My birthday saga . .

It's been an 'interesting' week leading up to my birthday to say the least, and the reason I'm house bound is detailed in the chain of events below:

Saturday (22/5) night - I thought I had a stomach ache, but didn't think much of it, and went to church where I was doing the sound desk for the evening service. After the service, I went on out for dinner with a few friends to a Japanese place near church (nothing raw!) and went on home, still with the mild stomach ache.

Sunday (23/5) morning - The stomach ache was getting worse, but with no diarrhoea, nausea or vomiting, I thought it was a bit odd. So I took some paracetamol, and amoxycillin to see if that would fix things up. Nothing. So I went to the chemist, and bought some Buscopan upon advice from the well meaning pharmacist to see if that would cure my woes. Still nothing. Odd.

Sunday afternoon - By this stage, I was lying on the ground trying to get comfortable, but could not contort myself into any position where I could find relief. I gave mum'n dad a call since they had just returned from their trip to NZ, and commented to mum that I had this weird stomach ache. In the back of mind, I thought it could be appendicitis, but did not want to cry wolf in case it was not. Mum also thought it could be appendicitis and suggested I call one of my CG friends, or check myself into ED. So I called Paul (anaesthetic consultant) , our CG leader to see if he had any pearls of wisdom. He immediately suggested to call Jeremy (surgical consultant) and since Jeremy was finishing off his shift, he came over to check me out. Jeremy quickly diagnosed that I indeed had an inflamed appendix, and suggested that it would be in my best interest to have it removed immediately.

Sunday night 6pm - After a few short phone calls, Jeremy had me admitted into St John of God at Subiaco under his care, by passing the already very full ED at Sir Charles Gairdener hosptial, and prepped ready for surgery. He called on Paul (my CG leader & anaesthetic consultant) to come in sort out the GA.

Sunday night 820pm - Paul was explaining in great detail what he would be doing to me, and assured me I was in good hands. Jeremy made 3 small incisions and removed my appendix my via laparoscopic surgery and by 0920pm I was taken back to the ward, where the nurses checked up on me every hour (so next to no sleep).

Jeremy checked in with me the next morning (Monday) and gave me a USB drive with both photos and a video of the entire procedure (quite interesting). I stayed an additional evening, and came back home this morning (Tuesday).

The 3 wounds have healed up quite nicely and I am only a little sore from the procedure. God has truly blessed me with wonderful CG members, Paul commented that if they had sent my appendix away to Western Diagnostic for the pathology report, we would have completed the CG trifector, with his wife Lydia most likely completing that job.

So I am currently at home, resting with a plethora of pain medication and anti constipation medication to counter the effects of the former.

I'll be working from home for the rest of the week, so please feel free to give me a call any time, I'm not going anywhere :)

Thankyou all for your prayers, this was obviously something that was not planned for, but despite my immediately family not being around, I am blessed to have such a loving CG to look after me.