14 Feb 2019. Valentine’s Day. At the stroke of midnight, I was in a cab heading to the hospital, getting myself checked for suspected appendicitis. By the time everything was checked and confirmed, it was close to 4am, and I was in the observation ward waiting to be wheeled to my room.

This was followed by the CT Scan, and by about 1130, I was wheeled to the operating theatre. My mood had improved here. There were optimum signs of recovery and it’s just appendix removal right? I was thinking I could bounce back in a few days.

Waking up groggy after the op, the wound hurt a bit but not excruciating and the doctor mentioned that everything seemed fine. I could even start eating again! So I tried, a little at each meals, but then my stomach started to get bloated. I felt bad. I was encouraged to walk but the pain from the wound and discomfort from the bloated stomach complicated matters.

It was a condition called ileus - a common post op complication where the intenstines are slow to resume their normal operations. I was soon put back on a liquid only diet; and that seemed to stabilise things but the bloat didn’t disappear. Slowly, the day after, it was back to light feeds again, but the problem resumed. And it got way worse than previously - with the food all stuck somewhere in my gut. I tossed and screamed in my bed for relief; as I waited for the doctor to check. One thing about public hospitals - is it trains your patience; which is extremely tough when you are in pain.

Finally, the doc arrived and the remedy then was to put a nasogastric tube down my nose to remove the air and blocked food. The insertion of the tube was again, extremely uncomfortable and disconcerting but at least it was over in a couple of minutes. There’s the irritation of the tube, but definitely not as bad as a bloated stomach. The memory of the Japanese Kempeitai using water torture keep surfacing to my head.

And somehow after, my body started to click back on. I started back on liquids and on day 2, I was back able to try eating once again. I could strangely feel the different pockets of food moving through the stomach, small and intestines, even a strange vertical sensation, where the food sort of just slushed around. It could all just be in my mind.

Well, today is Day 8 morning. I am finally comfortable enough to feel some semblance of normalcy. It has been a difficult week but comforted and thankful to have my family supporting me. Without the calmness brought by J, it would have been tough and I think the recovery would have been longer. I should be going home today - back to some controlled S/G chaos but I look forward to it. movi