Blogs. Seems most people have one - so why not - it would be a good way to go back and relive some of life's interesting points that might otherwise be forgotten. Although it might not be so tough to forget spending Christmas in a hospital in Flagstaff.

Everything had been planned for the week's visit with family up in high country, however, on the second day I developed severe stomach pains which were misdiagnosed by the local Doctor's office. Later that evening I was reluctantly headed to the emergency room. Since it was snowing heavily I recall being driven at a steady 10 mph, thus officially making it the longest ride of the year.

We arrived in the ER entrance at 11 pm on Monday, 40 minutes later I was taken to the rows of beds in the main facility to see the Doctor. I was happy to finally be admitted, but less thrilled at the patient gown... Perhaps in this technological age of wonder and human development we can design something more functional and less revealing?

Comfortably resting in the bed I was quick to point out to the nurse that this was my first visit to the ER, but this did not stop him from calling in an I.V. - which he explained isnt as bad as people think: The needle enters the vein, but is quickly pulled out leaving a tiny plastic sleeve that serves as the needle (minus the pain). Then came the blood pressure monitors, heart rate monitors, blood samples, oxygen, and a shot of the greatest medical achievement: Morphine!

The nurse had a British accent and we started to talk about my recent trip to London as part of the Band of Brothers, WWII tour. It ended with me asking him to pretend I was a wounded solider on the battlefield screaming for a medic, at which point he would show up with more morphine. It worked.

Everything was a new experience, including the ultrasound (the gallbladder was a suspect at this time and ultra sound picks up the image the fastest), however, the scan showed the gallbladder in tact, through surprisingly that I was carrying twins. I wanted to stop everything and start thinking of baby names, but alas we had to move onto the next set of tests to determine the illness. This was followed by a CT scan: and as we all know a CT, or CAT scan combines special x-ray equipment with sophisticated computers to produce multiple images of the inside of the body. A special injection is added to the I.V. so that the organs can be seen more clearly, though Homer demonstrated this better than I can via this video:
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The ensuing image was read to be an "inflamed" appendix by the on-call specialist. The results was a scheduled operation to remove the appendix at 6 am. Not knowing this at the time, the appendix was actually ruptured and the surgery would be postponed until 1:45 pm the following day.

I was transferred out of the ER and into a private room upstairs to wait until the surgery. The big moment finally came around noon on Tuesday, when all the "preparations" started to take shape. I recall the techs adding something special to the IV drip and asking me a general question, the last thing I remember is trying to answer but I was out before I finished a single sentence.

I have absolutely no memory of the operation, only the realization of waking up and being utterly confused of where I was and how I got there. Post surgery, it was discovered that a tiny middle eastern terrorist was able to get past my stomach's security, get inside the appendix, screamed 'Allah Akbar" and managed to detonate a small charge, thus rupturing the appendix.

This does not deter from the good news, however, as I was unable to find any scars from the operations. It seems the entire process was done using "laparoscopic" or tiny incisions that allow a camera and robotic arms to go into the body, thus not leaving any scars!

The person checking my vitals quickly informed me that the clean up took considerably longer than expected but the operation was over and I was to be transferred to a room upstairs. I also found a plastic tube with a suction bulb at the end attached to my stomach, this was to facilitate a drainage of all unwanted liquids from the stomach and would stay in until the last day of the visit. The recovery is the hospital has begun.