Missed a Spot

"America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system."
~Walter Cronkite

You may note a huge gap in entries here. That would be because April 22nd saw me admitted to the hospital with a perforated appendix. As it were, I was certainly much too late for them to go in and simply remove the tissue - I had a massive infection in my abdomen, a fever of 101F, and a white count of 21.2 (4-10 is normal). Thus began a six day hospital stay.

I learned much later that I could have died if the infection had continued for much longer and spread further throughout my body. Lucky for me, I couldn't concieve of anything but my eventual recovery. As it was it took two days for them to break my fever, during which time they ended up forbidding me food or drink for 24 hours. Then they slowly brought back liquids, and then solid food. Over the two weeks I was sick, I lost ten pounds, mostly due to the anorexia I felt with the illness(es).

I had what you'd call a non-textbook case of appedicitis. There's some confusion as to whether I really had a viral GI infection or not - though I can say with confidence that I had no pain in the appendix when I first went to the doctor the 15th. I was warned about an infection in my appendix, and the symptoms to watch for were nausea, vomiting, and diaherria. Nope, nope, and no on those. The pain, even when it was a brief stabbing pain, didn't seem as bad as I'd heard from other people, and was located near my bladder, not my hips like I thought it would be. Generally my pain was diffuse across my abdomen too, so it was hard to tell what was wrong.

Did I mention my insurance is only full coverage in Lexington, and going to a doctor in DC would have cost me serious cash? That minor detail, plus my lack of life threatening symptoms (or so it seemed) had me waiting to see someone until I got back and felt even worse.

The photo is of the college of pharmacy at sunset. I had stopped in to take care of some paperwork and noticed the grounds crew had missed a spot or two in the grass. I had some pictures of the sky and clouds, which had great color, but I liked the soft color of the building in this one. Plus, the world seemed all a bit out of wack and out of focus for me at the time, so perhaps this is the best image to share here.