Appendick.

I had my appendix out last Tuesday (it’s now Friday of the following week), and I’m getting thoroughly pissed off at not being able to run so I thought I’d write a bit about it and try and log the recovery as it might be useful for others out there.

So here’s what happened…

February 2017 (8 months ago)

I went for a run in the morning with Rob, and when I got home I had a bit of a sore abdomen.  It got progressively worse throughout the day and I assumed it was maybe a spot of food poisioning as it felt like that.  By the evening I was writhing around on the bed in quite serious pain, so my lovely wife dragged me off to A&E.  The pain was pretty non-specific, so triage sent me back to waiting room to wait after grabbing some blood.

After 4 hours of waiting, the pain was subsiding to the point where – at 1 in the morning – I thought it might be quite nice to go to bed.  So I went home with a view to see the GP in the morning if it was still uncomfortable, but apart from being a bit tender the next day I had no ill effects.

Looking back, I assume that was my appendix getting grumpy, but something caused it to back off.  That time.

Sunday 8th October

I went for a lovely run in the evening with a 4kg back pack as a bit of early training for the Arc.  When I got home, I had the first beer for 11 months and 1 day, then went to bed.

Monday 9th October

Woke up at 2am with general all over abdominal pains.  Got up (painfully), passed out, thought I was going to be sick (but wasn’t) and ended up lying in bed very uncomfortably for the rest of the night.

Went to see the GP at 9am, who poked around a lot harder than I had during the night.  In doing that, it was pretty obvious that the most tender spot was around my appendix, even though without poking it still felt very much all-over the abdomen.  He took bloods and diagnosed a “grumbly appendix” (yeah, technical term!), and prescribed a bucket load of antibiotics and said go to A&E if anything changes, and call back Wednesday for the blood results.

In hindsight, there wasn’t much more he could do, so prescribing the antibiotics I think were a prophylactic approach to partially handling my appendix bursting.

The rest of day was uncomfortable, and the night was rubbish too.  Still, all good practice for staying awake during ultras, right? 🙂

Tuesday 10th October

I actually started feeling a little better in the morning.  Not great, but I was starting to think things were going in the right direction.  Then around 11:30 I went to the toilet (nothing scary!), but when I got back I started shivering.  After 10 minutes of uncontrollable shaking it was getting quite a bit less fun, and another 5 minutes and my wife stuck me in the car and drove me to A&E.

I finally stopped shaking after 25 minutes, totally knackered in A&E.  As I’d seen the doctor before I could say about my appendix, and things went a bit quicker than last time.  5 minutes and I was in triage, 5 minutes later (having taken bloods, obs and determined my temperature was quite high) I was in a bed.  A few minutes later I was on IV antibiotics and had been given morphine and was feeling quite mellow 🙂

I’ll try and stop waffling now – doctor came and had a look, said it was probably appendicitis but wanted the surgeon to confirm.  In the mean time I got moved to a ward, then saw the surgeon who poked a bit and confirmed it.  I got put on the evening emergency surgery list, and by 8pm I was appendix-less.  Proper job there, NHS!

Wednesday 11th October

The abdo pain I had Monday and Tuesday was gone, replaced with general discomfort where I’d been cut open, inflated and poked around inside.  The surgery was laparoscopic (keyhole) so I only had 3 small cuts.  Speaking to the doctor later in the day, I mentioned running and he said I should be able to get back to it in 10-14 days, but walking would be good beforehand.

Hmmm.  I think I may have got things slightly wrong at this point in his interpretation of “walking”.

Anyway, I escaped from the hospital about 1pm on Wednesday (escape as it’s never nice being in, although the nurses and doctors were absolute stars, every one of them!), and got home.

Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday

Generally feeling a bit shite.  Really tired, quite a bit of sleeping, and painful from the cuts.  But mending each day.

By Saturday I was feeling much better in my head, much clearer and less sleepy.  Every day the pain was getting better from the cuts, and on Sunday I did away with the dressings on the 3 cuts as they were looking fine.

Monday – First Walk

I went for a little walk today.  1 mile in 20 minutes.  And it felt OK.  Things were on track for a return to running in 14 days I figured!  So I thought I’d do some more walking throughout the week.

Tuesday – 1 week on from surgery

Yeah, walk yesterday was great.  Let’s up this a bit.

Now I should point out I’ve been doing quite a bit of walking training (will talk more about that in a different post), but I usually do 4-6 miles at sub 14:00 pace a few times a week.  Which is fairly quick.

So today – 1 week on – I did 2 miles at 14:30 pace.  Slower than normal, but it was flat and felt OK.  Tomorrow, 3 miles…

Wednesday

Got a bit carried away today.  4.5 miles at 13:47 per mile average.  But it felt good!

Except for the bits where – when walking down hill at 12:30 pace – I had to firmly squeeze my jumper against my abdomen to reduce the pain.  Er… yeah… probably should have taken it a bit easier there.

Read a book for an hour at home.  Got up.  Passed out.  Wife bollocked me (I deserved it!).

I think now I shall be known as Appendick.

Thursday

I’ve gone back 2 days at least.  Central abdomen – around the biggest cut – hurts most of the time now.  Tensing muscle there is quite painful.

So I think what I’ve done is upset the healing of the biggest cut (by my belly button, where they put the gas tube in to inflate everything during surgery).  That one is about an inch long and cut through some muscle, and I think I’ve undone some of the healing internally.

So no walking today.  Sitting down helps.  By the end of the day it was feeling generally better (but not as good as yesterday).

Friday

Didn’t hurt to much when I woke.  Then I sneezed (I’ve got a cold to help with recovery…!), and boy did that hurt.  It’s like being stabbed!  2 more sneezes (ouuuuucchhhh!) and now I’m sat writing this with a general ache.

Plan: take it easy. Sit lots, lay down lots. Get the bloody thing mended.

[Update 1]

Saturday to Wednesday (11-15 days after operation)

We went to Cornwall for a few days – it was supposed to be an Arc recce trip for me to run some of the course, but I obviously couldn’t run so I walked around a bit.  Carefully.  I learnt my lesson from last Wednesday and I really don’t want to slow anything down again.

Back home on Wednesday afternoon, I went out for a run in the evening…

Stepping out the door I had literally no idea how it was going to feel.  I ran just over 3 miles at a comfortable, easy pace but with a slightly odd running style to minimise any abdominal movement, mainly because it felt odd jiggling around rather than painful.  My hamstrings ached when I got back (probably from the strange style, but maybe also from 2 weeks off).

I’ll try and run again a little bit each day for the next week or so, building up to something like normal running slowly and keeping en eye on how I feel.  Hopefully all will be good now!