Appendecto- who?

The view from Dave's hospital window


Dave, only 12 hours after surgery, checks in at his office and grosses in his own specimen

Two weeks ago last Saturday, Dave started getting sick. He was feeling a little nauseated. Sunday morning he awoke and was still feeling a little off but went to church, and by the end of church was much worse. I was working that afternoon at 4 pm, so I thought if he took a nap after lunch he'd awaken and feel much better. However, when I checked on him at 3:15 pm, the nausea had worsened and his abdominal pain got worse... and began to localize in his lower right side. (Oh no!) So, scrambling at the last minute, I got Jane Stinchfield to babysit and took Dave in to work with me to get checked out for appendicitis. I called ahead and the charge nurse had a room all waiting for him (ah the perks of working in an ER!) The nurse initially came to me for orders and I said, "Uh, can you get one of the other doctors to take care of him?" I really didn't want to be in charge of Dave's care - what if he sued me?

Neil Harris, one of my partners, took care of Dave and sure enough, after getting his labs and CT scan, he had acute appendicitis! He went very soon to the OR with Lane Verlenden who took out his appendix laproscopically. Luckily it had not burst yet! I called in a coworker to cover the rest of my shift and stayed with Dave until he awoke from the anesthesia and was transferred to his room. The first thing he groggily said after awakening from the anesthesia was not "I love you Steph," but, "Can I see it?" A true pathologist through and through! He stayed overnight in the hospital, went home Monday morning, was back at work on Tuesday, and snowboarding by the next Tuesday! Wow - what a tough guy! (Of course he would have appendicitis one week before our snowboarding trip! - Pictures of that to follow soon.)

Dave himself signed out the pathology of his own appendix over the next couple days and dictated in the report, "This is perhaps the finest surgical specimen I have ever seen or will ever see."

When Dave got home from the hospital, he was trying to teach Tommy about what had happened. He was teaching him the word, "Appendectomy." He said, "Tommy, do you remember what they did to me... they did an AP-PEN-DECK-TAH-ME." And Tommy replied, "They did an appendecto-YOU?"

I am very grateful for modern medicine that was able to quickly diagnose and cure Dave's appendicitis. I am also appreciative of nice coworkers helping me out and Jane watching the kids for several hours with no notice. And I am especially thankful to have my hubby happy and healthy again!