medical issue I recently experienced
 

Hello Pelicanites here's my story. On Thanksgiving morning I woke up to fairly severe stomach pain. I NEVER have stomach issues so this was out of the norm. I suffered thru the day and went to bed early. On Friday I woke up and the stomach pain had subsided but now I had the hot/cold flashes and body aches so I thought it was the flu. The wife went to the store and bought over the counter flu meds and I took those. Felt a little better on Saturday and just before bed I went to pee. I was pretty sure the steady stream of blood :o was not a good sign ! I told the wife we're getting up early Sunday morning and going to the ER. We arrived at the ER at 5:00AM and at 1:00 they removed my perforated appendix ! I was released from the hospital on Wednesday and I'm on the mend, this was a very painful experience to go through. In hindsight I should have gone to the hospital sooner so my advice to all of you is pay attention to what your body is telling you.:D

You are a most fortunate fellow!

But more importantly, did you use advice correctly?:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Just had to poke at someone. Glad you got you're gut fixed before it got bad.

Glad you are ok. Pains like that are not helped by flu unless you have other signs like bowel distress.

"In hindsight I should have gone to the hospital sooner so my advice to all of you is pay attention to what your body is telling you."

Glad you're okay!

I had my appendix burst when I was 20 years old. I'd been coming home early from my construction job for 3 days straight. My father told me to stop faking it and get back to work. Went to the doc's office ended up collapsing on the floor. Ended up having an appendectomy and afterwards contracted a massive staff infection and received the last rights 1 week later. My abdomen was swollen like I had a basket ball inside. I fell asleep and had a dream that I could make a choice to leave or stay, very real and clear. I chose to stay and woke up to find my incision had exploded and I was covered in blood and puss. Yuk. I was in the hospital for 3 weeks and lost 25 pounds ( I weighed 135 at the time).
So, like you said. Pay attention to what your body is telling you. It could save your life.

Thanks guys. I'm 51 years old and raised by a tough German dad. He was always of the mindset you can be sick at work just as well as at home so get to work ! While by todays standards he may have been branded a nut I respected his hard work ethic and we had a great relationship up to his death. But unfortunately because of this work ethic I rarely go to the doctor for aches and pains. I do go every year for physicals and whatever the doc calls out for tests to be performed I get them done no questions asked. I think there are many men from my era that are similiar in mindset and those are the guys I'm trying to get my point across to ! Other than 2 weeks of in home IV it looks like I dodged a bullet and for that I am thankful. I want to continue enjoying the wife,kids,grand kids and of course the Porsches for many years to come !:D

I have a friend who 'thought' he had the flu. Turns out that his appendix had burst, he toughed it out still thinking the flu. He was very lucky. The appendix burst and formed a pocket and went gangrene. The doctor couldn't do nothing right away but loaded him up with antibiotics and a few days later he drained the pocket of some really smelly stuff. The appendix had dissolved in that pocket.

i would have had a pissy-bloody stream trail right up to my car...then you would have seen mulitiple black tire marks where i peeled out in reverse, and flipped a "rockford" in the street, and powerslid into the emergency hospital entrance if i ever see a stream of blood come out of my wiener...same chain of events applies to my arsehole.

heal up, friend. you are a brave man.

In my experience, including hearing other people's stories, fairly severe pain is a fairly good indicator that you need to get your butt to a doctor fairly soon.

No, real soon.

Same with fairly high amounts of blood coming out of you.

About 5 years ago, I went to pee and what came out looked like Merlot.

That'll get your attention.

No pain. I'm sure my face looked like :eek: ...it was right after getting home from work.

Called my doc's answering service, and when he called me back in less than 10 minutes, I told him about it... and that there was no pain. He told me to come in first thing in the morning, then which urologist to go to.

In about a week, I was having a small, precancerous polyp removed from the inside of my bladder. It was the cause of the bloody urine. Followup scopings through the dingus every so often have shown that it hasn't come back.

Yeah, those scopes are fun.

Not really, but if you ever have to have one, focus on relaxing and it goes okay.

Sorry to hijack... just remember: lots of blood and/or pain = go see a doc ASAP.

I have to agree with vash on this one there would be no sleeping after pissing blood... if i ever piss blood im gonna scream like a little girl and cry until i get to the hospital.

Although appendicitis occasionally presents with microscopic hematuria, it rarely presents with gross, obvious blood. Rare things do happen, but I would check with my doc and at least get a urinalysis in a couple of weeks to make sure there is not another issue here as well.
Glad you caught the appendix in time- people still die from appendicitis.
Gary

Just to throw it out there . . .

Passing blood is 'normal' for kidney stone sufferers. The 1st time is always a panic & you are very right that a trip to the doc is mandatory - especially if accompanied with pain. But after 10 + years, you get used to it. And the pain & blood comes & goes depending upon stone size & position. Rapid severe humidity changes tends to trigger mine sometimes fwiw. I live with it & only visit the hospital if I need a Demerol fix.

Ian

UPDATE: had my follow up visit yesterday with the surgeon and he said everything looks great ! Said there's no reason to see him anymore. Today I meet with the infectious disease folks to make sure all is good there. Looks like I'll get this " pick " line out of my arm next Wednesday. Scheduled to go back to work 1/4/2010. Now I need to get some Porsche work done :D.