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aka "Sometimes you have your agenda, but God's got his own plan. And where there's a difference, you follow His."
Got back home last night from the Upper Gauley rafting trip. Will post a separate thread with pics later. Was very fun, but with a good guide, not quite as scary as I thought it might be (although we could certainly see where it could easily go awry and kill you if you didn't pay attention).
The night after rafting, I got an intense burning pain in the middle of my stomach...after trying to tough it out for 4 hours, I finally woke my brother-in-law (who is a doctor) and told him I was about to pass out from the pain and that he needed to take me to a hospital. The hospital was luckily only 45 mins away, although it was the worst 45 min car ride I've ever taken. Got into the ER where they sedated me and gave me pain killers, which didn't work. Then two more injections in my arse finally calmed me down. Spent the next 2 days in the intensive care unit at Oak Hill, WV Hospital having suffered a bout of acute pancreatitis. Apparently, it can and does kill people. Anyway, they only let me go home because I was going with my BIL, the physician. Had more blood drawn today, and am looking to fully recover, but they still need to find out what caused this episode. I will say that the pain was the most severe I had ever felt in my life - there was no relief and I just wanted to be knocked unconscious.
Anyway, the downside was that I didn't get to join my buds on their mtb rides in the mountains, something I was looking more forward to than the rafting itself. The upside? My mtb is still clean.
Sometimes you can look forward to something too much. Interestingly, I wasn't very bummed that I wasn't able to ride...more like I was happy that I was alive.
Kaiser, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm glad you're feeling better, and the mtb will always be there. You can only ride it if you're alive and well, though. It's nice to hear you're rafting trip went well. I hope all is well now, and you'll be recovered quickly, I'm sure.
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Live cheap. Play hard. I love to climb hills.
The crappiest thing right now is that I haven't had solid food since Saturday evening. Can you believe that? I guess solid foods get the pancreas to produce more of two enzymes (amylase and lipase if anyone is interested) whose numbers should read between 50 and 200. When I went into the ER, mine were 6,000 and 11,000! The doctors said they had never seen numbers that high on anyone who lived! Anyway, since eating solid and fatty foods elevates these, and they don't want another attack, I've been subsisting on Gatorade, Jello, and broth. I am constantly hungry and it sucks. Tomorrow if I'm lucky, I'll get to eat some crackers and dry toast. Oh boy. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Sarah, I'm hoping the pics came ou well of the rafting...you would have loved it . There were some tough chicks rafting out there, including a number of female guides. It was pretty kick ass, but there is an even harder trip called the 'gung ho' that we are talking about doing next year - only 4 people in a smaller raft and taking more risky lines.
Of course, we could plan a trip with you, JP, me and whoever else would go. The entire trip, not including food and gas, but including rafting and lodging for 3 nights (but not my ER stay), was $300/person.
Jeez Kaiser! I go away for a few days and my forum buddies start dyin' on me! Sorry to hear that you got so sick. That is terrible. I am just glad that you finally decided to get it checked. What is it with us men that waits till we are at Death's door before we go to a doctor?
Can't wait to see your rafting photos. At least the weekend wasn't a total loss! And in response to your very last post, YES, lets put a trip together. That sounds killer! I have to wait till some time after the baby is out though, so I may miss out if you are planning on doing it in the fall some time.
Update: God I am WEAK! I've lost 4 lbs in the last 5 days, due to this stupid liquid diet. Today I added crackers and a banana and cream of wheat. This sucks. I am constantly hungry and losing mass. I need food!!!!
Hopefully after the ultrasound tomorrow, I'll get the OK to ramp it up some more. If not, I'm going to kill myself - J/K, but now I know how the elderly and chronically ill feel.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my rants. The other thing that bites is we are getting beautiful warm fall days where I would usually be out on the trails. I am focusing on getting better so as to not miss too many more of these.
