# Well, I hope yesterday was the worst day of my life. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 20, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223 "2020-04-20T21:45:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/21 "2020-04-21T20:55:57Z")
Your happy outcome gave me goosebumps! I always love stories with happy endings! These days, those types of stories are more necessary than vitamins! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/22 "2020-04-21T21:15:04Z")
Wow! Good news! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/23 "2020-04-21T21:30:39Z")
Glad to hear of the good outcome! It was certainly a _ **scary** _ day for you, perhaps the scariest ever, but count yourself lucky if that was the worst day of your life! ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/24 "2020-04-21T23:27:51Z")
**nightshadea** and **peedin** : Ouch! Glad you were okay, and **Baker** , glad your mom took charge. - Mr. Rilch’s incisons are almost small and precise enough to have been made by an Exacto! He can even shower, as long as he doesn’t scrub or push at them. - The guy whose house I stayed at said last night on the phone that if he hadn’t already been briefed, he would have known something was way wrong by looking at me. “Because I’ve never seen you leave the house without your face on!” - Mr. Rilch can move around reasonably well. He can’t bend or lift, but he can climb stairs, and no trouble walking. - Forgot to mention, he actually got a two-fer. The testing also revealed a developing hernia, so that was removed before it could become a problem. Whew! - Thursday is his birthday. I’m making a cake at home; dinner will also be at home. I have three cool gifts for him, but one is a poster that I had intended to give to him framed. So he’ll have the option of seeing it now, or waiting for the reveal after it’s framed…but who knows when that will be? Point is, I’m overjoyed to be celebrating his birthday **with him** , in any fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/25 "2020-04-22T00:32:41Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I’m so glad you got Mr. Rilch to the ER on time. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know what the consequences would have been if it had ruptured. Peritonitis. My dad’s appendix ruptured when he was in high school. Fortunately, there was this brand new, experimental drug the doctors thought might help him. It was called penicillin (this was the 1940’s). Dad recovered and lived another 70+ years after that, so it is survivable these days but even now the recovery is miserable. So best to have it out before that happens. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/26 "2020-04-22T01:23:04Z")
Gladly this turned out well. so maybe I can share the story about my appendicitis: When I was 11, one morning I had a very slight stomach pain, and most of all absolutely no desire to go to school. So I told my mother about the pain and that I couldn’t go to school (in my mind, I wasn’t cheating because I had that little tiny pain). She insisted to go to our family doctor, he examined me and told us that it was a possible swollen appendix and that I should be brought to the hospital ASAP! I thought, oh shit, I’m not feeling so bad, I only didn’t want to go to school, not go into hospital! But I still had hope that the doctors in the hospital would diagnose something different and harmless. No way, after shortly having been examined, I was already on my way to the surgery as an urgent case. That was in 1979 and I was anesthetized with some gas through a mask (I don’t know what they actually used those days), and after waking up from the operation I felt miserable and threw up for hours. And I stayed in hospital for two weeks, though there were no complications and I recovered soon. I know that today hospital stays are significantly shorter than 40 years ago, but I’m still surprised that \*\*Rilchiam’s \*\*husband could leave the hospital the same day. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/27 "2020-04-22T02:28:30Z")
It was probably just the blue cheese dressing and the surgeon wanted to look heroic.\* \*unless the path report says different. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/28 "2020-04-22T14:49:51Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > This was back in the day when people still used laxatives and enemas for pretty much anything that ailed them, and these actions can kill a person with a hot appendix. That’s why these products say not to use them in the event of severe abdominal pain. Raises hand. This happened to me when I was 7 (in spring 1967). Abdominal pain - enema … When I was finally brought to the ER, the doctor scolded my mother to tears for doing that, and that I’m probably not going to make it. Off to surgery… Appendix was ruptured and I already had sepsis. I got last rites from a passing priest for my troubles. After 3 weeks of drip feed nourishmant and a boatload of antibiotics I went