Julie Cooper, Wanda Plenn, and April Nardini

Subtitle: TV is Educational

Diabetes is often portrayed poorly on television, with story lines that include factual flaws and overly dramatic... shall we say... exaggerations. I assume that the same is true for other conditions, but since I don't have the first hand knowledge to compare fact with fiction, I can't say for sure.

As frustrating as inaccurate info is, sometimes the basics get through, and that can be a good thing. A character's illness can plant a seed of information that comes in handy down the road. Assuming, of course, that it doesn't lead one down the path of mis-self-diagnosis! TV + Google = Hypochondria (sometimes!)

So what does this have to do with Julie, Wanda, and April? All three are characters who have had appendicitis. And since I'd never had it, nor did I know anyone who'd had it, I can only assume that my basic knowledge of the symptoms comes from what I've seen on TV. The one thing that has always stuck in my mind is lower right belly pain, and pain that is worse when you push gently and let go. And that tidbit goes all the way back to the 70's and One Day at a Time.

When I woke up with a nasty stomachache in the middle of the night, I thought it was your average run of the mill bug. Dreadful, but no big deal. When the pain moved and settled into the lower right side of my belly, I got suspicious. And I must say, what little I knew about appendicitis pushed me past the usual internal "am I sick enough to go to the Emergency Room" debate. So it was off to the ER yesterday afternoon at 1PM.

By 9 I was in surgery, having my appendix removed.

Because it was caught so early, and the surgery was so uneventful, I was able to come home mid-day today and am now enjoying the perks of percoset and the benefits of bedrest (specifically, I have sole control of the upstairs TV. And it's pageant night. 'Nuff said.)

So thank you Julie, Wanda, and April, for your dramatic portrayals of appendicitis over the decades. I appreciate the heads-up!

On the diabetes front, pretty much everyone in the hospital was great. Most were very receptive to hearing about what I needed to do. We used my meter and blood sugar results for the first 8 hours (and would have used it after surgery but my lancet was left behind in the ER). They kept my pump on during the surgery, which was great because I didn't have to worry about any gaps in basal insulin, and I was able to take insulin as soon as I needed it (without having to wait for them to bring it to me). Aside from the asshole anesthesiologist who had a few ridiculous comments about my 210 blood sugar and the correction dose I had taken (he thought it was insufficient), I was in charge and didn't feel like I had to work extra hard to stay healthy, diabetes-wise.