Good Grief Charlie Brown

On this Sunday morning, Anvilcloud will finish his second does of antibiotics to fight his second UTI since his June surgery.  Finally, the night sweats seem like they might be over, and the old boy is feeling pretty good. What a long haul since the first surgery in February through the second one in early June and catheters, night sweat, and infections!

Sue and I were both thinking that we were out of the woods, and then . . .

. . . the other shoe dropped.

Friday morning Sue felt nauseous and had pain on her lower right side above her hips. It should be just one of those morning disturbances that would soon pass. Right?

Wrong! It didn't pass. As a matter of fact, it got worse and worse.

By 2pm we were in the ER of our local hospital.

At 4:30 an ambulance was taking her to the large city hospital where there is a CT scanner. There is one closer to us in another smaller hospital, but they would not have a emergency surgeon on standby. OUh oh, what is this surgeon thing?!

I saw the ambulance leave and learned later that it was a very bumpy and uncomfortable ride.

I went home to wait for Shauna and began to pack things. When Shauna arrived, she thought of more things to pack, and off we went.

Come 6pm Shauna and I had caught up with her. Sue was sitting in a wheelchair all alone, shaking and sobbing. It is one of the most pathetic sights that I have ever seen in person as she clasped her puke bag time and time again but was never able to vomit.  She was writhing around in the wheelchair trying, unsuccessfully, to find a spot that wasn't so incredibly painful.

It was heartbreaking to witness. I had to fight to keep it together for her sake. Shauna was more of a help than AC.

Finally, things got rolling. She had her scan and was then given meds and IV fluids.

By 10pm, we were up on the surgical floor.

It was 11pm when they took her into the OR to remove her appendix. How odd it was for a 76 year old appendix to decide that enough was enough, and to pack it in right then and there with no prior warning.

We would have at least two hours to kill, and Sha decided that she needed to go home, take our her contacts, and get freshened up after a full day at work. Our town is only a half hour away by highway, so we could do all that and easily be back by 2, which would be the earliest possibly discharge time.

On the way home, the surgeon phoned around 11:50. Surprisingly, they were done already. He reported that her appendix had had a little perforation, so they would want to monitor her overnight and, quite possibly, for even longer.

That all happened on Friday. Now, I will jump ahead to 2:30 the next afternoon — yesterday, Saturday.

Sue was home.

What a whirlwind! On Thursday night she went to bed seemingly healthy, but she didn't wake up that way on Friday. In that one day, she had visited two ERs, had an ambulance ride, and had surgery by midnight. Wow!

It was hard to believe that so much had happened in just 24 hours from the time we left the house on Friday until we were back on Saturday.

If it had to happen, her appendix chose the right time to do this. Imagine if her troubles had happened concurrently with mine. What a pickle that would have been! Now, I am feeling good enough to help her.

She stayed downstairs on the chair last night. I helped her organize her pills before I came upstairs for the night. This morning, I brought her coffee down and made her toast after I arose at 6.

Good grief, Charlie Brown.