29 March, 2020

in hospitium

I've been in the hospital now for nearly two weeks. I've had four surgeries, several operations, and way too much bedrest. I don't have COVID-19, but its existence affects me greatly; I'm not allowed to have any visitors, I have to take several precautions so that the coronavirus patients upstairs don't infect me, and I can't look at any media at all without constantly seeing the depressing state of things just outside my hospital room window.

I have a tube from inside my kidney draining outside. I have another draining the dregs from an abscess on the same. I have a chest tube connecting the inside of my chest cavity (next to my lung) to a machine outside my body. I have a pic line in my arm that is threaded through to the base of my neck. I even have a foley catheter. Getting around is extraordinarily difficult due to the plethora of tubes and connected devices and bags, though otherwise I still have enough energy and strength in my legs and arms to move about as much as I would want.

I'm grateful to have a laptop available, alongside a fan that helps keep me cool. I truly appreciate the immensely comfortable purple cushion that's on the chair in my room. I love my Nintendo Switch, alongside the relaxing Animal Crossing, which has dominated my playtime. I adore the posters Katherine drew for the cabinet in front of me; they show Jasper, my feline housemate, telling me to get better in various ways. I even feel good about the two stuffed animals I have here: a large Fluttershy and a slightly smaller Kapp'n.

What I'm not as happy about is how long it may take for me to get out of this. No one is sure how much longer I will have to have the JP and chest tubes, but eventually they must be removed. Once that happens, I can go home (finally!), but I will still have the other tubes and will need to inject antibiotics for six weeks or so. Afterward, I need to come back into the hospital for yet another surgical procedure, followed by the removal of the rest of my tubes. At that point, they check on me, and it has to be determined whether I will need a kidney removed entirely.

I have never before experienced the levels of pain, discomfort, boredom, inability to think straight, etc., in all of my life. I will forever better appreciate the benefits of health, mobility, and capacity for rational thought.

18 March, 2020

Illness in Quarantine

I'm probably not dying, but I feel horrible.

The COVID-19 quarantine has made the local clinics too iffy to go to. My condition would need to worsen first, I think, before I risked a visit for this illness.

Yet it is so miserable. Near constant pain the temples, continuous overheating of my face and forehead (yet my internal temperature rules out a fever), and an abdominal issue that defies my understanding.

There is a dull ache, not quite pain, but more like discomfort, localized on the far left of my abdomen. It is somewhat low down, and it is situated well beneath the skin, so I can only point to its location. If I contort my torso in different ways, it can hurt, like a very small cramp. But otherwise it just exists. Combined with this, I feel no appetite. Eating foods of any kind doesn't really appeal to me. It's been this way for several days. This means I am now hungry, wanting nutrients, but with no appetite whatsoever. I don't know how to respond to such problems. My current plan is to call a professional to determine whether I need to risk going to a clinic.

If feels serious enough that I've typed out a last will and testament on the desktop of my laptop. But at the same time, it feels so silly to worry about dying that I feel embarrassed about writing out this blog post. Damn silliness heuristic. I honestly can't do any serious rational thought right now with this amount of pain in my head. I need to take additional pain-killers.



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Edit on March 20:
It turns out that I had a lot wrong with me.Two surgeries down so far, at least one but more to be scheduled in coming weeks. I will explain more in depth later, but suffice to say that this is, bar none, the most painful and life-altering experience in my entire life.