This first section, I wrote in its entirety
on Facebook, minutes beore I got to bed right around midnight:
Guess what everybody, Shobhit has acute appendicitis! We just spent five and a half hours in the Emergency Room at Virginia Mason Hospital, and as you can see, we had a *great* time.
Okay I suppose that's not strictly true, although as you no doubt gathered by the campaign video he posted
from his hospital bed, we found a way to make the most of the time we spent there. That was the first such video we kept on the first take, and it really cracked us both up. Up until that point, we were so hard up for entertainment that I was eavesdropping on conversations with the lady in the waiting room who was convinced her neighbor is poisoning her.
Shobhit continued to ask every new person who came into his room whether they were Seattle voters, by the way. Maybe half of them actually weren't. The nurse who came in to take his covid test lives in Tacoma, and she had a lot to say about local politics as apparently her dad used to be Deputy Mayor of Tacoma. When Shobhit commented that that must be a long drive, she just replied, "I make a lot of money, I'm a contractor."
Anyway, I should really credit both Laney and Danielle for insisting that he should call a doctor. Laney was first, after she heard that he was having abdominal pains and had a fever last night [Friday]. The fever prompted me to do covid tests for both of us, both last night [Friday] *and* this [Saturday] morning: all negative. He had a temperature just over 101° last night [Friday], but it was down to just above 99° this [Saturday] morning so we were thinking whatever it was, the fever broke and he was on the mend. He joined Laney and me for Happy Hour this afternoon. He left before we did, though, and when he got home and retook his temperature it was back up to 100.13°.
He started to wonder if it might be appendicitis, for which abdominal pains and fever are symptoms. He called Virginia Mason and they told him he should go to urgent care within 24 hours. He texted Danielle, who is a nurse, and she said the same thing, adding that urgent care may just refer him to an ER anyway.
That's exactly what happened. We found this "zoomcare" place on Broadway and I was surprised to find you could book an appointment online, which I barely managed to do in time for a 5pm slot. As soon as the doctor assessed him there, the assessment was: "It's appendicitis until proven otherwise." And she referred us to the ER. So off to Virginia Mason we went.
At first, the waiting was because all the ER beds were full. Hardly a surprise. After some time, the triage nurse took both blood and urine samples. It was a while again before there was any word on that. Eventually he was given a CT scan, and he was actually taken back from the waiting room. At first, I was told to wait out there, but then after maybe ten minutes Shobhit and a nurse came to fetch me and I went back with them, where we went into a room with a hospital bed and he was asked to change into a hospital gown. Side note: that gown is half-put together with buttons, all of which were unbuttoned when he was given it, and it took us several minutes to figure out how the hell to put the thing on. Why can't they just be presented with all the buttons already snapped together, so all you have to do is tie it in the back? We have enough things to worry about!
When a doctor finally came in and said that they confirmed it was appendicitis, I finally started to get a little worried, I must admit. I know this is a routine surgery, blah blah blah. It still involved a consent form (used for all surgeries, it was stressed) and I need to make sure I know where our copy of the living will is and all that. Finding out surgery is a suddenly imminent need is still nerve racking. Shobhit kind of went the opposite direction, laughing stuff off left and right and asking if they were registered to vote in Seattle.
By the sounds of it, had we gotten there earlier in the day, they might have gotten to the appendectomy *and* even released him today. But, we didn't even get full confirmation of a surgery until 10:00 this evening, so now he has to stay there overnight and get surgery first thing in the morning. Apparently there's a recent development that allows for antibiotics alone to be sufficient treatment for straightforward cases, but with that comes a 30% chance that he'd still wind up back there needing the surgery within three months! Neither of us liked those odds, a stupid risk to take. So, surgery it is.
I was trying to get a sense of when I would be needed to come back to get him in the morning, and the doctor went through all the stages and roughly how long they should take; the surgery itself no more than 45-90 minutes. She still hadn't answered my question as to what time I should come back though, so I said, "So I should expect to come and get him around, what, nine or ten?" The aforementioned nurse from Tacoma said, "You're sweet." The doctor said they'll probably be giving me a call around noon.
I'm going to need to call his work in the morning. He'll be unable to work, realistically, until Thursday at the earliest, we were told. He may very well want to take the whole week off, the doctor suggested.
