Last Wednesday I started feeling abdominal pains. My son had been sick since the day before and I figured I was starting to get the bug he got. I was up all Wednesday night with abdominal pains and into Thursday morning. At 3:00 Thursday morning, I started vomiting. I figured it was going to happen because my son had done the same for about a day, but the next time I had to throw up, I passed out on the bathroom floor. My wife called the paramedics and I was taken to the hospital. I was told by the ER doctor that I had a very high white blood cell count (I was later told it was around 22,000 if I remember correctly) which they told me meant I had an infection. I was so in an out of it that I don't remember all that happened, but I remember a CAT Scan (which ruled out appendicitis) and I remember them admitting me to the hospital. after sleeping for most of Thursday, I later found out that I had an abdominal infection (stomach and bowels). It was some of the worst pain I can remember feeling (and the sickest I have ever felt). I asked the nurse if I was going home the next day (Christmas Eve) and she said "No". I was devestated because I had been looking forward to seeing my son open his presents. So, I basically pleaded to be released on Christmas Eve, and the nurse said she would talk to the doctor and see what she could do. All night and through the next day they kept me hooked up to Antibiotics and an IV (they said the reason I passed out was because I got severly dehidrated), and by Friday afternoon I felt alot better. The pain was gone and I was able to keep liquids down, in fact I hadn't thrown up since the ER. So when the Doctor arrived I pleaded to be released. He said he wanted to see how I took dinner that night and if I seemed OK after eating solid food, I could be released. So, I had Christmas Eve dinner at the hospital...but I kept it down. So, at 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve I was released and given a prescription for some HUGE antibiotic pills.

I wasn't home for more than an hour when my uncle called. My parents had gone to church for Christmas Eve mass. My uncle told me that my aunt and other uncle were called to the ER near them because my cousin (my aunts son) had a heart attack. I told him I would let my parents know what was going on when they got home. About an hour later another aunt called to tell me that my cousin passed away.

Christmas Eve was his birthday.

The next day my parents told me the story of how he died. He had checked himself into rehab for drug abuse. He was at the rehab center talking to my aunt on the phone telling them Merry Christmas and talking to some of the other family members at her house wishing everyone there a Merry Christmas and in turn everyone was wishing him a happy birthday. My aunt got back on the phone and told him that they would see him the next day and he said OK. She said something else to him and then ended with "OK we'll see you tomorrow, I love you", to which there was no reply. My aunt didn't think much of it and thought that people were around and he didn't want to answer so she ended the call. The rehab center said they found him dead still holding the phone in his hand.

Whether Christmas or not, this has been a real (excuse my language) crappy last week.

I'm still having some pains in my abdomin but I no longer feel sick. I'm taking these antibiotics like my life depends on it because I don't want that to happen again. In fact some good has come out of my hospital visit, I haven't had caffine since last Wednesday which I use to live on Pepsi and Coffee. Since Friday, I have been eating nothing but health food, which I don't think I have ever eaten. My diet consisted of mostly junk. I have no real want to go back to any of it. It's weird but it seems I have this new outllook on taking care of myself. Of course the bad thing about my hospital visit is the bill...I have no insurance #-o .

Sorry this post is so long. This is really the only place I hang out on the web and I needed to vent. 8-[

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Homer no function beer well without – Homer Simpson

That's...

...awful!

I hope things improve a lot from here on. It's good to hear that you have a "new outlook on taking care of [yourself]." That should help some.

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"I am Meteora, supreme goddess of weather" - Meteora, in The Unchained Goddess

One nice thing about being a meteorologist who also likes astronomy is that the sky is always interesting!

I'm speechless, SKY. What a horrible way to remember the Holidays.

Hey Sky, vent away. I think you are kind calling it a "weird" Christmas. Sorry about your cousin and I hope you are feeling better.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

I am sorry about your horrible Christmas and your loss, I hope that the new year will be alot better.

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Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

--Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist.

Ow. That's horrible, SKY.

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Hopefully the new year will treat you right.

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"We need to get back into that Saturn V world mentality."
Gene Cernan -- Commander Apollo 17

That's an awful way to spend Christmas Sky! Here's hoping you have an awesome New Years to make up for it!

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Maybe I can give you a ray of hope...

Four years ago, I was going through a bad time with my back. Just before Christmas 2000 I had disk surgery to correct the problems. Needless to say, I had a pretty weird holiday that year. But time has brought significant healing, and I'm now able to do almost everything I ever was.

So maybe you'll be able to look back on this year as some sort of turning point. Best of luck.

Thank you all for your responses. This place is almost like a second family, so it's nice to come here and be able to talk about things like this with people like you.

My son seems to have relapsed, he woke up this morning throwing up. I had made an appointment with our family doctor yesterday for this morning as a follow up to my hospital visit, and to look at my son because he was sick and I wanted to make sure he would not end up like I did, so I will hopefully get rid of this "bug" once and for all.

