palomino's anatomy...

oringinal posting, march 31, 2008

so, it turns out i’m not allergic to lettuce...or onions...or bbq sauce, three items which have been suspect over the last year. but rather my gall bladder was filled with golf ball size stones which were preventing me from digesting food like the average bear.

for the last year or so i regularly have had a hard time digesting food. as a result, after eating anything, not just the three honorable mentions, but anything, hours later it would still be sitting in my stomach sending me on regular trips to the bathroom to vomit out my dinnertime remains.

finally, one night as i tried to fall asleep i tossed around for three hours or so with an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach as if i had swallowed a hammer. after diagnosing myself with pancreatitis, or an inflamation of the pancreas, (thanks webMD) and reading the words LIFE THREATENING, i decided to drive myself to the emergency room. so i hopped in the car and made my way to the hospital.

(i remember listening to "prince" on the way there and thinking, ’do you really want prince to be remembered as your going to the emergency room soundtrack?’)

three hours later they, hot doctor number one and not-so-hot doctor number two, said, "your blood work indicates that your levels are four hundred times what they should be...you’re very sick....we’re admitting you to the hospital."

five days later....

i came home gall stone-free, pancreatitis-free, gall bladder-free, pain-free and pride-free (after wearing that risque gown around the whole time). as a result...a shout out to my peeps at spectrum’s blodgett campus in east grand rapids. dr. lovell, dr. mohr, dr. chang, dr. elliott and HOT dr. taylor... it’s amazing how one’s quality of life improves, and the frequency of vomiting, once a diseased organ is removed from the body.

alas, the moral of my medical story ...BBQ SAUCE IS STILL GOOD.