time, I didn't want to be the dummy who died of appendicitis while trying to avoid the hospital. So off we went to the ER.
After waiting 4 agonizing hours, a doctor finally saw me (we learned you get quicker service if you arrive at the ER in handcuffs, accompanied by multiple VIPD officers). And 3 hours after that I was in surgery. I feel I should note here that we do have air evacuation insurance for medical emergencies. However, you can't get evacuated (to Puerto Rico, or if you're lucky and the hospital there doesn't have space - Miami) unless it's safe to move you and the care you need is something the local hospital can't provide. It's questionable under what circumstances you could actually get flown out of here, but I've heard of it happening.
The surgeon and anesthesiologist seemed quite competent which was reassuring. (Everyone at work asked me their names, and everyone at work knows them - "He took my appendix out."; "He took my daughter's appendix out."; "I worked with him the summer after we graduated high school at my first job ever." etc.) I had a spinal rather than general anesthesia so I was awake the whole time and could feel my insides being pushed around as the surgeon cleaned up the mess from the ruptured appendix. After the surgery, I'd say the care went downhill significantly. I spent two nights in the hospital. You know those buzzers by a patient's bedside? They've got those here, but they're pretty much ignored unless you're screaming in pain (a neat trick I discovered; I noticed others followed my good example). But for example, if you buzz them asking if it's okay to eat the oatmeal you were brought, since you're supposed to be on a liquid diet per doctor's orders, well, don't expect an answer until the oatmeal is cold. (the answer? "if they brought you oatmeal, it's all they have, you should eat it.")
Coworkers visited me and brought me goodies from the Ag Fair that we missed. Most importantly though, my surgeon told us we didn't have to miss out on the cruise entirely. His daughter had an appendectomy the day before they had planned on going on a cruise, so the family just caught up with the cruise later. Taking this sound medical advice, Dave and I hopped a Liat flight to St. Lucia on Monday and joined the ship on Tuesday. Cruise details later! I'm doing much better and return to the doc today. Hopefully he'll give me the go ahead to get back in the water and swim. It's been miserably hot here lately!
After waiting 4 agonizing hours, a doctor finally saw me (we learned you get quicker service if you arrive at the ER in handcuffs, accompanied by multiple VIPD officers). And 3 hours after that I was in surgery. I feel I should note here that we do have air evacuation insurance for medical emergencies. However, you can't get evacuated (to Puerto Rico, or if you're lucky and the hospital there doesn't have space - Miami) unless it's safe to move you and the care you need is something the local hospital can't provide. It's questionable under what circumstances you could actually get flown out of here, but I've heard of it happening.
The surgeon and anesthesiologist seemed quite competent which was reassuring. (Everyone at work asked me their names, and everyone at work knows them - "He took my appendix out."; "He took my daughter's appendix out."; "I worked with him the summer after we graduated high school at my first job ever." etc.) I had a spinal rather than general anesthesia so I was awake the whole time and could feel my insides being pushed around as the surgeon cleaned up the mess from the ruptured appendix. After the surgery, I'd say the care went downhill significantly. I spent two nights in the hospital. You know those buzzers by a patient's bedside? They've got those here, but they're pretty much ignored unless you're screaming in pain (a neat trick I discovered; I noticed others followed my good example). But for example, if you buzz them asking if it's okay to eat the oatmeal you were brought, since you're supposed to be on a liquid diet per doctor's orders, well, don't expect an answer until the oatmeal is cold. (the answer? "if they brought you oatmeal, it's all they have, you should eat it.")
Coworkers visited me and brought me goodies from the Ag Fair that we missed. Most importantly though, my surgeon told us we didn't have to miss out on the cruise entirely. His daughter had an appendectomy the day before they had planned on going on a cruise, so the family just caught up with the cruise later. Taking this sound medical advice, Dave and I hopped a Liat flight to St. Lucia on Monday and joined the ship on Tuesday. Cruise details later! I'm doing much better and return to the doc today. Hopefully he'll give me the go ahead to get back in the water and swim. It's been miserably hot here lately!
posted by Kendra at 11:03 AM
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