Monday, January 30, 2012

WHAT? MONDAY

Today's What? Monday question is short and simple (I think).

This question is appropriate because I still don't feel well:
What is the worst illness you have ever had? 

And no, fishducky, we are not talking about your specialty: breaking bones. Naaaa. I
wanna hear about being sick, and I mean really sick.

I was quite ill when I was six and had exploratory surgery. Turned out it was my appendix.
I was also quite miserable when I was pregnant with The Hurricane. Morning sickness
24/7 for all 27 months (longest pregnancy ever) because we were in the eye of the storm
long before it hit New Orleans.

But I'll have to say my winner of an illness was when I was in the hospital for ten days with
a gallbladder infection. Didn't eat the entire time, but I had an IV, of course. What got
to me was the TV. One commercial after another for every delicious morsel of food
on Earth.

Favorite Young Man was only two years old, and Dr. X was in grad school. My parents
came to Indiana from Kansas and took FYM home with them. Pity they didn't keep him.
Yes, at one time or another FYM looked like every one of these little darlings.

Ten days in the hospital is a damn long time, especially when all you do is lie
there and miss your little boy. The problem was my doctor was anti-surgery.
If a surgeon had come in and ripped out my gallbladder, I would have been
home in three days. But nooooooo. My doctor wanted to see if my gallbladder
could be healed with antibiotics.

Yes, it was, sort of. It took forever and for years afterward I had sharp pains in
my right side.

So, tell us now, please,

What is the worst illness you have ever had?
Be as gross and detailed as you want. You're with friends.

Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug



No, Monday morning couldn't guarantee that Monday evening you'd still be here with me.

Now here's another question for you: Do you want to be Michelle with the great looks
or Cass with the great voice?

If Cass were alive, she'd be my choice. But since Michelle is the only surviving member of
group, I choose Michelle and life.

16 comments:

  1. If I had known there'd be a test, I would have studied.

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  2. Hmmm, I'm kind of an old broad, so I've had my share of being sick, but I guess the worst was when my appendix burst. I was sick as a dog and in a lot of pain before it burst, but once that sucker popped, the pressure was relieved, so the pain was alleviated, so I saw no reason to go to the doctor. Unfortunately, that's when I was really in trouble, because all that poison had been released. I was so stupid, I didn't go to the hospital until several days later. (Only because I was turning a sick shade of green ...) By then, I was in pretty bad shape. After surgery and a long stay in the hospital hooked up to what they called an "antibiotic cocktail", the recovery time was longer than anything else I'd ever experienced. Took more than five years before I was relatively pain-free. (Gee, aren't ya glad you adked?)

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  3. Hmmm, the sickest I've ever been would have to be during my wedding and honeymoon. Kidney stones the night before the wedding then the lovely addition of a bladder infection, yeast infection, and sinus infection for my honeymoon. Within one week of being married, I had been to 2 hospitals (one in Hawaii) and been prescribed 5 different medications (which all said to not drink alcohol or be in the sun while taking!). I couldn't be in any air conditioning because the sinus infection would get irritated and cause me to cough until I threw up, which was not handy for Hawaii in July! Needless to say, I was happy to come home!

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  4. Hope you feel better. Dont worry about the award. It is your anyway.
    www.thoughtsofpaps.com

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  5. I've got to pass on this one...thankfully, and knock on wood, no bad illnesses.

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  6. When I was a kid, maybe 8 years old, living in Florida, I caught pneumonia during the Christmas break. I think it was after Christmas, though. My parents later told me I almost died from it.

    I was sick for weeks and weeks and had to take penicillin. The doctor had prescribed these horse pills but I hadn't learned to swallow pills yet and sure wasn't going to learn on those giant things, so my mom had to crush them up and mix them in with a dixie cup full of soda and it was soooo bitter and awful tasting but I had to drink all of it, every time. She'd even pour more soda in the little dixie cup and swish it around so we wouldn't miss any. Ugh. I still don't like soda all that much.

    And at least twice a day, every day, my dad had to come in and hold me over his lap with my head hanging down over the trash can by the bed and beat me on the back until I coughed up a bunch of the goo that was in my lungs. He later told me it was all he could do not to puke every time... poor guy...

    I was in a fog for ... ? days? weeks? ... I don't know.

    I only know that finally, after missing a few weeks of school, I started to come out of the fog and then one day I felt well enough to sit up and it was a beautiful bright sunny Florida winter day, and I begged my mom to let me go outside. I wanted to run in the sunshine. My legs were weak, though, so I settled for sitting on the edge of the driveway in a spot of warm sunshine and enjoying the cool air and gentle breeze. It was the most beautiful day God ever made. I felt alive again, finally.

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  7. The worst illness I ever had was when I contracted a parasite. I carried it in my body for over a year (with complications, of course) without knowing it. I had gotten it in 2007 when I went to Venezuela on a mission trip, and I didn't realize what I had until I almost died in El Salvador a year later. I was pooping blood (sorry, TMI), I couldn't eat, was constantly nauseous, dizzy/fainting spells. It was horrible. Luckily there was a missionary in El Salvador that was also a doctor, and she drove across the country to see me as an emergency. She quickly found what was basically straight up poison and made me take it for 10 days 2 times a day. I was so dehydrated and sick that by the time my team and I made it to Nicaragua, I had to go to the hospital, and I was almost sent home a week early.

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  8. I had mono in college and and I couldn't eat or swallow anything for almost 10 days because my throat so swollen. Since its a virus, I couldn't take anything for it and it just had to work its way out of my system. I would try to drink and then cry because it hurt so bad. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Well maybe a couple people but I'd feel bad as I was wishing it.

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  9. fishducky: A+

    Susan, When you turned green, was it grinch green or were you more of a pastel? Or perhaps puke green? I know some people get really grossed out by illness and wounds, but not me!

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  10. Princess, I never had a honeymoon. I guess if I'd had one, I would have been pretty darn upset about getting sick.

    Stay healthy right up till the minute you die, Stephanola (not that I ever want you to die, but you don't want to live forever without the gift of eternal youth -- which I seem to have and that's why I'm so childish).

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  11. Poor LegalEagle. I've never cared much for 7-Up because my mom made us drink it when we had the flu. Florida sunshine has restorative powers, doesn't it?
    I can't believe they tried to make you take big pills? When I had my appendix out, my mom told the nurse I couldn't swallow pills (I was six). The nurse said, Oh, now let's just try.
    I puked all over the front of her uniform. Served her right.

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  12. Alicia, That's horrible! If we had a sickest person trophy to give out, I think you'd win. And don't worry about the TMI. We don't have TMI at Janie Junebug. You can say anything you want. I knew someone who went to a South American country on a medical mission. He came home with a little bump on his cheek that kept growing. It was a WORM! I think he was pleased to have it removed.

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  13. Michelle, That sounds miserable. I think I'm old enough that I could actually wish that on a couple of people without feeling one bit guilty.

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  14. I had food poisoning once, which I believe was from expired eggs that I didn't know were expired. I was deathly ill for a week and a half. The stomach cramps were the worst and most intense pain ever!

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  15. I agree -- Alicia wins the "worst illness" trophy!! Sounds perfectly awful...

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  16. Look at that, Alicia. LegalEagle agrees you're the winner of the worst illness contest. I hope you feel very special.

    Your Majesty, That sounds horrible. I've never had food poisoning and I hope I never do. My daughter got it by eating pasta on a plane to Ecuador. The water the pasta was cooked in made her sick. She was in high school and away from home. My poor little girl.

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