Much of life is just showing up, if you believe Woody Allen; some of it has to do with timing -- when you show up ...Friend of mine was planning on going to the World Science Fiction convention this week, it being held down under in Melbourne, Victoria. All set up to go, but he started feeling poorly last week. He skipped an outing with his wife and stepson, and when they got home, she realized he was really not doing well at all, so off to the ER ...
Turned out it was appendicitis, and out came the scalpel.
He is a somewhat stoic fellow, and it wouldn't have surprised me at all if he had tried to push through the pain and get on the jet, because he always goes to Worldcon. And if he had done so, there's a pretty good chance his appendix could have blown out at thirty thousand feet somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, and that would have been ... bad.
Bad enough that he even missed class this week.
Get well soon, Edwin.
9 comments:
No, I wouldn't have gone on the plane. I'll take the stoic and pushing through the pain bit, but that's for pain that I know the cause of.
As to the pretty pictures ... (sigh) you're getting old, Steve: apparently the preferred way to close the appendiceal stump is to staple it shut. Primarily because the lower intra-abdominal infection rate, but it also reduces complications, length of the surgery, length of hospital stay and readmission rates.
It wasn't a lesson in how to do the surgery, just an illustration to show what the little vestigal organ looked like. Back when I was in medicine -- we called it barbering then -- we used stone knives and sheep's gut for suturing ...
I can empathize.
Not a fun experience and humbling. Especially if the appendix ruptures or leaks, a much protracted recovery and it turned out the medication was as bad as the cause.
And you do not want to be in the air.
Reading patient experiences on the web, often those showing symptoms are sent home with a diagnosis of something similar but more benign only to be back 10 hours later in a much graver condition.
@steve-vh At least the place I were at they pretty much said that they go with the results of the CAT scan. I was quite impressed with their thoroughness and professionalism. To be fair, I also have a bit of experience in talking with representatives of the medical profession and had my side of things well sorted out and lined up.
@steve Sheep's gut I'd believe, but stone knives I find unlikely. As far as I know, the appendix was first described in the 16th century. Obviously all of us are willing to believe you when you say you are old enough to have been around then, metal knives have been used in surgery since at least the 10th century.
Ah, if you just dangle the lure, somebody will bite:
http://www.ur.umich.edu/9798/Sep10_97/surgery.htm
I know about the obsidian scalpels, but the timeline doesn't fit your time line.
Also, 'removing moles and repairing torn earlobes' is a bit off of laparoscopic appendicectomy.
People have been using these things for thousands of years -- the Egyptians used 'em for embalming. And the Aztecs got pretty good at surgery with them, though the patients seldom survived.
When I was in the clinic back in the late seventies, there was a local eye surgeon who used them -- only he didn't tell patients because he thought it would freak them out.
I got this one, Edwin. Nice try ...
@Edwin,yeah my hospital was fairly quick as well. From the time I showed up to being in the op. room was only about 2.5 hours. Of course I was alternating between screaming and begging for pain meds by the time I got there. apparently the CAT was pretty definitive, the tech ran the doc down with it.
I think the ones I read about didn't use a CAT.
Glad yours turned out well. I was out for 3 weeks and lost 15lbs.
Actually, the report on Edwin's surgery is incorrect...It was discovered that, sometime during the past month, a hive queen had released a facehugger, which subsequently rammed it's ovipositor down Edwin's throat (must've been laced with sambal) and laid it's eggs in his chest.
Said alien was removed before chestbursting sequence could begin, thusly saving Edwin's life while simultaneously costing Ridley Scott millions of dollars in unused CGI.
Seriously,I was relieved to hear that the appendicitis was caught in time. I didn't even know Edwin HAD a reference section.
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