- A Day Later, Organ Lighter
- June 20, 2008 Filed under: Health, Medicine
I feel now is as good a time as any to mention that I had my appendix removed last week. I had been feeling pain in the area since last September, but it was only just recently, near midnight, that it was ready to burst.
I drove myself to the hospital emergency ward and within hours a surgeon had plucked the little infected worm from the end of my large intestine. Aside from the usual dangers involving general anesthesia and potential bleeding issues, the procedure is pretty straightforward. There is some risk of post-operative infection and/or complications from pneumonia involved so I was hospitalized for a few days after to ensure everything was A-OK. I’m still feeling a bit of pain and I’m required to take it easy for another few weeks, but mostly it’s behnd me.
During the procedure my doc even took a nice portrait of my gangrened appendix (click only if you can handle graphic pics of innards).
Should I feel naked? For some reason I do.
Anyway, it’s really not too big a deal but some cultures may not handle it so well, either from an emergency medical standpoint or from a mythological or spiritual position that says your body must stay intact.
Do any of you in Sri Lanka have a view on this, or personal experience? How well, for example, is the emergency system set-up to accept and accommodate emergency appendectomy surgery? And is there any other stigma around removing an organ, even if it is poisoning you?
I look forward to hearing from you.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Take Care of your self! and Get well soon! There are people waiting for your work ;). I am learning a lot about you and SL through your site.
Sorry I can’t shed light on the appendectomy side as I have no experience. Perhaps some good people from SL will answer. I had an operation once in a private hospital(there are free hospitals in the country as well) in Kandy. It went fine but I had trouble with general anesthesia. It was fixing an injury. But the experience was fine.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Thanks Kalusudda!
I’m curious what problems you had with anesthesia. That was my biggest fear, really.
Sean
June 20th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Hi Sean,
As far as I can tell, Sri Lankans don’t have any myths about surgery and resection. The overall fear still remains among the not so fortunate. To them of course any surgery is an *gleam* “Operation” *gleam*, and its generally thought of as the last resort. Traditional Ayurveda methods don’t encompass invasive surgery here, although they say evidence of historic surgical instruments were found in recent excavations [http://www.health.gov.lk/history.html].
Surgery in Sri Lanka has nonetheless attained a quite respectable position, mainly due to the highly skilled surgeons in the country, and of course the new methods that have the ‘minimalistic damage’ philosophy such as endoscopic surgery.
As for general anaesthesia…. you just have to wear off the hangover…
June 20th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Eukaryote–
You sound very knowledgeable, perhaps a doctor? Thanks for the link to the excavations–fascinating. Taking note.
I wonder tho how long the hangover lasts. Whether the painkillers or anesthesia, I’mnot quite feeling right…
Thanks for your contribution. I hope to hear from you again.
Sean
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:01 am
aahh… hope u r ok now..
I had my appendix removed when I was only 14! it was a disaster!
I was very much overweight..and still am… so they gave me an overdose of anesthesia and I threw up 13 times after i gained consciousness!!
then when I had to go get my sutures removed, the nurse just pulled it so hard that I kicked her and the scissors went flying!
oh it was such a painful experience!!!!! but I’m glad it’s out of my system..
the doc gave it to me in a bottle with formalin and said i can show it to my grand kids one day… hehee but i went somewhere for vacation and when i came back, someone had cleaned my room and thrown it away.. sigh….
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Pardon me Lady Divine, if I laughed at your comment. Your experience sounds awful but in retrospect it sounds pretty funny. I never thought about asking to keep the appendix, but my brother brought me an old sausage and told me he saved it…
Oh, how we deal with things, yes?
July 13th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Hi, Sean, even though it is late, I decided to answer your question. The problems I had with anesthesia was they could not bring me back up! It was a long operation, Two injuries. ( I was a crazy kid with a motorbike who tried to find the shortest path down a hill!) and I guess they over dozed me. But to my parents delight (I myself would not have known!), I managed to wake up and if I remember right I had a very very long hang over.