This is going to be the first surgery of any kind Shobhit has ever had. He's never even had his tonsils out. Neither of us is especially worried, I feel like. But, overall, the fun video we posted aside, this experience was stressful. I got back home at about 11:00, with a splitting headache, and now I'm going to bed.
I took two Aleve before I went to bed, my headache pretty bad at that point. I am almost certain the culprit there was just that I had had two hard ciders at Happy Hour with Laney, and no water at all until I got home at 11.
Speaking of which, Shobhit was told as soon as it became apparent this might be appendicitis—at the zoomcare urgent care place—that he should not eat or drink anything, not even water, until told otherwise, and later it was until after his surgery. He got hungry, and of course, he got very thirsty, and complained a bit that he couldn't drink anything. And Shobhit is a big water drinker; he brings along a bottle of water almost anywhere we go.
I got a text from Shobhit at 7:03 this morning:
They should be coming to take me to the prep room soon. That didn't actually happen until 7:45.
When I saw that text this morning, though, I saw that there was a string of other texts he had sent through the night.
Taking me up to the room 1660, he texted at 3:43 a.m., and about 15 minutes later he started texting the first of five different photos he took of the nighttime view of downtown Seattle through his 16th-story window, which he knew I would be interested in seeing. Accompanied with those photos ws the text,
They gave me a room for three hours. That is obnoxiously wasteful and expensive. That part is debatable, I would say; as I noted to him later, his situation was no longer considered an emergency and they need to keep the beds open in the ER.
Besides, the expectation then was that he'd be going down to surgery on the 6th floor at 7:00, but as noted already, they took him down at 7:45. His was in the room on the 16th floor for closer to four hours. Probably still expensive. He texted me at 7:32 to FaceTime him, and I did; he wanted to show me the view live. I asked him to send me still photos of the view in daylight, and he dropped off FaceTime momentarily to do that. In the end he sent me five nighttime view pictures, four daytime shots, and at my request, another two shots of the room itself that he was in. I had also taken a few photos in the ER room, and later Shobhit even sent me an additional two shots of the surgery prep room once he was there, at 7:50. As of the moment I am writing this, I had more than enough shots for
a photo album on Flickr dedicated to Shobhit's appendicitis and appendectomy.
I've been in touch with several people throughout all of this, including both Laney and Danielle, who had been involved in the earliest recommendations that he get medical attention; our neighbor Alexia, who I texted to ask if she could feed the cats their dinner (and she really went above and beyond, additionally cleaning out the litter boxes and even taking out our kitchen garbage); Ivan on Facebook Messenger, after he messaged me about something unrelated and I mentioned what was going on, after which he asked me to keep him updated (
Do let me know the outcome of this situation dear he sent at one point, his occasional propensity to use the word "dear" for a friend being both odd and sweet); and Puneet, his brother in India, who Shobhit had me connect with over WhatsApp while we were still in the ER waiting room. I even spoke with him briefly in a WhatsApp audio call to confirm the connection. I've sent updates to all of them over the course of this morning.
Shobhit did tell me during our FaceTime call, which got interrupted by a nurse who came in to further prep him for being taken down to surgery (I also overheard a nurse shift change; the new one who came in was also from India), that he had already called Aetna—he's just so, so worried about what our final, out of pocket expense will be for this. I guess there's a $50 copay for the ER visit but the rest of the cost is covered; only 50% of the room cost will be covered; he still doesn't know the details of coverage on the surgery itself. He's thinking this may cost us up to five grand in the end. And you know what? I'm like: so what? He was the one who insisted, ages and ages ago, that I save $30,000, easily accessible from a savings account, precisely for emergencies like this. Why should we fret about spending savings we saved up precisely for this reason? This is absolutely not the same thing as "going into debt," which is unfortunately how he seems to be looking at it. In the midst of everything else, he's actually worried about this more than anything else.
