62 year old loses his appendix!
Friday when I drove home from work, I had some "discomfort" in my midsection but I thought it was probably from that Tapioca pudding I had for dinner. It was a little too high though for gas. On the way home, I stopped and bought some Cheetos and a Diet pepsi but I only ate a few of the Cheetos. I just wasn't feeling like eating. When I got home, Liz had chicken thigh's and sweet corn ready for supper but I passed on it and just layed down on the couch. After watching TV till about 9, I went to bed but kept the Packer game on TV. No sooner did I go to bed when I had the chills really bad and felt really nauseous. I didn't throw up but lots of that really warm saliva that often precipitates upchucking was in my mouth.
At 11:30 p.m., the Packer game was still going on and I asked Liz to take me to the emergency room. I figured that abdominal pain along with chills and nausea were not a good combination. They definitely weren't gas.
When I was examined by the nurse in the ER, he said it was likely apendicitis or gall stones. The doctor said they were going to give me a CAT scan and that would determine which they would treat.
At about 1 a.m., they brought me a big container of lemonaide (I got to pick iced tea or lemonaide) that also contained the liquid that shows up on the scan. I napped until about 4 a.m. when they wheeled me into a trailer that had a CAT scan machine in it. About an hour after the scan was over, the doctor said it was appendicitis and I'd have to have surgery.
They scheduled my surgery for 8 a.m. and Dr. Werner came in to see me at about 7:30 a.m. He explained that he'd be using a laproscope and that it would need three little holes instead of one big one.
The whole experience was pretty surreal. I remember the Doctor who administered that anesthetic made several jokes before the operation. Then I woke up in the recovery room. I snoozed in and out for quite some time before they took me back to my room on the 5th floor. Liz came while I was in surgery and stayed with me for the day.
Lunch was all liquid stuff and I had a good apetite. I snoozed most of the day. They said that the Dr. had said that I could go home after supper if I felt good enough. After lunch, I knew I'd be well enough to go home.
They sent us home at about 8 p.m. Since they filled me with fluid through the IV that was in my right hand while I was hospitalized, I had to get up to pee about every 1-2 hours all night last night.
Today, it wasn't very long before I started to feel like my old self. I farted several times and then succumbed to a day's worth of the Hershey Squirts. It is just good to know though that everything works.
The first time I peed after the surgery, I made something that looked like cranberry juice. The surgeon did say something about a catheter that they must have put in while I was in surgery. Halfway through the afternoon yesterday, my pee started looking like it should.
They gave me a prescription for vicodin which we picked up at Walgreen's 24 hour pharmacy last night. I took one of the pills before bed but decided to take ibuprophen for the pain today. There really wasn't and isn't much pain. I haven't thought of taking anything today for pain. It's a little tender down there but that's to be expected since I'm healing.
I don't have to go to work tomorrow because I have to get clearance from the surgeon before I do that and I'm supposed to call him tomorrow. I'm supposed to make an appointment to see him on Thursday.
So, this has been the story of my appendix adventure. I fully expect to be in good shape by the time I return to work on Tuesday. Modern medicine is truly a miracle. Years ago, when they had to make a big incision to get your appendix out, you were in the hospital for a few days I imagine and it was probably lots more painful.
I thank God for the inspiration to get care when my symptoms weren't really that awful. I thank him too for the complete lack of any REAL pain and the lack of fear as I went through this.

That's it for today.

Caio, babies!

Not Goodbye but an acknowledgment.

Yeah, I know, I don't write here at all anymore. It's like this: Ten hour days leave me with no time in the day for this PERIOD. I get home from work at 7 p.m. Mondays, alternate Tuesdays, one Wednesday a month, and Thursdays I have something scheduled at 6:30 or 7. I don't get home until after 8. There is time for something to eat and then bed. I'm getting up at 4:15 a.m. right now because Liz wants me off the treadmill by 5:30 so she can use it. I may be able to back this off to 4:30 a.m. once I start walking outside. That should be soon. Maybe next week.

I restrung my Taylor 210e last week after breaking a string trying to take the battery out and cranking the wrong way. Dar! I have thoughts about buying an electric (a Les Paul or a Taylor T3?) but I don't have the time or motivation to learn to play the instrument well enough to do anything but strum chords. I just can't justify spending several thousand dollars on a guitar that I can't or won't even play. The style of music I like (songs you can strum) just does not lend itself to a solid-body electric. The guitar, for me, is a personal accompaniment to my singing. An electric solid-body cannot really fit that mode.

Dang, it's 10 o'clock and the judge shows are on Fox. Gotta go switch to the History channel.

So why do I no longer blog? Well, lets look at the big picture.
Back before Blogger, Facebook and Twitter, there was THE WEB. The thing to do was to put up a web page to "stake your claim" on the web. I put up http://www.geocities.com/georgepossley using Netscape's web editor and later Nvu. That page is still up and my attitude is that it can stay as a kind of archive of my life up to that point and representative of a particular phase that I went through. Other noteable "phases" were my CB radio phase and later my BBS phase just before "the internet" became available to me.
I used my web page primarily to put up pictures and text to document my life.
When Blogger came along, I found it much easier to blog about my life. I could easily upload pictures and enter text without having to use a cumbersome web editor and page uploads. I even "graduated" to uploading videos and personal sound files.

I got into Facebook a few years ago because I work at a college and at that time you could only get on FB if you were in college or associated with one. I felt stupid at times being on FB. It seemed like just a place where you could view pictures of college kids drinking and partying and talking about video games and other stuff that I'm just not interested in.
Then they opened FB up to anyone. Now, I can keep up with REAL friends and relatives on FB. I still have not yet created GROUPS which will allow me to ignore people more easily that I am not really interested in.
Then there's Twitter and Yammer. Yammer only applies to people on the St. Norbert network and there are so few people who use it that I'm losing interest. Twitter ingrigues me and I'm gradually learning how to view stuff that I'm interested in.

Had to switch away from History channel. I don't care about shooting down Jap Zero's i WWII. That's World War Two for those of you born well after 1950. :-)

I'm watching A&E. I find Bill Curtis' voice to be very addicting. Liz thinks I watch all the crime shows so I can learn how to kill her and get away with it. LOL.

So, I'm off work today and really don't have a goal. Maybe I'll go rake all the sod off the lawn that the snowplows threw up there. Yeah, right. Liz will probably beat me to it.
I have a gig with the contemporary group at church tomorrow afternoon. I get to sing "My Divine Mercy" as a solo and accompany myself on amplified acoustic guitar so I should practice that today a time or two. Then Sunday it's off to Madison for the Pre-Conference Assembly all day at the Madison Senior Center.
I'm off Monday too. There is a lot of stuff to do at work and I'm tempted to just go to work but aht would be sick and wrong. Work will wait. I'm not doing anything wrong by taking the work hours and vacation time that work allows.

Well, to my few followers on here, if you want me to write more you need to beg harder.

Ciao babies!!