Jan 15 2008
Health Scare
I came down with a nasty cold right after Christmas and when I had almost gotten over that, I had a bit of a health scare. I had been suffering from some pretty bad stomach pains. I have what’s known as an umbilical cyst. It’s typically a problem with infants, but I guess my body didn’t quite heal properly after I was born. And every now and again I have these pains in my belly-button area. Now on a normal day, I don’t have any pain or swelling in the area, but when I don’t properly take care of my belly button (thorough cleaning), a slight buildup of sweat and dirt could cause the cyst to build up and eventually rupture.
The rupture doesn’t hurt. It just lets loose of the fluids which have collected. Well two Sundays ago, the fluid was a different color than it had been in the past. That was of great concern because I’ve heard of various complications, so I took a little trip to the emergency room at 9 or 10pm. What a fun little field trip that was.
Emergency rooms are never fun. I don’t care what ailment(s) you may have; there’s just no joy in going to the hospital in my opinion. Naturally the hospital was a little busy, more so than usual I hear, but I didn’t have to wait too long (an hour in total, I’d guess). The doctor who was on call didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know about my condition and simply assured me that the fluid color change wasn’t a big deal. Well that was a relief. I will have to have surgery at some point to take care of the problem because it obviously won’t heal itself at this point. Surgery isn’t something I’m eager to have. You’re looking at a guy who has had very few health scares. The worst was an infected leg back in 2003. I’ve never had to have surgery before, so this is a big deal, even though it’ll probably be a relatively minor one.
One hour wait is pretty good, really. Here, it’s usually 5-6 hours on a good night, up to 8-10 on a bad night.
One of my greatest fears is surgery… getting on a plane full of snakes would be more fun than having surgery, and I don’t like flying either 😉
Yikes! Yeah, I bet that was pretty scary. Luckily, I too haven’t had too many health scares. But, I have had surgery before. It’s not fun at all, and even more so depending upon what’s being done. I had my tonsils taken out when I was five, and I still remember it. The pain was unbelievable. I also had my wisdom teeth taken out. The worst part about that was the swelling.
To remove the cyst there in your belly button, I’m not sure what that’ll be like, but I think it won’t be as bad as anything that’s internal. Then again, who knows. I think the worst part is the stuff they put you under with.