I did need to do some other things this morning. Virginia Mason, which is our hospital (and where our primary care provider is), should at some point be given copies of our living wills. I had to do some digging in the closet to find our own copies of that, but I did find that folder before too long. I didn't remember until I got a text from Alexia asking if there were any updates, that I still needed to call Shobhit's work, which he asked last night that I do this morning. I did that, spoke to the manager there (Connor, I think) to let him know what the doctor had told us last night: that working Monday, and probably Tuesday and Wednesday, would be out of the question. I had to tell Connor that Shobhit would be unable to work at least until Thursday probably, and perhaps longer. I have a feeling he'll go back sooner, but we'll see. I also said Shobhit will likely follow up before Thursday, but for now, expect him not to be working at least Monday through Wednesday. So that got done too.
So! In just the few minutes between writing the above paragraph and now (and as I write this, it's 11:18 a.m.), I got a call. I guess his appendix had indeed burst; it was "perforated," as the woman told me, and the surgery took longer than expected—about two hours. After I had been put under the impression last night that he would be coming home today, this woman said, "Oh, he's going to be admitted to the hospital." He still has that same room apparently, so he'll just be taken back up there as soon as he wakes up.
The more pertinent point is that, although the appendicitis was worse than thought once they got into him, they were still able to perform the surgery laparoscopically (which means small incisions rather than large, and small is better), and the procedure went well. All we wait for now is his recovery time, and apparently they need to wait until his pain subsides and he is well enough to pass gas and do things like get around, go to the bathroom, etc. unassisted. With all that in mind, I was told he'll be staying in the hospital at least until tomorrow. As soon as they call me that they're taking him back upstairs, I can return to see him, possibly even get into his room before he's there.
. . . Okay. Now, as I write this, it's 2:57 pm and I have been here with Shobhit in his room since about a quarter after 1:00. I'm going to paste again, at least partially, what I
shared on Facebook shortly after I got here:
Update!
I’m back with Shobhit now. He’s on the 16th floor of Virginia Mason Medical Center’s hospital building, and it turns out he has to stay here at least until tomorrow. I still don’t know whether I might have to take time off work this week or not, depending on when he gets discharged.
Now I suppose we just wait. Apparently he can’t leave until his pain subsides, he’s well enough to pass gas and do things like get around, go to the bathroom, etc. unassisted.
He finally FaceTimed me just after noon today, kind of barely conscious. I rode my bike back here shortly after, so I wouldn’t have to pay for parking again. (Thankfully we have a street parking permit in our neighborhood; my garage fab doesn’t work, I didn’t think to take Shobhit’s keys when I went home last night; and I left the car parked on the street.)
My favorite part is the northward view from room 1660, which Shobhit knew I would be into: he texted me nighttime shots when they first transferred him up here at 3:45 in the morning; daytime views when he woke up around 7; and I took some further shots of my own when I got here.
* * * * *
In the time since I wrote and posted that, I also had to spend some time uploading more of my photos to Flickr via my phone, mostly so I could embed the photo used below, which shows both Shobhit in his room 1660 hospital bed, and part of the skyline view beyond through the window.
The doctor who had performed the surgery also came in to speak to him briefly, talking about how good it was that we brought him in yesterday. I guess there was a lot of blood around his appendix too; she talked about how the body sends a lot of blood to the location of an infection. I asked about what I would be looking at in terms of either going or not going to work tomorrow, and as of right now it looks like I'll just come into work late tomorrow. The doctor seemed relatively confident Shobhit will be able to check out in the morning. They'll probably have him eat breakfast first, she said, so it could be as late as noon before he could be checked out. It sounds like right now it could be any time throughout the morning. I'll probably just need to email work and let them know I don't know when I'll make it in, but I do plan to come in when I can.
I'll be heading back to the condo soon. I'm tired of wearing a mask (they're not really making Shobhit wear one). Shobhit has gotten assistance in getting to the bathroom twice since I've been here. I was told specifically not to let him try to go by himself, and the second time he still tried insisting on doing it himself, until he realized he was still connected to the IV and would need help. Later a nurse named Chris actually took him back and forth down the hall for a walk, to get his body circulation going and hopefully get him to pass gas. Shobhit told me there's another window at the end of the hall, where there's a lounge for visitors, with a view to the west. I got another nice five shots out of that. This photo album for Shobhit's appendectomy now has more than 40 shots in it, most of them of the Seattle skyline and skyscrapers. Ha!
[posted 3:37 pm]
