Health Update

If only all doctor's appointments could be like this one, I wouldn't hate doctors so much...

12:20: Arrive at Dr. Navarro's office

12:25: Assistant takes me to room and asks me: "Any pain?" "No" "Any bowel problems?" "No" "Do you need a back-to-work slip?" "I'm self employed, so I can give myself the slip" :D

12:28: Dr. Navarro comes in. "Feeling good?" "Yep" "Appetite good" "Yep" "Let me see the incisions." (I lift my shirt) "Good. Good. Good. Good. Okay, that's great. You're all set, thanks for coming in."

12:30: Ushers me out of his office.

How's that for a nice doctor's appointment? :D

Oh, and on the way out I mentioned that I was going hiking in a couple weeks, and that would be okay, right? He grinned and said, "You can do anything you like!"

Cheesesticks and Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Lover's Pizza...

Yes, that's right, on Saturday Ben and Cody and I went to Pizza Hut. My first pizza since that fateful night when I spent the night in the emergency room in Farmington.

I don't remember if I've mentioned it here, but one of the common side effects of having your gallbladder removed is that if you eat a lot of fatty foods all at once, you're likely to have *ahem* diarrhea. :P

So, it's been almost two weeks since my surgery, and I haven't had a single problem that way, so I decided it was time to push the limits and see what happened.

I'm pleased to say that I had absolutely no side effects from my evening of fat-splurging!

On another subject, if you want to try out a new version of a game I created about ten years ago, visit this link: Zero Gravity Connect Four. You'll need someone to join you in playing this game, because it's a two player game!

Please drop a note here if you try it, and let me know whether it works well for you.

This weekend I'll be heading to Orrington, to speak at the Orrington Center Church. I always enjoy going up there; it's such a nice group of folks there at the church.

Gallbladder Surgery...

Okay, pretty soon I'll stop rambling on about my gallbladder. After all, I don't even have one any more, so what is there to say about it?

Oh, one thing I have to say to Josh F.: "No, you can't have my gallbladder!"

So here's my report of my day in the hospital.

7:00 Arrive at hospital, check in, start answering survey questions. One of the people who had questions for me complained that I gave boring answers. Every question was answered "No". Do you smoke, drink, have a heart condition, liver problems, blah blah blah.

8:15 Questioning is completed, and they leave me alone to read the book I brought with me ("Sandworms Of Dune") while I wait for my surgery, which was supposed to be at 9:00.

9:00 Someone poked their head in and said, "Have you seen your surgeon this morning?" "No." "Hmm. We haven't either."

9:30 They finally found my surgeon and put me under.

At some point later in the morning (I don't have a clue when!) I woke up to find someone leaning over me, holding me down by my shoulders saying, "It's okay, you can relax, the surgery is over, just relax, just lay still." Apparently I was tossing and turning like crazy as I was waking up.

It took me a very long time to wake up enough that I could concentrate on anything. I do remember having lunch though. Chicken (the driest chicken I've had in my life), mashed potatoes (with REAL BUTTER!!!) asparagus and...strawberry shortcake.

In the afternoon I tried to watch a movie, but they'd put me on oxycodone, which made me very drowsy. So I'd watch the movie for a couple minutes, then wake up fifteen minutes later, watch a couple more minutes...

I stayed at the hospital through supper time. Had chop suey (first hamburg I'd had in over a month and a half!), veggies, and a chocolate chip cookie. Mmmm Mmm! Chocolate chip cookie! :D

After that the surgeon showed up to chat with me and give approval for me to be released.

So, I'm at my folks' house now. Not sure how long I'll stay here...it's kind of nice to be waited on hand-and-foot. *grins*

My primary pains are in two places. The first is my belly-button, where they made the largest of the four incisions. The second is my right shoulder. When they do the surgery, they pump my abdomen full of gas (like I need MORE gas, right??) and one of the results of that is pain in the right shoulder. Does that make sense to you? I'm not sure it makes sense to me!

So, that's my story up to the moment. Now I'm going to go back to reading "Sandworms Of Dune".

Surgery Successful

*points at subject line*

Surgery successful, and I'm out of the hospital. I'll write more some other time!

Conversation About Surgery

Me: Well, tomorrow's the big day.
Millie: What's that?
Me: I'm having my gallbladder removed.
Betty: Oh! I thought he was going to say he was getting married!
Me: No, no...nothing so awful as that...it's just surgery!

Okay, here are a couple web pages I just added to Jeorge's Website today...

In Honor of Marshmallows and Pretzels
Jackson's Valentine's Day Cake Recipe

Tomorrow morning I go to the hospital at 6:30 AM. Once the surgery is finished, I'll be going to my folks house, where I'll stay until I feel like coming home again. I'll post something here when I feel like writing, or I'll get my folks to post something in the Quote Puzzler discussion forum.