home. This event colored my view of illness/health for life, that is to say I remain hypervigilent to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/29 "2020-04-22T17:40:09Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > […] That was in 1979 and I was anesthetized with some gas through a mask (I don’t know what they actually used those days), and after waking up from the operation I felt miserable and threw up for hours. And I stayed in hospital for two weeks, though there were no complications and I recovered soon. I know that today hospital stays are significantly shorter than 40 years ago, but I’m still surprised that \*\*Rilchiam’s \*\*husband could leave the hospital the same day. I suspect that in normal times they might have kept him overnight. I am not an expert, but usually they want to see an indication of normal bowel function. I was kept overnight for knee surgery (they also wanted OT to evaluate my ability to manage with a non-weight bearing leg). They also kept me overnight for two of my three spinal surgeries. It’s also a US thing, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/30 "2020-04-22T18:32:32Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Peritonitis. Note that this is the nice way of saying “you have a massive, life-threatening bacterial infection in your gut”. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/31 "2020-04-22T18:34:12Z")
The insurance companies are to be [del]credited[/del] blamed for the shortened hospital stays. It’s getting to the point where heart transplants will be done as same-day surgery! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/32 "2020-04-22T18:40:35Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > The insurance companies are to be [del]credited[/del] blamed for the shortened hospital stays. It’s getting to the point where heart transplants will be done as same-day surgery! > ~VOW Nah. The next step is they mail you the instruments in a box, you do the surgery on your kitchen table, and mail them the check. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/33 "2020-04-22T19:25:05Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > I suspect that in normal times they might have kept him overnight. I am not an expert, but usually they want to see an indication of normal bowel function. > > I was kept overnight for knee surgery (they also wanted OT to evaluate my ability to manage with a non-weight bearing leg). They also kept me overnight for two of my three spinal surgeries. > > It’s also a US thing, unfortunately. I was curious if there was a difference between the US and Germany in that regard and [found this (German link)](https://www.workingoffice.de/fuehrung-personalmanagement-arbeitsrecht/arbeitsrecht-im-sekretariat/blinddarm-op-krankschreibung/): > [@](#): > > Als Faustformel kann man festhalten, dass der normale Krankenhausaufenthalt nach einer Appendektomie bei 2 Tagen liegt, wenn der Blinddarm nicht aufgebrochen ist. Bei schwereren Verläufen müssen Patienten 7 Tage oder länger im Krankenhaus bleiben. > > Da darüber hinaus die Mobilität in der Zeit nach der Operation eingeschränkt ist, werden die meisten Patienten nach einer Blinddarm-OP 2 bis 3 Wochen krankgeschrieben. In dieser Zeit können sie vom operativen Eingriff erholen und zu neuen Kräften kommen. > > [my translation] > > As a rule of thumb one can state that a normal hospital stay after an appendectomy is two days if the appendix wasn’t ruptured. In more difficult cases patients have to stay seven days or longer in hospital. > > Because additionally the mobility of patients is restricted after the surgery, most patients get leave from work for two to three weeks. They can recover from the surgery and gather new strength in that time. Note that the link is about employment law and that “leave from work” (my translation of the beautiful German word “krankschreiben”) means that you get your full wages during that time of recovery. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/34 "2020-04-22T23:20:20Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > The insurance companies are to be [del]credited[/del] blamed for the shortened hospital stays. It’s getting to the point where heart transplants will be done as same-day surgery! > ~VOW There’s some truth to this, but many operations really do not require as long of a hospital stay because they are less invasive than they used to be, and anesthesia and its sequelae are much better managed. Plus, hospitals are such germ-ridden places, doctors like to get people out of there ASAP. When I had my breast surgeries in 2017, in both cases I had no nausea or vomiting, and was sent home about 3 hours after leaving the OR. No need to keep me overnight. A now-retired pharmacist I used to work with often told the story of his own appendectomy in the late 1950s, when he was about 12 years old. The things he remembered most about it was the surprise rectal exam, which just about sent him through the roof, and that his balsa wood model airplane days were over because the glue smelled just like the anesthetic gas. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/35 "2020-04-25T07:09:15Z")
