So I almost got stoned to death…

On Thursday 25th June, I underwent a endoscopy of my stomach (that’s when they knock you out with drugs and insert a camera down your throat). My specialist found some tumours in there and took some samples of the stomach lining for some additional testing. An hour after I got home, I was in immense pain. My stomach acids were entering the wounds created when the samples were taken and I was admitted to hospital shortly afterwards.

One thing led to another when I was in hospital… My stomach issue was treated with painkillers and Somac (a drug used to lower the acidity levels in the stomach) but a complication arose the minute that my stomach was healed. A gall stone had dislodged itself very snugly in the opening of my gall bladder. My gall bladder started swelling and I was again in an intense amount of pain.

The amount of painkillers and antibiotics I was on was immense. I had 4 different anti-biotics dripping into my arm as well as 4 types of pain killing drugs.

For the past week and a half… this was my view…

Yep… I almost went nuts in here.

I completely lost track of time in here… the only thing on the TV was the Michael Jackson (RIP) saga… So it really felt like groundhog day in this cave I was in.

Luckily for me, the private hospital I was in had a few single rooms (ie rooms with only 1 bed in it) and I was one of those lucky few who managed to score one such room.

Every time they injected me with a pethadeine shot, I was pretty much unconscious anywhere from 2-6 hours depending on how effective it was. At the end of it I could see why people build an addiction to this stuff.

My condition was deteriorating harder and harder and the surgeon was contemplating open surgery on me to remove the gall bladder… which is not ideal as it would mean a healing period of 4-6 weeks. I asked my workplace to hook me up with a wireless internet modem so that I could log in and check up on some work emails to help distract me from the pain (contributed by both my abdomen and the numerous hours of MJ coverage on the free to air TV).

Reluctantly, they sent one over to me and I sat up and embraced the Internet for the first time in weeks… Within 10 minutes of logging onto my email I felt a *POP* in my abdomen and a gurgling noise in my stomach that lasted about 45 seconds. The stone that was causing all the issues had somehow passed/dislodged when I was checking my email. My relief was immediate and I was feeling closer to normality a few hours later.

So… contrary to popular belief… working was the best thing I could have done to get myself back on track

48 hours later, I was discharged from hospital (with the doctors stunned at my recovery).

They’re still recommending I remove my gall bladder which may be the path I take up… but that won’t be for at least another 6-8 weeks as I await my insides to settle down. One plus from all of this is that somehow I managed to lose 9kgs in about a week. Take that Biggest Loser!!!!