Friday, April 25, 2008

365: Day 65 - Windy Fountain


365: Day 65 - Windy Fountain, originally uploaded by MonkeyPaw2u.

What a windy morning.... My day today started with this wonderful photo and ended with an emergency surgery to remove my gall bladder. It is amazing what 24 hours and 100 miles can do.

I was a business meeting in Portland. I would walk outside and take pictures during breaks. I snapped this one and then went back inside. About an hour later I started feeling uncomfortable.... Like my back was out. It was hard to breath, and I couldn't sit still. I left the meeting at 3:00 PM and drove myself home.

I arrived home at 4:15 PM. I took at hot shower, actually running the hot water tank empty, hoping that it would help whatever was hurting. It didn't. At 5:15 PM I called my wife to come take me to the hospital.

She came home from work picked me up and drove me to the local hospital. They sat us down and told us it would be a few minutes. Looking around at the dozens of others in the waiting room... my wife asked if they could get me something for the pain. A different nurse said no... and that it would be several hours before they could get us in.

We drove 40 miles to another, more familiar hospital. I was in the door and in a room in less than 15 minutes. By 7:00 PM I had an IV in my arm and heavy pain killers in my system.

The doctor thought it was kidney stones, but wanted to do a CT Scan. I agreed to the CT scan and was glad I did. At 10 PM the surgeon came in and said they wanted to take my gall bladder at Midnight.

And they did. At 9:00 AM I awoke in my hospital room with three new hole and one gall bladder lighter.

It is amazing how a day can change your entire life.

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