Another Post-Apocalyptic Sunday

You're all probably wondering where I was yesterday, no blog, no clever posts on any of the... well never mind. The fact is that I was sick. I got sick Friday night and was up all night in abdominal pain for I don't know what reason, and having made it through alive until Saturday morning, I climbed into m bed and finally found a comfortable position I laid there more than slept until about 1:00 PM. Then I got up and made myself a hot tea and sat in my recliner and stayed there until about 7:30 PM when I went back to my bed and felt like I finally got some sleep. After sleep I just laid there until about 8:30 when I got up and took a shower.

I have no idea what it was that brought me down like a gut shot carny but my stomach stills hurts and I waiting to see if I get better or worse. As a wise man once said, "the trend is your friend," so small incremental improvement points toward a recovery but I'm not buying any new milk right now.

Still I felt the need to get back out to my office and write an entry for today. One day is too long to stay away from the constant hubbub and important, uh... well stuff that I do while I'm here in the office. Enough said about that.

Whilst I was in the throes of whatever it was and my stomach was constantly hurting, I did take a moment to answer that question I had asked so many times before. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is a minor annoyance and 10 is the worst pain you can possibly imagine, how much pain was I having? When I began asking the question in my mind, I was sure that I was going to answer at least an 8 or 9. But then I thought back on other times in my life and times when I had come up against some really painful events and I had to admit that even though the pain was more or less constant and it felt serious. So I gave it a 6, but a solid 6. Because I was still functioning. For instance, I didn't have a fever, I took my blood pressure (165/90) and found a stethoscope to check for bowel sounds (greatly diminished), I checked myself for overall abdominal tenderness (looking for some kind of bowel rupture), my pulse was strong at about 100 (on beta blockers).

I did have some mental changes during the long night and the next day. It was probably from the long stressful night. It all seemed a bit unreal and I had many recurrent thoughts. That part was also exhausting.

I sat in my chair in the front room and wondered if I would have to go to the ER. I really didn't want to go to the ER on a Friday night with stomach pain. Once again I made it through the night. Of course, all this happens going into the weekend. My wife is on call all weekend so probably won't be home and my son is off being almost 19 years old. That leaves me and the dogs and my daughter who was a great help to me.

More later (I hope),


(Photo by Chris Penny)