It has been about ten days since my last daily blog post and I did not expect it to take so long for me to get back to things. On 22nd November, I thought I had a case of food poisoning and would be back to writing the next day, or at the latest, Monday. On Saturday, I was feeling well enough to take Oscar skating, and on Sunday morning I got up and started prepping food for his birthday party later that day.
Then the pain hit. Pain like I have never felt before. It started as a general ache in my lower back and I took painkillers and rubbed some gel on it. I got on with making food and the pain just kept getting worse and worse. I had to keep stopping to stretch my back, kneel, or lie on the floor in an effort to relieve the pressure, but nothing worked.
By the time I’d finished cooking, all I could do was lie in bed. Tamzin brought me a hot water bottle, but nothing would stop it from getting worse. I had no idea what was wrong with me and eventually all I could do was tell Tamzin I needed to go to the walk-in clinic, which I really didn’t want to do because we had all the family coming for Oscar’s birthday party in a few hours.
We dropped Oscar off with Tamzin’s mum and went to the hospital. Every bump in the road was agony to me. There was a short queue, but I got through triage quickly and they put me in a bed for examination where they thought it might be my appendix. Whatever it was, they couldn’t help me there, other than to give me some strong painkillers and book me into the surgical assessment clinic at the nearest big hospital. By this point, the pain was so bad I couldn’t even walk, so had to get taken to the car in a wheelchair.
The painkillers kicked in halfway to hospital and I could walk inside. Thus began a series of tests to determine what was actually wrong with me.
I have always thought a burst appendix (as one theory of what I might have) was an absolute medical emergency. That scene from The Simpsons where they remove an appendix and throw it away moments before it explodes is imbedded in my memory. But there was no rush or urgency. Not that they didn’t do a great job and everyone there was awesome, but they weren’t rushing me through anything.
Tamzin and I sat in the waiting room and every so often I got called out to have people prod me, inject me, or scan me. Then back to the waiting room.
Anyway, once all the tests were back, they told me I had a kidney stone, and the pain was it coming through the uretera (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder). They kept me in hospital overnight so I could get more pain relief and see a doctor in the morning.
They were expecting me to need surgery so I couldn’t eat breakfast, but one of the people who had been in to check my vitals during the night (every four hours) was awesome and brought me a black coffee. Then I just had to wait for the doctor.
By the time he arrived, I was on more painkillers (including morphine) so wasn’t really thinking straight. He told me they could go in and get the stone with a laser, but in his opinion, they should send me home with a load of pain relief and see if I could pass it by myself. Looking back at it now, I didn’t ask the right questions and there are still a load of things I’m unclear about, but he was the doctor so, rightly or wrongly, I took his advice.
As I was no longer facing surgery, Tamzin brought me breakfast, and we waited for them to sign me out. By about one o’clock I was back at home.
Which is where I have been since. Taking loads of medicine and waiting. Tamzin has been taking great care of me and I haven’t been able to do very much. My days have consisted of laying in bed, laying on the sofa, and laying in bed again. I have watched a lot of YouTube.
If it hasn’t passed by Friday, I have to go back to the hospital and get the surgery anyway. That wouldn’t be great, but at this point I just want it over so I can get on with things.
Today was my first day behind the keyboard in almost two weeks. It was slow and uncomfortable and continually interrupted by discomfort and other things.
I got 1,000 words written, along with some editing and planning, but it’s going to be a while before it feels properly comfortable again.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have had a lot of time to think when not in agony and I need to make some changes. You will see a different layout to my project tracking from today.
While I am still doing the 1,000 word a day challenge, there is going to be less emphasis on it here. It is more of a target for myself and, as my goals for the year change, other things have as well. I have already written a lot more than usual today so I won’t go into the details yet, but stay tuned to learn more.
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Latest release: Sisterhood
Currently Writing:
- The Storm: a cozy apocalypse short story. Today’s progress: 1,044 words / 2,717
- The List: a dark fantasy novella. PLANNING
- The Last Outpost: a science-fiction short story about a human colony on a moon of Jupiter. EDITING