I initially took my son to his pediatric doctor the same day he started throwing up. We have had problems with his doctor being very passive when it comes to his ailments, so it shouldn't have suprised us when all he said to us was "Change his diet". My son had been throwing up every half hour and clenching his stomach and crying...and his prognosis was to "Change is diet!!!"

The good thing was that he was keeping liquids down, so all indications to me showed maybe the flu or a stomach virus, which we have taken him to ER for before and told that they can't do anything for a virus. We had to just wait it out. So we did and he seemed to get better till this morning.

My doctor said he would take my son as a new patient, so I will be switching his primary care to him, and dumping the "Change his Diet" quack.

*Sigh* Well, at least it's raining outside (I love the rain).

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Homer no function beer well without – Homer Simpson

I know how tough that can be especially around the holidays. My grandmother died last year right before Christmas and my uncle had a heart attack this year exactly one year later.

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"Eternal vigilance is the price of supremacy"
------------Mark Twain

"Women are like Voltron. The more you can hook up, the better it gets."

I am very sorry to hear about your cousin. Your family probably had such hope he was on the road to recovery being checked into the rehab hospital. I do hope your aunt doesn't go through the stress of thinking if only she had called the staff back. It just doesn't help. There are always things we wish we would have done no matter how direct or indirect. It just didn't happen and you can't go back.

Just seems like a bad year for some.

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The real news, including science news corporations may not allow on stations they own. http://www.democracynow.org/

I'm sorry to here about your loss too beskeptical, it has indeed been trying times lately.

My aunt is actually doing good. After years (and I mean YEARS) of his drug abuse, she had at one point told him not to contact her anymore. She said he only did when he needed money, and she refused to help him anymore. It was shortly after that that he checked himself into the drug rehab center and attempted to get help. Whether it would have helped this time or not, at least he was trying. They had just begun speaking again when he passed away. So, at least she feels she did everything she could and didn't leave anything unsaid before he passed on.

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Homer no function beer well without – Homer Simpson

SKY, if you were perscribed antibiotic medication then your problem was likely bacterial gastroenteritis (antibiotics are not useful for viral forms of gastroenteritis). In industrialized nations the method of contamination is usually through food. It's possible that your son is sick too because both you and he ate the same thing. If this is the case then he may be in need of treatment as well. I hope your doctor can see him soon...you're correct that the pediatrician did not seem to be taking this seriously. I'm not a medical person, just a biologist who has (unfortunately) had bacterial gastroenteritis myself (it was awful). Hope both you and your son feel better real soon.

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An open mind is like an open window...without a good screen you'll get all sorts of weird bugs!

I took my son to my doctor today and he said because of the high white blood cell count, it was an infection, which is what the hospital staff told me I had (stomach and bowel) and the antibiotics would have treated. Now, the high white blood cell count doesn't specifically say "stomach and bowel" infection, but without the hospital file in front of him he surmissed that they were correct. However, he has requested a copy of my...um... stoolculture results from the hospital that they took to check for a particular virus. I doubt it was food poisioning, just because my son was sick the day before I was and I don't remember us eating the samething anytime before Wednesday. My doctor is concerned though that my son may have contracted this from me and has givin me a prescription for him just in case for antibiotics. We are just waiting for those results to tell me for sure what medication to give him. He thinks the reason he got sick this morning is because we gave him hot chocolate last night. Caffine is an irritant when sick and I forgot that chocolate has caffine. It made me nausious last night as well.

Anyway, I am hoping to know for sure tomorrow as long as they get those results back.

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Homer no function beer well without – Homer Simpson

Hope that things get better for you soon SKY. Good move on switching doctors for you son.

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Free speech is no problem
It's listening that costs

Well, as the saying goes...when it rains, it pours. I have had a fever and aches since Monday, but no stuffiness or coughing. No vomiting. But yesterday I started breaking out in bumps, I found out today that I have the Chicken Pox . I've never had them as a child.

The good thing is my son has had his immunization for Chicken Pox, so they said he has about a 1 in 10 chance of infection, and if he did get it, it would be a mild form.



](*,)

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Homer no function beer well without – Homer Simpson

Youch! Good luck - hope you recover quickly. Not that you really have a reference point, but do you think they might be right when they say that chicken pox is worse for adults than children?

I'm not sure. I've just today broken out pretty bad, and I'm not that ichy yet. Although it is getting there. My doctor said that it his going to be brutal. He also said that in the seventeen years he has worked in that office, I am only the third adult he seen with the Chicken Pox.

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Homer no function beer well without – Homer Simpson

So was this part of the original problem or things just piling up on you?

My sympathy, just remember not to scratch!!

have vivid childhood memories of bumping down the hall on my butt because it was too painful to walk on the chicken pox on the soles of my feet.

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Free speech is no problem
It's listening that costs

Things are just piling up.