Personal Update: I Had to Go to the Hospital Again, but I'm Out Now with Good News
The end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one
Hello friends. I’ve had another episode that’s put me in the hospital, this time I got some good news. You can read about that and a brief history of the greater story in this update.
For those of you who don’t know, in December of last year I had what seemed like mild appendicitis pain, so I never went to the hospital. In late January of this year, I had a major episode of pain that I thought was a gallstone and decided to stay home to treat it because, long story short, I don't trust modern medicine as a whole, despite the fact that there are clear benefits in part. After 10 days or so, the pain subsided but then reemerged in new places, and I decided I should go to the hospital.
After a CT scan, they discovered I had a major abscess, 26 x 12 x 11 cm in size, larger than a basketball in length but not volume, along my right psoas muscle. The doctors were shocked that I managed to survive without going septic and dying. A drain was installed in my lower backside, which slowly removed the abscess fluid over the course of about two months. It was not pleasant in many respects, between the smell, cleaning twice daily, and the over 14” long tube with a 2” hook in my back that began rubbing against nerves as the abscess drained away.
In April, the tube was slowly pushed out of my body, and I went to the hospital again, where they confirmed via another CT scan that the abscess sack was fully emptied. Success! Or was it?
This leads up to this past Sunday the 11th, when I had yet another pain episode start up after dinner.
What follows is an update I posted to the GiveSendGo I started when the February episode took place and I’ve been updating throughout this experience.
Update #7: Back in the Hospital with Good News This Time
August 14th, 2024
Hello, friends and family. I have two major updates for you; the second one is amazing news!
In brief, I had to go to the hospital recently and get my appendix removed; this is likely the cause of the past year's troubles, possibly due to issues I've been dealing with since I was a young adult. The surgeon believes this will likely nip this abscess problem in the bud. He said I likely ruptured my appendix and it healed itself, but not fully and that’s whats been causing all these issues over nearly a year.
Update 1: On Sunday, the 11th, after I had eaten dinner, I started to notice a slight pain building up, this time on the right side of my upper abdominal area. It started like a gas pain and slowly built into that telltale pain that's become associated with abscess issues for me. It continued to build into the night, and I wasn't able to sleep that night. It began to build up in the same area where I had the last abscess, and I started to feel a fever creep in.
My wife, Madi, and I realized we needed to go to the hospital, and that's what we did at around 10 p.m. the next day, the 12th. I received a CT scan, and the ER doctor discovered another abscess forming with what looked like a perforated appendix. I was admitted and saw a surgeon the next day, the 13th. Dr. Case examined and interviewed me, whereupon I relayed my history with these issues reaching back into December of last year, where apparently that initial episode was a sign of appendix distress. He suggested that the episode in February, the one for which this GiveSendGo was created, was likely caused by the injured appendix and that it would likely need to be removed. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of organ removal as a methodology of disease prevention, but in this case, this was the best option. Later that day, I had surgery; the abscess fluids were drained, and my appendix was removed. I felt a lot better after the surgery, no doubt in part because of the powerful pain medications provided. The doctor said I didn’t, in fact, have a perforated appendix but that it was chronically inflamed.
I have some theories as to why appendix issues are more common and have been increasing. Apparently, the rate of appendix-related issues has increased by over 20% between 1990 and 2019, compared to the previous measuring period. The appendix, an organ that has essentially been considered useless up until somewhat recently, is now believed to be an organ for maintaining gut health. And yet our modernized environments are filled with cleaners, pesticides, food preservatives, drugs, and widespread pollutants, all of which degrade the vitality and sublime harmony of the macro- and micro-biotic environments that act as the primordial soup within which all life has been reared. Perineal bacteria are passed from mother to child during vaginal birth, seeding the gut flora of the child, which will play a critical role in maintaining gut health. Is it possible that our overly antibiotic-saturated world and modern-day practices that greatly assault the gut, such as Round Up, are leading to greater rates of gut-related issues and appendicitis? Inquiring minds want to know.
Looking back, I’ve had similar abdominal pain for years. The first few episodes I had were back when I was 18 or 19. I’d feel a dull pain building in my upper abdominal area, and that would build until it became excruciating. One time it was so bad I had to go to the hospital after not sleeping all night, and the doctors didn’t know what was happening. The only relief came after a potent dose of dilaudid, which somehow seemed to calm everything down. I had similar issues with much lesser intensity for years. After I turned 30, they seemed to go away, until late last year. In December, I experienced a similar pain that moved to my lower right side, where the appendix is located. I did a few tests, like jumping stiff-legged and footed, which exposed the pain if the appendix was inflamed. There was a slight pain but nothing severe, which is apparently a sign of serious appendicitis.
God willing, this is the last season of regular hospital stays I’ll need to make for a while. The facility I went to this time was much better.
I don’t have the bill yet, but I’m assuming it will be on the order of the same bill from the last hospital, possibly more since I had to have surgery. I have updated the fundraising goal accordingly.
Please only donate if you feel called. Your well wishes and prayers are equally, if not more, valuable, just as much as the attention and care you’ve provided in reading this update.
Update 2: I’ll be posting the second update in another update to ensure it receives the proper attention it deserves. I'm very excited about this one. I need to wait a bit longer so this will be coming in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
You have my love, thanks, and gratitude. Thank you, and may God’s love and blessings shine on us all!
If you’re wondering what that second update is, I’ll have more news on that shortly.
Thanks for taking an interest in all this. You have my gratitude and love.
Please tell me what you think or let me know if I got something wrong. I want to hear from you.
Much love,
Justin Deschamps is a researcher, omniologist, podcaster, and business consultant who has committed himself to restoring the knowledge, reason, and goodwill that helped the founding fathers create the greatest nation on earth.
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Hey Justin it’s great to hear you’re feeling better and hopefully have resolved your health issues.
If you’re unaware, you can and should ALWAYS negotiate your medical bills. NEVER pay the full amount. Quite honestly, providers (especially hospitals) DO NOT EXPECT full payment. They never ever get it from insurance companies. If you offer 40 percent they will likely be quite happy with that. I know this from working in this arena while employed as a paralegal for years.
Last but not least, request that the hospital provide you with itemized statements of all charges! Be persistent until they give it to you. They will not want to because they never do this. We all expect and always get an itemized receipt for fast food orders and pretty much every other thing we purchase, yet the largest bills we incur do not provide itemized statements.
You can certainly (and should) incorporate your statement requests with your negotiation of the charges. Trust me, you will get your bills reduced massively! Maybe less than 40
Percent.
I requested an itemized statement 41 years ago when my youngest son was born. It was a quick and easy delivery and we left the hospital after 16 hours. So I knew from having worked in hospital
Environment that they charges by “trays”. It took
about 9 months to receive itemized bill and just as I expected, I was charged for all kinds of things that I did not have and procedures that were not done, resulting in a significant reduction of the amount due. As I recall, it was reduced approximately 60 percent.
Play hard ball. Have fun doing it. Everyone should do this. We need to stop letting the medical system hijack our lives in a multitude of ways!
If you write me. Say. “Hey 222”. Your one of the few people i would be happy to speak with