Friday, July 21, 2006

a crisis, possibly of hypochondria

Last night, I had a freaky thing happen. Anton hugged me, and it hurt. There was an incredibly bad pain, out of the blue, around my navel. Later I probed inquisitively with my hand, and when I pushed to the right of my navel, the pain was agonizing (I leaned against the counter with tears in my eyes and said, "Motherfucker!" out loud; an obscenity I normally do not use). It hurt when I moved or when it was touched.

I looked up appendicitis online, and I learned that the pain usually starts around the navel but then moves down and is worse when touched or when the patient moves. That seemed right. I was running a low-grade fever.

But then I laid down, and the pain went away, and today it's not really back. I probed around with my hand, and it only hurt a tiny bit. I haven't called my doctor, because it seems asinine to call and say, "I had a lot of abdominal pain yesterday, but it's gone now." If it were appendicitis, it wouldn't just go away.

Today I feel tired and under the weather, possibly slightly feverish, but then again, both my girls were sick this week (Iris was home sick yesterday with a fever and sore throat). I am feeling a bit nervous about my decision to wait-and-see if the pain comes back again. I hate going to the doctor when there's no clear reason to go (plenty of time in the waiting room, copayment, embarrassment of wasting my excellent doctor's time), and my doctor normally only works a half day on Fridays anyhow, which would mean it would be hard to get in to explain "I was in pain yesterday."

1 comment:

Green said...

I hope by now you're feeling better. It physically hurts when my mother hugs me, but she hugs way too tight, and to be honest, it's partly psychological because she's the emotionally suffocating sort.