Meanwhile, Arnold just called me and asked if I wanted to borrow the last Dune book. He just bought it, and hasn't even read it yet, but thought I might want something to read while I was recovering. Don't I have such nice brothers? :D

Underdog, and surgery scheduled

Okay, so this afternoon I took Daniel to see Underdog. When I saw the previews for this one a few months ago, I thought "This looks pretty stupid."

Of course, stupid doesn't necessarily mean it's not funny...it's possible to be both stupid AND funny.

But the real deciding factor on whether to watch it was the imdb.com rating on the movie. Over a thousand members at imdb.com have cast their vote on "Underdog", and rated it at 3.3 out of ten.

And I thought, "If the members at imdb.com hate the movie that much, it might actually be pretty good!" :)

Daniel and I both enjoyed the movie. True, it was quite silly, and the flying dog looked quite unconvincing in the scene where he's learning to fly, but we enjoyed it.

On another subject, I'm going to have my gallbladder removed next Tuesday. Bright and early in the morning. I'm glad I decided not to go to Acadia this weekend...I'm going to be well rested on Tuesday when I go in for surgery!

Gallstone Symptoms?

Well, you'd probably think that once I spent a night in the ER, and was told I had gallstones, I would immediately go online to find out everything I could about them. Actually, though, since I've been at camp, my time online has been fairly limited, and when I've been home, I've had too much to do to spend much time browsing the internet.

But I spent a couple nights at home this week, so I finally got around to looking up gallstone symptoms. What I read made me realize, I've probably been suffering from gallbladder attacks since sometime last winter, and never realized it.

Turns out that, in addition to pain in the abdomen, gallbladder problems can also produce fever and chills. So all those times last winter and spring that I was down with stomach flu (fever, chills, stomach cramps) - in retrospect, I suspect that I was experiencing gallbladder attacks, and it was not stomach cramps I was feeling! I commented to a few people (and a few people made similar comments to me) that I was having a rough winter/spring because I kept coming down with every bug that was going around.

The scary thing is that when gallbladder attacks are accompanied by fever and chills, that's when you're supposed to contact your doctor immediately, because it can mean that bile is getting backed up in the liver. So I probably spent a better part of my winter/spring teetering on the edge of jaundice and didn't even realize it.

No wonder I've felt exhausted all the time - probably had as much to do with my health as the work load I was trying to keep up with...

All those times in praise team practice when Rachel looked at me and said "Are you okay?" And I said "I'm just really tired..." it was probably a bit more than that...

My attack I had at camp was far more severe in pain, but had no fever/chills symptoms. Now I understand why the doctor told me that if I had additional symptoms I should come right back to the ER.

The other interesting thing I found is that gallbladder attacks can produce a pain not in your side, but in your back - either between your shoulder blades, or under your right shoulder. And now I remember a month ago thinking that I'd pulled a muscle in my back...now I'm not so sure that's what happened...

Friday morning I went to the hospital (scheduled trip this time!) for an ultrasound. The technician couldn't discuss with me what she was seeing, so don't ask me about the test results - I won't know until next week. But once I get those test results, we should be able to schedule my surgery. Hopefully that will be soon. Everyone who has had their gallbladder removed has said to me: "You won't believe how much better you'll feel once it's gone!"

I'm looking forward to that!

On a completely different subject, I had a really great week at camp. I so much enjoyed the group of campers. They were attentive in chapel, and grateful and appreciative. And a lot of fun. One of the "tribes" practically adopted me, which was nice...even though they kept calling Jeorge a PARROT, instead of a dodo bird!

Fat Free Mayonnaise, Fat Free Cheese

Well, last night Jeorge created his very own blog (which you can find here: Jeorge The Dodo's Blog), so this morning it's my turn.

I know, I already have a blog. But I'm going to be updating this one instead of the old one. If you want to read stuff from my old blog, you can find it here: Doug's Random Thoughts.

So, to start off my new blog, I thought I'd tell you something I learned this week. As you may or may not know, I have been diagnosed with gallstones, so while I'm traveling from camp to camp this summer as a camp pastor, I have to be very careful with my diet.

So here's what I've learned:

1. Fat Free Mayonnaise is disgusting.


2. If you put lots of vegetables (onions, peppers, tomatoes) in your sandwich, these cover the disgustingness of the mayonnaise, and it actually is quite edible.


3. Fat Free Cheese is disgusting.


4. If you put lots of vegetables (onions, peppers, tomatoes) in your sandwich, Fat Free Cheese is still disgusting.

My personal opinion is that Fat Free Cheese is utterly beyond all hope of redemption, and should be consigned immediately to the fires of hell, where it will melt for all of eternity.

But that's just my opinion!