Emergency appendectomy = not fun

[nolanfan34]

Hey all,

Well, I've been out of commission the last few days, after ending up in the hospital Sunday night and having my appendix taken out. Anyone else out there been through this? They got it before it burst, which was lucky.

Anyway, you don't realize just how much you use your ab muscles until someone has cut into you in that area. Just getting in and out of bed has been a challenge. Ugh.

Well, I've missed a few days here, so if there are some threads I missed that I should check out, let me know. I did see that Daryn did well in the PS tournament, congrats to him.

[Sponger15SB]

Good to hear you are doing ok.

We were all starting to worry since you didn't post in 3 days /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[daryn]

ty for that.. hope you get well soon. tough break but not as bad as it could be. good thing you got it in time.

[plaster8]

Sorry to hear that, nolanfan. Oh well. At least you got to take a break from all those damn Republicans down in Olympia.

Oh, wait ... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[MEbenhoe]

What a trooper. Get well soon.

[SlyAK]

Nolan,

I had my appendix out when I was 16 and you are definitely right it totally sucks!! The one good thing I can tell you is that you should recover fairly quickly, and within a few more days you'll be feeling pretty good again.

Hang in there.

Sly

[Rick Diesel]

I had the same thing happen to me about 2 years ago. Rushed to the emergency room, barely got there in time. Luckily, they were able to do me lapriscopically (sp?) so my scars are almost invisible.

This also reminds me of a funny story. As I was lying in the emergency room, the anesthesiologist (sp?) was about to hook me up with the drugs to make me go to sleep before the surgery. In to the room walks one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Apparently she is a nursing student, and is working as an intern with the doctor. After the injection, as I am starting to fade away into Happy Land, the doctor turns to the really hot chick, and says "Don't worry if he gets an erection, it is very normal with the drugs". I, in my half-baked state, say "It is very normal without the drugs too". Worst part is that my parents were standing about 5 feet away from me. My dad still busts my balls all the time for that one.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

Hope you have a speedy recovery. Was the nurse hot at least?

[ThaSaltCracka]

Glad to hear you are okay.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
I had the same thing happen to me about 2 years ago. Rushed to the emergency room, barely got there in time. Luckily, they were able to do me lapriscopically (sp?) so my scars are almost invisible.

[/ QUOTE ]

They did mine open, not laproscopically, so I'm going to have about a 3 inch scar. I plan on telling people it's from a knife fight. I guess my appendix had tucked itself away behind some other organs, so it was sort of hidden and they had to move some stuff around to get to it.

And I didn't have any hot nurses around that I can recall.

Thanks for the other well wishes (except you Plaster /images/graemlins/tongue.gif).

I will say that vicodin is pretty good stuff, and I can see why Brett Favre liked it.

[Clarkmeister]

Get well soon. I hope god can heal you even faster than he healed TO.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
Get well soon. I hope god can heal you even faster than he healed TO.

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Yeah, I think I'm second on the priority list. TO, then me, then the Pope. Even though my doctors have advised against it, I've pledged that I WILL attend a Super Bowl party on Sunday.

[Bluffoon]

Ouch! Feel better.

Been under the knife a few times. You will be walking with a spring in your step in no time. Nothing like a convalescence to make you appreciate waking up in the morning fully functioning and not in pain.

[Lazymeatball]

So how do you know when you need your appendix out anyway? Do you just get a localized pain that feels like a stomach cramp or something, wait a day then go to the dr's office? They throw an ultrasound on you and yell "Oh [censored], get to the hospital right now buddy, or you're gonna die!!!!!" ?

[brassnuts]

It feels like someone's been beating you with a baseball bat in your lower right abdomen, and it's pretty obvious to a doctor.

I've been there. Hope you feel better soon Nolan.

[NoChance]

Had a hernia operation my sophomore year in high school. I didn't even know I had it. They found it when taking my physical for football. Anyway, they basically go in to fix the hernia from the same area. I know exactly what you are going through and I agree, those muscles are taken for granted. The good news is it does heal fairly quickly. I was told I was not going to be able to play football for five weeks but was in there doing full contact (running back on the dummy squad for the starters to beat up on) after only three weeks.

Hang in there. It wont be long. Using crutches for a while might help take some pressure off.

*Edit - That was 18 years ago so I'm sure there are better procedures now then there were at that time. That might speed things up also.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
So how do you know when you need your appendix out anyway? Do you just get a localized pain that feels like a stomach cramp or something, wait a day then go to the dr's office? They throw an ultrasound on you and yell "Oh [censored], get to the hospital right now buddy, or you're gonna die!!!!!" ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Brassnuts gave a pretty good analogy with the baseball bat thing. For me, it started as basically what felt like a stomach cramp throughout my abdominal region. I tried to shake it off as maybe mild food poisoning, but as the day went on, the pain got worse and spread up to underneath my breastbone. It's hard to describe, it wasn't a pain like heartburn, but I felt like my stomach was burning basically.

When I finally got to the doctor and he started feeling around my abdomen, there were a couple of times that he pushed down on my appendix and I practically jumped off the examination table. They sent me to the hospital after that, and next thing I knew I was in surgery.

I don't know how to better explain it, except to say that I knew something was wrong, this wasn't pain from a stomach flu, heartburn, food poisoning, etc.