Originally posted by Jean-Paul: Jeez Kaiser! I go away for a few days and my forum buddies start dyin' on me! Sorry to hear that you got so sick. That is terrible. I am just glad that you finally decided to get it checked. What is it with us men that waits till we are at Death's door before we go to a doctor?
Can't wait to see your rafting photos. At least the weekend wasn't a total loss! And in response to your very last post, YES, lets put a trip together. That sounds killer! I have to wait till some time after the baby is out though, so I may miss out if you are planning on doing it in the fall some time.
Glad to have you alive and back among us.
Thanks JP. I didn't wait that long - only about 4 hours of pain and then I woke up my mates because I was afraid I'd pass out and they'd have no idea what happened to me.
The rafting trips are every Fri-Mon from the first weekend in Sept through the next six weeks. Your baby is due in Nov right? So he will be 10 months old then....can you sneak away for 3 or 4 days? Lemme know.
Well, I've reached my wit's end. The acute pancreatitis was indeed caused by gallstones. I need to go in and have surgery to have the gallbladder removed soon. I am alternately pissed and a little depressed. Last year I had to have surgery to have an inguinal hernia repaired. Unfortunately, I don't recover quickly from surgeries.
This is year three with setbacks - first year heel stress fracture, last year hernia surgery, this year this. One step forward, three steps back. Arghh.
The fifth surgery of my life. Chicks dig scars, huh Sarah? I should have a whole harem around me then.
Funny thing about gallstones: doctors recall the risk factors as: 'fat, female, fertile, forty' and being a Native American. I don't fit any of those categories. I was joking with the surgeon who will be cutting me up...he was the same one who did my hernia repair last year and he specializes in three surgeries: hernias, gallbladders, and breast mastectomies/lumpectomies. I told him I was hoping I wouldn't be trying all three. [img]smile.gif[/img]
On the positive side, I don't need to worry about going into a cutting mode anytime soon - I've lost 6 lbs. in the last 7 days. I've withered away to 161 lbs of stick man.
Originally posted by Kaiser: This is year three with setbacks - first year heel stress fracture, last year hernia surgery, this year this. One step forward, three steps back. Arghh.
I take that back. Actually, I broke my heel and had the hernia all last year (failed to hit the trifecta in 2002). So it's only been two years.
Best wishes for Tuesday! But gall bladder surgery nowadays leaves only a tiny scar that won't make women gather round you at the beach. For that matter, my lung surgery 5 3/4 years ago left a scar smaller than a quarter dollar. But work to ream out a carotid artery provided something more dramatic, something that looks like a dueling scar from a Prussian university back in the tough old days.
Take care!
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"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in an argument." William Gibbs McAdoo. US Vice-President under Woodrow Wilson.
Thanks Professor. I'm off to get cut tomorrow. Interestingly, my brother-in-law (the same one who hauled me back here from WV) volunteered and will be be my anesthesiologist for tomorrow's surgery. I thought there were some sort of rules against that, but hey....I'm happy to have someone there who has a vested outcome in my recovery!
The funny thing is that he and the surgeon who will be operating on me are playing golf in mid-October and they wanted me to join them. I told them that I draw the line at playing golf with guys who have seen and manipulated my innards.
Kaiser, just saw this after speaking to you last week. Just got back from Vail. Didn't realize your under the knife today. I wish you the best of luck. How much does a gall bladder weigh? Were always lokking for ways to shave grams off!
I'm sure you'll be great. Just think, the next time your climbing and it hurts like hell, you can always reflect back to the pain you felt when it hit you, aka lance!
I have 5 scars from this one, instead of the usual 3. Surgery was complicated - 2-1/2 hours instead of 45 mins. My gall bladder was f*'d up and on it's way to problems anyway, according to the surgeon.
Now I find out four of my aunts and uncles on my mom's side and two of my make first coursins from that side as well - there's my risk factor (since I didn't hit any of the other ones).
Thanks for all of thr well wishes and e-mails guys....it does make you feel better when you feel like crap.
next Tuesday. 
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