Report From A Sickbed 2

French hot dog
with mayonnaise 

Nothing much happening, I´m still in pain but think it is getting better until it starts hurting again. Yesterday I ended up in a sort of "high" for about six hours through mixing too many over-the-counter Swedish painkillers. I know I laid down to sleep on my bed, but I woke up in a couch.

I actually didn't believe that this could happen with Swedish over-the-counter drugs, which are much weaker than the ones sold without prescriptions in the United States or anywhere else in the world, but now I know, so that was the last time I mix three drugs, I am sticking to the two-drug-combos from then on.

Physical pain has always made me angry and irritated and at the time being I am sick of it. I never cry when I am in physical pain but still feel like a whining wimp and that´s what pisses me.

Yesterday, I also got flowers and presents delivered to me, which was sort of sweet, but is that really what we (meaning I) want when we (me again) feel like shit and want to be left alone? Well, people mean well I guess.

After reading Zigadena Gabardini´s order to "eat something" in the comments, I actually walked to a gas station nearby in the middle of the night and bought what is called a "French hot dog" here, its a sausage shoved into what the gas-station claims to be a piece of baguette (but it really is just a piece of white fluffy bread). I ate almost all of it, well three-quarters at least.

A Friend in Need

Tramadol Hexal is a centrally-acting synthetic analgesic used to treat moderate to moderately-severe pain. I love it, especially in combination with an ibuprofen!

Home Again

I am back home again. Thank you all for the well-wishes!

The surgery was somewhat more extensive than what I had been referred for. When the surgeon ripped open my belly he discovered that i had coughed up two additional smaller hernias north of the tangerine-sized one. The two smaller ones had the size of small grapes.

However all has gone extremely well although I am tired and have a bit of pain, especially when I have my coughing bouts.

Going to bed now to get some more sleep and rest, I hope to see you all this evening.

Operation Bock

I am happy to report that the Swedish healthcare system is still working smoothly and efficiently.

As some of you may remember, well it was only less than three months ago but I know that many of my readers have lots of more important stuff on their minds, I coughed up an umbilical hernia in the beginning of March this year.

The hernia became strangled later the same evening. It was not a pleasant condition, but I was well taken care of at the hospital emergency room and could come back home later the same night.

I have now been notified that they have scheduled me for operation on June 11, the time of day is not yet known. If everything goes well I will be sent home the same day.

Even if I know I need the operation and that it is a rather minor and undramatic procedure I still got a little worried. Luckily for me, when it comes to healthcare issues, I can consult with my dear friend Zigadena Gabardini. She can always answer the questions I have and that calms me down. This time I could also draw on the previous experience of her hubby Emarald Harvey. The poor man contracted an umbilical hernia lugging around Ziga´s extremely heavy luggage when they met the last time in first life.

So by June 12, 2012, I will hopefully no longer have the ugly little lump on my stomach which I constantly have to push back in. Bock with Brock will be gone again.

A Little First Life Drama

Man in doorway, art by Eugène Jansson

You may be wondering why I didn't post yesterday, so this is what happened in my first life.

I got home from work around 4 PM. Suddenly I got a really heavy coughing attack and I could actually feel something rupture under my beautiful belly button. A few minutes later a small swelling appeared under the  belly button. It hurt a little but not too bad, so I went for my afternoon nap.

When I woke up two hours later the swelling was the size of a tangerine and was all swollen, hard and tender to the touch. I tried pushing it back inside without success, so I called the regional medical hotline to ask for some advice about what to do.

The nurse on the other end told me that I most likely had gotten a rupture in a weak spot under the naval and the intestines had pushed through and I had gotten an umbilical hernia. As the hernia was now hard and big it had probably become strangulated. She told me I was in need of immediate care and should go to the emergency at once. I argued with her and told her that I was a reasonably fit man in otherwise good health and and didn't have any bad pains from it and asked if I should really go there, couldn't I just book an appointment with a doctor on Monday and have it taken care of? She then asked me, "Do you want to die?".

I got the message and walked to the emergency at the hospital that is only about a kilometer from where I live. Once I got there my problem did not seem that serious compared to everything else they had to deal with on this busy Friday night. After an hour a lot of tests and blood work were taken, which all confirmed that I was in good health except for the hernia, which by now had grown to the size of an orange.

After the tests I waited around for a few hours more, all the while feeling guilty for being at the emergency ward with something that didn't seem important. At midnight I asked a nurse if it wasn't better if I went back home and made a reservation to see a doctor on Monday. She told me I should stay and would be taken care of in 10-15 minutes.

I was later led to a examination room and was seen by a good doctor of American extraction. He then gave me two injections, a tranquilizer and a painkiller, after which he successfully pushed the swelling - by this time the size of a small grapefruit - back into my belly.

The doctor told me he was going to refer me to surgery and that they would contact me in the not to distant future, meanwhile I should just keep pushing the intestines back inside and come back for help if I could not do it. I could then finally leave the hospital at 2:30 AM and walk back home while i was still a little dazed by the tranquilizer.

I will now answer to the name "Bock with Brock" (The Swedish word for hernia is "bråck", which is pronounced like the American name Brock)