[Bluffoon]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So how do you know when you need your appendix out anyway? Do you just get a localized pain that feels like a stomach cramp or something, wait a day then go to the dr's office? They throw an ultrasound on you and yell "Oh [censored], get to the hospital right now buddy, or you're gonna die!!!!!" ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Brassnuts gave a pretty good analogy with the baseball bat thing. For me, it started as basically what felt like a stomach cramp throughout my abdominal region. I tried to shake it off as maybe mild food poisoning, but as the day went on, the pain got worse and spread up to underneath my breastbone. It's hard to describe, it wasn't a pain like heartburn, but I felt like my stomach was burning basically.

When I finally got to the doctor and he started feeling around my abdomen, there were a couple of times that he pushed down on my appendix and I practically jumped off the examination table. They sent me to the hospital after that, and next thing I knew I was in surgery.

I don't know how to better explain it, except to say that I knew something was wrong, this wasn't pain from a stomach flu, heartburn, food poisoning, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah its wierd. My lung collapsed last year and I was like UHOH I dont know WTF that was but it was bad....

[sfer]

Welcome back Scott. Enjoy some rest and feel better.

[slickpoppa]

[ QUOTE ]
I had the same thing happen to me about 2 years ago. Rushed to the emergency room, barely got there in time. Luckily, they were able to do me lapriscopically (sp?) so my scars are almost invisible.

This also reminds me of a funny story. As I was lying in the emergency room, the anesthesiologist (sp?) was about to hook me up with the drugs to make me go to sleep before the surgery. In to the room walks one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Apparently she is a nursing student, and is working as an intern with the doctor. After the injection, as I am starting to fade away into Happy Land, the doctor turns to the really hot chick, and says "Don't worry if he gets an erection, it is very normal with the drugs". I, in my half-baked state, say "It is very normal without the drugs too". Worst part is that my parents were standing about 5 feet away from me. My dad still busts my balls all the time for that one.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's hilarious

[Demana]

Welcome back, see ya on the tables soon /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[BottlesOf]

Hey dude, I had mine removed Summer '03. It wasn't quite an emergency, but the day before, my stomahc hurt somethin awful. Glad to hear you're ok.

JBB

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
I, in my half-baked state, say "It is very normal without the drugs too".

[/ QUOTE ]

Surgery is weird man. My first time, the doctor told me that they were going to "give me some oxygen" so I could breathe better, and then like 10 seconds into I realized he lied and I was being gassed, and then the next thing I know I wake up and ask a nurse when we are going to have the surgery, totally not realizing we just had it.

[wayabvpar]

Glad to hear you are ok- come visit me on the lowbie tables at Pokerstars when you can sit upright long enough!

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I, in my half-baked state, say "It is very normal without the drugs too".

[/ QUOTE ]

Surgery is weird man. My first time, the doctor told me that they were going to "give me some oxygen" so I could breathe better, and then like 10 seconds into I realized he lied and I was being gassed, and then the next thing I know I wake up and ask a nurse when we are going to have the surgery, totally not realizing we just had it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, that part was strange. I was very conscious about being put under, and thought that I would be able to notice when it was happening. Nope. Woke up in the recovery room without even realizing that anything had happened.

Apparently I was alert enough to work into conversation that I had won a poker tournament on Saturday. My wife thought it was quite funny that I managed to find a way to bring that up, post-surgery, although I can't remember how I got to talking about it.

[CCass]

I had mine removed when I was 7 (30+ years ago). I don't remember much about it, but I still have my scar.

Hope you get well soon.

[ChoicestHops]

I almost had the operation done. I woke up at 5 am one morning with a really intense pain above my groin. I went to the doc and he said I had a very high white blood cell count, but not enough were the appendix usually burst. I had the option to go ahead and take it out or wait to see if it ever comes back. After two days it didnt hurt anymore.. and this was about 4 months ago.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
Surgery is weird man. My first time, the doctor told me that they were going to "give me some oxygen" so I could breathe better, and then like 10 seconds into I realized he lied and I was being gassed

[/ QUOTE ]

The first (and last) time I had surgery, I was 5 years old and getting my tonsils removed. I knew what the mask was for, but when they put it on, I thought the gas smelled awful. So I pulled it away, and the gas was coming out into the room. They forced it back on my face and held it there till I was out.

[youtalkfunny]

[ QUOTE ]
...one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Apparently she is a nursing student..."Don't worry if he gets an erection, it is very normal with the drugs". I, in my half-baked state, say "It is very normal without the drugs too". Worst part is that my parents were standing about 5 feet away from me. My dad still busts my balls all the time for that one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Funniest post I've read in a long time.

I laughed so hard, my side hurt.

Side hurt! Get it???

(Seriously, funny post RD. Get well soon NF.)

[InchoateHand]

Yeah, Brett Favre knew what he was doing. I was at rehab wtih him in Topeka in 1999. Silly bugger, never could stay clean.

[KJS]

Had mine out about 10 years ago. No fun at all. The interesting part was when they said we are gonna cut you open and take it out, even if that is not the problem. Of course I asked why and they said it doesn't really do much and they want everyone with that scar to not have one. That way if you are found passed out somewhere the EMTs can rule out a burst appendix if you have the scar.

The worst part for me was that I couldn't pee coming out of surgery. So I had to get a catheter. TWICE. Worst thing ever.

Get well soon.

KJS