Update: He’s a bit sluggish now; he says the adrenaline has worn off. But there’s very little discomfort, and he can move around just fine, if he avoids bending or lifting. (I love that he’s shoving his feet into already-tied shoes, which he’s told me numerous times is a terrible way to treat shoes!) And he had a great birthday, yesterday (Thursday). He wanted Domino’s for dinner, after which I made chocolate lava cakes. He said he’d gladly pay $15 in a restaurant for something that good. And he loved his presents: the **Excalibur** movie poster, a Blu-Ray of a movie I knew he wanted, and a chocolate chess set! Quarantining Friend gave him a Blu-Ray of **The Current Wars** , and his father sent him $51. Several people sent cards as well. I wonder how many other people are having birthdays during quarantine? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/36 "2020-04-25T08:05:24Z")
wow lucky him i didn’t get to eat solid food for a week in a half because one of the medicines made me sick meanwhile, my brother was in town at the time let my dad know what was up and once he found out they gave me morphine he went through the roof (he’d been in Vietnam from 66-71 and seen it ruin people ) so they switched it to demeroral \while all the other stuff was going on … needless to say, my body was not happy … ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/37 "2020-04-25T19:51:01Z")
A few years ago mine burst and I drove myself to the urgent care. I had to wait 3 months for the operation. That was a low point in my life for a lot of reasons but also ended up motivating me to change for the better. Including that, I thought I was a goner at least 3 times since. Fun times. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/38 "2020-04-25T21:35:26Z")
When I had to have an appendectomy 5 years ago, the surgery was performed at 10:30 at night, and I was discharged the next day at about noon. I lived alone, so I had nobody to help me out. I did OK, though. I think it’s easier to recover from laparoscopic surgery, and of course, a ruptured appendix would have meant a much longer stay. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/39 "2020-04-26T02:29:07Z")
My appendectomy story was in fifth grade on Valentine’s Day. I ate some of those candy heart chalkish candies (like SweeTarts) and had a stomach ache after school and into the evening. My mother called the doctor and arranged for him to meet us at the hospital 7 AM. I slept on the couch that night; I remember getting up in the middle of the night and throwing up, which I never did. The diagnosis was pretty quick, and I wasn’t really told what would happen. The surgery went fine (I guess), but I woke up dazed and confused, thrashing about. If they just had given me some idea of what waking up would be like, I would have settled down (one year later I had my tonsils out, and knowing how waking up from surgery would feel, I was much calmer). There must have been some infection, because I stayed in the hospital for an entire week (this was 1969). My fifth-grade teacher sent a packet of letters to me in the hospital; my classmates had been assigned to write me a letter. I still have those letters (someplace) and keep meaning to bring them to a class reunion (our 45th is soon). I got lots of ice cream, actually liked the hospital food except for prune juice (!), and got lots of cards, books, small candies, and puzzles. My brothers and sisters didn’t get to visit often. They were probably mad at me, because this was before TVs were in each hospital room, and my mother brought a portable B&W model from home, and it was the one the kids in my family watched. The nurses figured out that they could come into my room, change the channel to their show, and I couldn’t get out of bed to change the channel back. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223/40 "2020-04-26T02:35:30Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > When I had to have an appendectomy 5 years ago, the surgery was performed at 10:30 at night, and I was discharged the next day at about noon. I lived alone, so I had nobody to help me out. I did OK, though. I think it’s easier to recover from laparoscopic surgery, and of course, a ruptured appendix would have meant a much longer stay. One of my friends had a similar experience about 5 years ago. His surgery was at about 1am, after having diarrhea all the previous day and then escalating abdominal pain, and at noon, they brought him a lunch tray and told him that he could eat as much as he wanted, and if it stayed down for an hour, he could go home. He took two bites of a Sloppy Joe, and an hour later, he was discharged. He was OK with that. He went on to make a full recovery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-i-hope-yesterday-was-the-worst-day-of-my-life/852223.md?page=3)