Personal Update: I Had to Go to the Hospital Again, but I’m Out Now with Good News

This leads up to this past Sunday the 11th, when I had yet another pain episode start up after dinner.

What follows is an update I posted to the GiveSendGo I started when the February episode took place and I’ve been updating throughout this experience.

Update #7: Back in the Hospital with Good News This Time

August 14th, 2024

Hello, friends and family. I have two major updates for you; the second one is amazing news!

In brief, I had to go to the hospital recently and get my appendix removed; this is likely the cause of the past year’s troubles, possibly due to issues I’ve been dealing with since I was a young adult. The surgeon believes this will likely nip this abscess problem in the bud. He said I likely ruptured my appendix and it healed itself, but not fully and that’s whats been causing all these issues over nearly a year.

Update 1: On Sunday, the 11th, after I had eaten dinner, I started to notice a slight pain building up, this time on the right side of my upper abdominal area. It started like a gas pain and slowly built into that telltale pain that’s become associated with abscess issues for me. It continued to build into the night, and I wasn’t able to sleep that night. It began to build up in the same area where I had the last abscess, and I started to feel a fever creep in.

My wife, Madi, and I realized we needed to go to the hospital, and that’s what we did at around 10 p.m. the next day, the 12th. I received a CT scan, and the ER doctor discovered another abscess forming with what looked like a perforated appendix. I was admitted and saw a surgeon the next day, the 13th. Dr. Case examined and interviewed me, whereupon I relayed my history with these issues reaching back into December of last year, where apparently that initial episode was a sign of appendix distress. He suggested that the episode in February, the one for which this GiveSendGo was created, was likely caused by the injured appendix and that it would likely need to be removed. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of organ removal as a methodology of disease prevention, but in this case, this was the best option. Later that day, I had surgery; the abscess fluids were drained, and my appendix was removed. I felt a lot better after the surgery, no doubt in part because of the powerful pain medications provided. The doctor said I didn’t, in fact, have a perforated appendix but that it was chronically inflamed.

I have some theories as to why appendix issues are more common and have been increasing. Apparently, the rate of appendix-related issues has increased by over 20% between 1990 and 2019, compared to the previous measuring period. The appendix, an organ that has essentially been considered useless up until somewhat recently, is now believed to be an organ for maintaining gut health. And yet our modernized environments are filled with cleaners, pesticides, food preservatives, drugs, and widespread pollutants, all of which degrade the vitality and sublime harmony of the macro- and micro-biotic environments that act as the primordial soup within which all life has been reared. Perineal bacteria are passed from mother to child during vaginal birth, seeding the gut flora of the child, which will play a critical role in maintaining gut health. Is it possible that our overly antibiotic-saturated world and modern-day practices that greatly assault the gut, such as Round Up, are leading to greater rates of gut-related issues and appendicitis? Inquiring minds want to know.

Looking back, I’ve had similar abdominal pain for years. The first few episodes I had were back when I was 18 or 19. I’d feel a dull pain building in my upper abdominal area, and that would build until it became excruciating. One time it was so bad I had to go to the hospital after not sleeping all night, and the doctors didn’t know what was happening. The only relief came after a potent dose of dilaudid, which somehow seemed to calm everything down. I had similar issues with much lesser intensity for years. After I turned 30, they seemed to go away, until late last year. In December, I experienced a similar pain that moved to my lower right side, where the appendix is located. I did a few tests, like jumping stiff-legged and footed, which exposed the pain if the appendix was inflamed. There was a slight pain but nothing severe, which is apparently a sign of serious appendicitis.

God willing, this is the last season of regular hospital stays I’ll need to make for a while. The facility I went to this time was much better.

I don’t have the bill yet, but I’m assuming it will be on the order of the same bill from the last hospital, possibly more since I had to have surgery. I have updated the fundraising goal accordingly.

Please only donate if you feel called. Your well wishes and prayers are equally, if not more, valuable, just as much as the attention and care you’ve provided in reading this update.

Update 2: I’ll be posting the second update in another update to ensure it receives the proper attention it deserves. I’m very excited about this one. I need to wait a bit longer so this will be coming in a few weeks. Stay tuned!

You have my love, thanks, and gratitude. Thank you, and may God’s love and blessings shine on us all!

If you’re wondering what that second update is, I’ll have more news on that shortly.

Thanks for taking an interest in all this. You have my gratitude and love.