Today is Thursday.

What better way to spend a night at work manning the telephones (which are not ringing) than posting to my diary.    The only thing going on at the moment is a man in the Lobby (I can watch him on camera) giving the ER Registration attendent a hard time …. but the Security officer is with her so it just seems he is venting to her about something and she does not seem distressed.  Don’t worry, I can type without watching my fingers and can keep an eye on the camera.

A few weeks ago while at work, I developed some sudden tummy trouble in the form of having my daily constitutional hit overnight while at work as opposed to it’s more normal time of day.  The tummy problem was solved in one way, but became quite worse in another.  I began ever worsening right sided abdominal pain to the point that instead of heading home when my shift was over, I signed myself into our ER, where it was quickly determined that I did NOT have appendicitis (which is what I was thinking) but a micro-perforation of my colon (due to diverticulitis which I had no idea was even happening).

In short, I was hospitalized for 8 days, on strong intravenous antibiotics, nothing by mouth at first, and eventually clear fluids by day 5 ….. and was amazingly able to avoid surgery (this time) by begging for some time to let the antibiotics do their thing and let it clear up on it’s own ….. there were a few close calls, a fever of 102.8 at one point, a drop in Magnesium and Potassium at another ….. but fortunately everything resolved itself with the help of the antibiotics and bowel rest … however, I have been warned that IF this should  happen again (and it sometimes does) there will be no hesitation in removing the diseased intestinal area and diverting my intestinal functions through a colostomy (which is the reason I was begging for a chance to let it clear up without surgery)

For this reasons my grown daughters have suddenly become HYSTERICAL about my health and have apparently come to face with the harsh truth that Mom getting old and is far from immortal.  Poor kids call me constantly making sure I’m feeling alright and eating right.

Oops, our man out in the waiting area is kneeling in front of other patients in the waiting room animatedly talking and waving his hands around.   Everyone is  looking a little uncomfortable so I better call security to come back to the Lobby.

Interesting!  I see our guard is taking him over to the vending areas and using his own card to let this fellow get some things from the machine.

Oh good! He is now sitting quietly eatting his food and drinking his drink.  How kind, one of our nurses has brought him a blanket.  Our waiting areas are always so cold.  Apparently he has already been released and is actually waiting for someone to pick him up to take him home.

Back to the story ….. so my daughters are on my constantly stressing out about how I am feeling and filled with ideas of what I ought to be doing to re-build my micro-biome from the inside out ……  and of course they want me to quit smoking too …. and though I don’t want to worry them any more than they are already worrying, I also know that I am not anywhere close to disciplined enough to quit just yet ….. but I’ve definately cut back and have talked my doctor into prescribing Chantix (yet again) …… I will most likely start taking it this weekend (since I don’t work and I don’t know how I will react to it).

Wish me luck!