Emergency Room
I know, some of you are just dying to hear about my night in the emergency room. And the rest of you are saying "What? Doug spent the night in the emergency room? Is he okay? Will he live?"Enquiring minds want to know...
Now that I'm home for the weekend, I'll tell you about it.
This week I was at Camp Good News. On Monday evening, around 9:00, I started to feel some pain in my side. At first it kind of felt like a stomach flu kind of pain, only more severe. I thought, "I'll go to bed early, and I'll be better in the morning."
That theory didn't work out. The pain got worse, and no matter whether I was lying down, sitting up, standing up, walking around, it didn't make any difference - it still hurt more.
Finally, about two hours later, I got up and started wandering the camp ground to see if there was anyone awake. Thankfully, Mr. R was still up, so I banged on his door and said, "I don't feel so good..." (or words to that effect...)
Mr. R. woke up one of the staff to drive me up to the hospital in Farminton (Franklin Memorial). That was a very very very long ride - I had ridden that road just two days earlier, and I hadn't really noticed how many bumps there were in the road.
Believe me, I noticed them this time!
At the hospital they checked the standard stuff (blood pressure, temperature, pulse), registered me, and then put me in what I like to refer to as the "holding cell". You know, the place where they give you the inmate uniform (a hospital gown), close you in, and say "I'll be back in a couple minutes." Only, of course, it's always much longer than that!
The nurse who took care of me was very pleasant and friendly, and apologized profusely for trying to put an IV into the back of my hand and raising a bruise from all the pokes before she gave up and stuck it in my arm. I told her that was fine, it would give me something to "complain about"
So then the doctor came in (and promised me pain medication), asked me what I had for supper, and when I told him "pizza and potato chips" he smiled knowingly.
The reason he smiled knowingly was that he knew something I didn't know. If you have gallstones (stones in your gallbladder), eating fatty foods will likely trigger an attack. Does pizza and potato chips fit into the category of "fatty foods"? Hmm... I wonder.
Anyway, at about 1:30 AM, when the pain was already starting to subside, they came back and gave me some pain medication which was designed to target abdominal pain. About 10 minutes later I was able to doze off, so I was fast asleep when they woke me up for x-rays. Then they brought me back to the holding cell, where I waited a little longer, then the doctor came back in and explained to me what gallstones are, and what happens when you have them.
He then explained my choices -
1. go home, see my doctor, have some more tests, and then (probably) have my gallbladder removed.
2. stay at camp, eat NO FATTY foods, continue on with my six weeks of camp, and then when I get home in August, do the whole doctor/tests/surgery thing.
But he told me, if I have another attack, I shouldn't wait.
So, I'm going route #2. I do indeed have the most BORING diet...I'm bringing a cooler to camps with me, with a variety of foods I can eat whenever the dining hall is serving stuff I can't eat.
I can eat some meats (I had some roast beef at the CGN banquet last night) but it has to be lean meat.
I certainly won't be doing fast food this summer!
I got back to the camp about 5:00 AM, slept a good part of the day, got up to do evening chapel, and then slept all night. Then camp continued on as usual.
I am feeling quite good, and have felt quite good for a couple days now. I'll probably lose some weight this summer, on my diet of bread, vegetables, and fruit!
The ER doctor told me that once I have my gallbladder out, that'll foul up my digestive system for awhile, and the typical symptoms will be: diarrhea, and (as he said) when you have to go, you have to go NOW. Those issues could iron themselves out within a week or two, but might take much much longer. Those smartaleck counselors at CGN were joking that next summer I'll be back wearing pampers.
There's more to the story of my visit to the ER, which is actually pretty funny, but I'm not going to post it here, so if you're one of my "regular" readers, post a comment back saying you want to hear the rest of the story, or send me an email, and I'll email you back the rest of the story!
Posted On Jul 7, 2007 at 8:30 AM
On Jul 7, 2007 Mr T wrote: OK - I have to hear the rest of it!
Doug Replied: *grin* as soon as I type it up, I'll email it to you.
On Jul 8, 2007 Doug wrote: Completely off topic...
Here is a brand new website, which Jeorge built. Don't expect much, he's just learning to build websites.
Jeorge The Dodo
On Jul 11, 2007 Laura wrote: Wow, that sounds like quite an adventure! I'm glad you're relatively okay though, and that it wasn't something worse. And as you may have guessed, I'm dying to know the rest of the story, whenever you're able to type it up :-)
I like the website idea too. Of course, now you're going to have people forgetting that this particular Jeorge is spelled with a J and not a G ;-) Just kidding - that's actually a very clever way to help people remember - now you just need to get all the other puppets their own domain names, and have one big happy family of J-boys on the web! :-D
Doug Replied: I've already typed it up, so I'll copy it into an email to you.
The Jeorge/George thing has crossed my mind, but we'll see how that goes. At CGN last week I told people my myspace url (which is jeorgethedodo), and I had several people find it, so I think jeorgethedodo.com will work well.
All the J puppets...
Jeorge
Uncle Jim
Jeffrey
JD
Jerry
Doctor Jonas
*waits for people to say Who is Doctor Jonas??*
On Jul 12, 2007 Laura wrote: Okay, I'll do it. Who is Doctor Jonas? I guess even puppets need a doctor sometimes... ;-)
On Jul 13, 2007 Mr T wrote: Who is Doctor Jonas??
Doug Replied: Sometime this summer I'm going to do a little 'photo shoot', and when I do, I'll post a picture of him. He's a new puppet.
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