Mean Seasons

Content Warning: Body Horror

Wednesday I had my follow-up with the surgeon regarding my recent emergency appendectomy, where I received a clean bill of “healing adequately,” even while I was also warned that my recovery process might be slower than normal because of how much time I spent under the knife, and how much damage had already been done.

It seems that what happened was that I had acute appendicitis–the same kind you normally have, the same kind that sends people to the emergency room or sometimes just flat kills you–only I had it a couple of months ago. Because I didn’t display all the most common symptoms (apparently only about 40% of people do), nobody caught on to what it was until my CT scan weeks later. By then, my appendix had literally died inside my abdomen and had begun to rot, sticking various parts of my colon and other internal organs together with necrotic tissue, and slowly poisoning me, which explains why I had been feeling so bad for so long. The doctor said that my operation took roughly three times the normal length of an appendectomy.

The good news is that, all things considered, I seem to be healing admirably. The bad news is that, in the last two weeks, I’ve increased by fully a third the total number of times I’ve been to the ER in my life. Fortunately (?) only one of those visits was for my own emergency appendectomy. The other two have been in the last few days, as Grace has been visited by nosebleeds so severe that they seem to deserve another name. These are not the dramatic nosebleeds of film and television, the ones that indicate you’ve been overtaxing your psychic powers. These are like someone turned on a tap, only bright red blood came out, in quantities that you could readily measure.

Twice now these nosebleeds have sent her to the ER, though, ultimately, there is precious little that even they can do for her. The first time they attempted to cauterize the bleed, which, after a couple of tries, took for a few days. The second time, today, they had to pack her nostril, which doesn’t sound so bad, but I was present for it, and can attest that it was probably some of the worst pain I have ever watched her experience, and I have seen her go through some shit.

Between this and the back problems that she’s already been dealing with, not to mention my slow convalescence, it has been a rough few weeks, to put it mildly. But we’ve had friends who have been able to help, sitting with us in the ER. running to get groceries, helping me up the stairs, that kind of thing. Without them, I don’t know what we would have done, to be honest.

So, hopefully we’ll both be on the mend soon enough, and in the meantime, once again, if I owe you anything and you haven’t heard from me, feel free to remind me, but I also beg your indulgence. It’s been a mean season.