Stuck at Home

Still trying to recover from the second surgery. Difficult to move about abruptly as the incision scar cause pain when stretched. I am walking about a 1/4 mile three times a day. Next week I hope to increase the distance to 1 mile per walk.

Dreaming about wandering. I was looking at the Jalama Beach website in Santa Barbara County and using Google maps, I noted that there are miles and miles of beach to wander. Summer is a busy time, but then, there are no winter storms, just sunshine and a cool seabreeze. I considered the Eastern and Western Sierras but realized that my ability to walk at high altitudes is limited.

Frog can't wander now

Following the passing of Sassy the Dog, I was too depressed to post anything. The world moved on and I was stuck in my sorrow. Then, at an Easter Sunday dinner my life changed.

My appendix had ruptured. I had no clue of that event but did notice the slight pain that evening. On monday the pain got worse, worse enough for me to call my physician whose on call doctor told me to take Mylanta and see if that helped. I did. It seemed to help.

The next day the pain returned with a vengence so I called my HMO doctor who set up an appointment the next day (usually takes 3 weeks). I arrived at the doctor's office and after a brief examination told me to IMMEDIATELY to the Emergency Room at the hospital about 2 miles away. I had appendicities.

At the ER I had to wait for a few hours while all the hispanic patients ahead of me were taken care of, then of course there wasn't a room available for a couple hours longer. After 8 hours after going through labwork I was placed in a room pending surgery.

All the operating rooms were busy with mostly hispanic types since no one was speaking English, in fact initially I was interviewed in Spanish, of which I don't speak.

There were two other patients in my room, both hispanic, both non-English speaking, in fact one couldn't even understand Spanish, an Indian from central America. None of them had insurance and from what I could determine, were illegal immigrants. I say that since there were a flurry of "immigration advocates" coming and going and having these people sign all kinds of paperwork for "temporary status" due to their life threatening illness.

I was taken in for surgery late the next morning and after that, seven days passed of which I have no clue what was going on. Apparently my entire stomach cavity was septic.