I know a lot of you are wondering where I’ve been on this page for almost a year. I’ve been very busy -but that’s all changed. I thought I’d save a lot of you the time of another long phone call by just posting what happened to me over the past 3 weeks here. I’ll be posting some pics of me at the hospital as they come in. Not that many were taken but I think my mom sneaked in a couple while no one was looking. so, here goes…
About 3 weeks ago I got sick. I thought it was just food poisoning; I couldn’t keep anything down for about 2 days. But after a little while, it all cleared up -and then I was craving oranges like crazy! Most people believe that this was when my appendix ruptured.
I felt fine for the next 2 weeks. Then I thought I came down with the same thing: food poisoning. Ok, so this time it was Taco Bell instead of Subway like 2 weeks before. 2 days go by and I find myself on Friday morning shaking from the cold and having a hard time breathing. So Candi orders my sister-in-law (a nurse) to take my tail to the E.R. at once! My sister already was pretty sure I had appendicitis but I wasn’t that sure. I laugh thinking back to the E.R. when I was laying on a gurney listening to the doctor talk with a sick lady next to me. He was saying something to the affect of, “Take to of these and I’ll see you tomorrow no later than 6. You’ll be just fine.” I started saying to myself, “Yea, that’s gonna’ be me!” But when the doctor came in to see me, he took one look, poked me in the side, and said, “Buddy, you have appendicitis!” Even then, my attitude was simply, “Ok, fix it!” But shortly after they started preparing me for the necessary surgery, my body went into shock -right there in the O.R. I got cold like there was nothing they could do to warm me up. They were piling on hot blankets but it was doing nothing. I felt like I just couldn’t breathe -like I was drowning. The next think I remember was waking up in the ICU 4 days later!
The seriousness of this I didn’t understand until much later. Simply put, were I not sitting in the O.R. of a hospital when my body went into shock, I probably would have died. There just wouldn’t have been enough time to transport me and diagnose the problem before it was too late. Thank god for my wife and sister taking care of me when I was unwilling!
So the final score was an appendicitis condition that was complicated with pneumonia to make things interesting. I had laparoscopic surgery to remove my appendix and clean me out. I spent about 5 days in the ICU and another 3 days in a regular hospital room recovering and taking tests. Most of the time I can’t really remember when happened to me -especially in the ICU. I can say that if we talked then, I probably don’t remember it. I had no idea so many people in my church work at that hospital though! Terry Fiske, you were a real ray of sunshine to me in an absolutely horrible time for me in the ICU -thanks for being there.
I’m a little afraid to start thanking everyone as I’m sure I’ll miss someone but I’m going to try anyways. First of all, I want to thank everyone that prayed for my recovery. There is no doubt it made all the difference in the world. I want to thank my family for being there every day for me helping me out and keeping me on the road to recovery. I want to thank my sister for getting me to the right place at the right time. I want to thank my wife for being strong and supportive for me through what must have been the most difficult week in her life. I want to thank my Mom for being there for me and keeping my step-sister in Holland up to date with everything. I want to thank my Mother-in-law for making me the best homecoming dinner I’ve ever had! Thank you, Mark Edwards, for coming over yesterday and mowing my lawn. And thank everyone who called, visited, or emailed. Some of you I haven’t talked with in a very long time and I’m grateful we got to say hello.
Now if you’re wondering what’s up with the weird pic at the top, that’s what my eyes look like after that much vomiting. The condition is known as a subconjunctival hemorrhage. It looks terrible (or cool if you like) but has absolutely no affect on my vision. I’ve been just telling people that half of me has gone to the dark side!
So now I’m at home -with a new lease on life. I still feel incredibly weak and get short of breath easily. My arms are very sore and I guess that was from fighting the restraints while in the ICU. I kept trying to pull the tubes out of my mouth so they had to tie me down. I have had very little pain from the surgery and eat normally now. I do plan on changing the way I eat and exercise though. I’ve already lost about 15 lbs from spending the week in the hospital but I’m definitely going to make some major changes in my families lifestyle. I’m probably going to be home for the next work week so if some of you want to drop by and visit, please feel free but call first to make sure I’m up and around.