Day 68: Putting it All Together.

Baby, wake up, I gotta go to the ER.

I grabbed my watch. 4:34am on Thursday morning.  As I pulled on my clothes, I made Will recite his symptoms.  Abdominal pain, slight fever.  He had been sick for the past ten days with a stomach bug, so none of this was too shocking, but he said it's something more serious.  He wasn't flushed or breathing heavy, so I sent him out to start the car while I took Daisy out for a quick pee and stashed her in her crate with food and water.  I didn't know how long we'd be gone. 

I offered to drive, but he insisted he was fine (minus that whole going-to-the-ER thing.)  The streets of a city that closes around 2am always look post-apocalyptic in the wee hours of the morning, and I was shocked at my ability to go from dead asleep to awake, dressed, and hyper-alert in ten minutes.

As you all know by now, Will had an appendectomy that presented some complications, so he was gutted from sternum to bellybutton.  All Post-Apocalyptic Activity was put on hold; the only zombie in my life was me, shuffling between the hospital and home. 

He was sent home Tuesday, and while he's still recuperating, I planned on resuming my workouts and beginning to assemble the next training phase.  I went for a recovery run yesterday, as I hadn't run in nearly a week and was stiff and sore from six days seated in hospital chairs and a diet that consisted of whatever was convenient.  Ten minutes, I thought, but I managed to run twenty-five. 

Pleased, I climbed the stairs into my apartment when I heard him call.

Baby?  Can you come here?

I found him in our bedroom, one hand over his seeping gut.  There was a trail of pinkish fluid that led from the closet to the bed.  He looked scared.  I bent down and looked him in the eye.

Look at me. Are you hurt?

It doesn't hurt, it's just that...all this fluid just burst out, he told me.

I realized that the trail on the floor was actually the arc of the spray that came out of his gut.  Our bedroom looked like the cafeteria from Alien, with Will playing John Hurt.

Okay, okay that's good.  Let's clean you up and call your doctor.  If he says we go to the ER, then we go back.  Okay?

Okay.

I washed and disinfected my hands, then located the First Aid Kit and re-bandaged the wound, talking calmly and firmly the entire time.  I then sat him down and called the doctor's office, who assured us that this happens, and as long as it's not gushing blood, he was okay.

It's not like I had to do this amidst nuclear fallout or zombie breaking in the windows, but as my first test of staying calm and focused in a crisis?  I think I passed.

I'm treating this as a get-back-into-the-swing of things week.  I know I owe a ton of emails and such, so please bear with me.  If I've learned anything from this, it's that you can't plan for everything.

Comments

[sssss]

I'm glad to hear everything is better. We've never met, but I've been following your blog with great interest. You've helped inspire me to get in better shape. So here's some anonymous support for you and your boy.

[ChiaLynn]

Sounds like you handled it beautifully. (Shit, I hope I'd handle something like that as well.) It does seem, though, like that's something the hospital might have liked to warn you about: "Now, you may experience a fountain of pinkish goo - it looks a bit like melted cotton candy, except slimier and not so pink. It's nothing to worry about, but we don't suggest licking it."

[astrothsknot]

I'm delighted your husband is going to be fine.

[Barbara]

Nina -- You are doing just great. Will's a lucky guy to have you.

I'm going to take a guess that the pink stuff making its unwanted presence known was lymphatic fluid mixed with a teeny bit of blood. In big surgeries surgeons will sometimes put in drains, and the collections look just like what you described.

If it happens continuously the doc might put in a drain, otherwise he will just let it heal on its own.

Surgical scars start to itch like the devil once they start healing. If you break vitamin E capsules on the scar line (once it's no longer oozing) that will help with the healing process and the itching.

There are also wound healing pads you can buy in the drug store. Those are slightly better for daytime because they are a whole lot less messy. They also make the scar less noticeable.

When my husband had surgical scars I used a combination of both.

Hang in there.

[astrothsknot]

Silicone pads are good for reducing scarring.