Phew! Finally got my ass outta there last night a little after 9pm!
Almost 3.5 days in there... The reason I was in there so long Scott, is 'cause the stupid doctors would NOT come to see me after the surgery AT ALL. They were supposed to come visit the very next morning (Sun.) to evaluate me, and LMK if/when I would be allowed to be discharged. Well, Sunday morning came and went, and nothing. We had the doctor paged a couple times during the day and he told the nurses he'd stop by at some point that day, but as the day rolled on, he never came by...
Plus, I was pretty much ready to go early in the afternoon on Sunday, since I was up walking around, eating regular meals with no problem, not too much pain at all, and all the nurses (none of which were hot
) said I was good to go...
So Monday rolls around, and we get the same damned routine all over again - "doctor's real busy (since he's the trauma surgeon), and he'll be by to talk to you as soon as he can..."
Monday pretty much comes and goes, and NOTHING. Patty and I were getting so pissed off, that we called the doctor's office last night around 8pm, and got through to his emergency pager, where we demanded he get his butt down to my room for a visit immediately! Shockingly, the dude finally wanders in around 9pm, talks to me for about 30 seconds, and takes off. Checks my stomach out, asks about the pain, and then doesn't even tell me if I'm discharged or not, just to call his office some time soon to set up an appointment. Then he bolts.
So I had to zip down to the nurse's station where I caught him filling out a form before he left, and asked if I was discharged or what? He said "yeah, of course. You look great."
Then I had to ask him if I was allowed to go back to work now, drive, do other stuff, etc. to which he said "NO WAY. You're totally grounded for the rest of the week!" That might have been some useful information to tell me earlier dumbass. Had I not chased him down, I'd have no idea what I was allowed to do or not do.
Add to that crap that my surgery was delayed every hour for about 8 hours throughout Friday night/Saturday morning & afternoon, and you start to see the total ineptitude of these 'tards.
All that aside, the surgery went great though, and they used a newer technique that's not so invasive (3 small incisions below my belly button, not a giant ugly slash like Scott got
). Didn't even get stitches. They used some type of "glue" to seal it all up for a couple weeks (which I can even shower with no problem). So aside from the endless delays and total ineptitude before and after (but not during) the surgery, it's all good, and I'm glad it's all done with now!
...How did you get Internet access at the hospital? When I was in the hospital, we were lucky if the buzzer to the nurses station worked. 
Well, the nurse's alert button averaged about 10 minutes on the response time, so that thing was worthless for me too Bob... But I had the coolest pull down monitor thingee. This 17" monitor was on a giant swinging crane-like gadget, so I could move it all over the room. It was a touch-screen that I could change between TV, radio, internet, e-mail, games, and movies. Very cool, and it definitely helped me keep my sanity during my way too lengthy stay there. It was a little tough typing stuff out (to post here), since a touch screen keyboard would pop up on the screen, and my arms would get tired being held up there while I arduously typed away. But since I'm so damned tough, I was still able to chime in here a few times to the gang while I was laid up...
The best thing about the whole experience was that I think the new and improved "Appendix-less Matt" now has better luck with the Star Wars figure hunting, 'cause when I got out last night, I had Patty swing me by my local TRU, WM and Target (which were all just a couple minutes away), and what do I find? For the first time ever - Rappertunie, and the whole Star Destroyer wave. Go figure...
Thanks for all the well wishes everyone.
- Matt
