It all started with what I thought was a stomach bug.  I left work early, didn’t feel all that well, couldn’t make it to work the next morning and ended up in the Emergency Room.  A little while later, I find out I have a ruptured appendix and am septic in the ER. Surgery ensues, which went according to plan, drains are in place and IV antibiotics are my new normal for the 5 days I spend in the hospital.  Peritonitis (infection/inflammation of the abdomen) and organ systems that had started to shut down needed to come back on line. Released from the hospital and spend 7 days recovering at home while trying to not go crazy, get depressed and maintain a normal household with a 6 & 4 year old.

I had no idea what life was going to hand me when I left the office that day thinking I just had a stomach bug but at the end of the day, you have to be able to control what you can control and this situation spun out of my control in a hurry. My wife indicated that she had never seen me more at peace with not being at work, in this situation I had no choice.  I couldn’t get up and leave and miraculously start working again.

Being self employed and essentially having the business rely on you, the doctor, to be present to generate revenue creates a caveat when you are out for an extended period of time. While we are not in jeopardy of going out of business, finances take a hit when no one comes in the door for 2 weeks.  The headache of having other people in the office is not worth it at this time for me, so I end up just taking the hit and moving on.

Follow up appointments have all finished up and we are getting back in the swing of things at this time. This is currently our third week back and while I was hoping to be it would be a little bit of a slower build back into practice, it was not.  The past couple of weeks have been slammed and honestly, my abdomen and health suffered the consequences fairly regularly. At the end of the day, I have been very fatigued, sore and zapped on energy.  The general rule of thumb is for every day in the hospital it takes 4-7 days to recover.

The stress points of running a solo practice came to surface.  While Marty and Carol are seriously my Godsends, they can only do so much.  Phone calls and billing were what kept them busy and I cannot thank them enough. When you are out for an extended period, patients understand the circumstances and are very gracious but there were a few that exposed true colors when complaining about how long I had been out and billing/collection issues that patients can be downright rude about.

I truly appreciate all the thoughts and prayers that came my way over the past few weeks, we are beginning to get back to a normal flow and hope to keep it that way for a while. The end of the year is always a little hectic but this one will be a year to remember, with my own personal health scare.

In ending, just know that sometimes I’m not in the office it could be for professional reasons, health reasons and on the very rare case, personal reasons.  As the calendar turns over, I’m going to try to take few days for my own enjoyment as two week off was not exactly enjoyment.

Always remember, that life does come at you fast and try to enjoy it as it goes because it can go sideways in a hurry.  The situation ended well and I never felt in jeopardy but I was a VERY sick boy and am forever grateful to the doctors and staff at CHI Good Samaritan.