Calling In Sick After Four Days Off

today i was going to write about my happenings over the thanksgiving holiday, but quite unexpectedly i got to add another day to my thanksgiving break. while taking a shower this morning i bent over to wash my left leg and i felt an abnormal tightness in my lower left abdominal area. so i proceed to press on my abdomen to investigate this further. i did notice that it was a bit firm and shortly after pressing on my abdomen i felt light headed and nauseous. i'm thankful to say that i didn't pass out or vomit, but this did raise a serious red flag.

after getting out of the shower and getting dressed i called into work and left my boss a voice mail saying that i would be late to work because i'm going to the doctor the get my stomach checked out. at 7:00 am i left to visit the doctor. i find it quite convenient that my doctor works in a clinic that doesn't require an appointment, but if you don't want to wait forever you need to get there early. evidently i was too early. i only live 5 minutes away and turns out that they office doesn't open until 8 am. so i turned around and went home to take a nap before they opened. 45 minutes later i drove back to the doctor's office and was third in line for the day. nothing to complain about i must say.

after an approximate 20 minute wait it was my turn. the nurse listened to me tell my symptoms as she took my temperature, blood pressure and weight. she told me that she thought she knew what I had and that i saved myself a lot of pain by catching it early. though she didn’t feel to inclined to tell me what she thought that i had. following the normal stuff she had me give a urine sample, which for once was easy since i need pee anyways. next i waited in my own little room with a curtain for a door. why they shut the curtain i don't know? i even tried to leave it open and the nurse came by and shut it. i don't care if someone sees me sitting on the table twiddling my thumbs. after a 10 minute wait the doc came in and had me tell my story again and asked me a few additional questions. then he proceeded to tell me that my urine contained a small amount of blood and he would need for my abdomen to be x-rayed to give me a diagnoses.

so i hop on over to the x-ray room where the tech tell me to take of my cloths and put on a gown. i've only worn a hospital gown one other time. i must say that this gown was much easier to put on due to the strings coming together on my side rather than the back of me. after having radiation shot through my body i got to go wait in my private room again. where once again the nurse shut my curtain after i intentionally left it open. this wait must have been 20 minutes. i'm not exactly sure since i took a small nap on the table.

finally the good doctor game to give me the news. he told me that i didn't have a kidney stone which was good, but he believes that i have an infection in my colon (colon shown above), but he won't know for sure until he gets my urine test back from the lab. he went ahead and gave me a prescription for an infection in my colon and told me i had to have a liquid diet for a couple of days and then progress over another couple days from soft foods to the normal stuff. also he wanted me to increase my fiber intake. i told him that was ironic because a week ago i bought two new cereals that have a large amount of fiber. he graciously endorsed my actions and told me to keep it up.

at 10:45 i left the doctors office to go get my prescription filled. i was going to do some grocery shopping tonight, but instead i went to sam's club and bought 54 cans of slim fast for my temporary liquid diet. yes, 54 cans is a few more than i need, but it's sam's people. what do you expect? I bought the slim fast there to save money. turns out that my membership expired at the first of november and i would have to renew it to buy anything in the store. thus, making it feel like i got gauged on the drinks rather than a deal.