Life In Perspective – Nick Vujicic

It was many years ago that I caught the end of tv show that featured the life of Nick Vujicic. I recall wanting to go and find more information about him. However, I had only seen the end of the program and didn’t catch his name and back then, the internet was not then what it is today.

Fast forward to today. i got a noticed that someone had commented on my last blog post about me being on the road to recovery. I clicked to check out the commenter’s blog and saw a YouTube video featuring Nick.

Nick Vujicic is a 25 year old man who was born without arms or legs and given no medical reason for this condition. Faced with countless challenges and obstacles, God has given Nick the strength to surmount what others might call impossible. Along with that, the Lord has placed within him an unquenchable passion to share this same hope and genuine love with more than two million people all over the globe.

Traveling extensively to over 19 nations, Nick has had continuous opportunities to share his testimony along with the hope that we have in Jesus with people in so many nations and situations.

I recall sitting in the hospital, knowing that I was going to miss my trip to Las Vegas to cover CES. Praying through my disappointment, God began to speak to me about having a proper perspective on life. God’s had these talks with me in the past. They seemed to make a difference for a while, but over time, I’ve always seemed to slip into the mindset that the world revolves around me.

It’s easy to get caught up in fear and anxiety when something happens in our life that we didn’t expect or plan for. If there is anything that God has been showing me over the past year or so, it is that God is control, He loves me, and that everything is going to be okay. That’s going to be true whether I worry about things or not. And well, God would simply rather I would focus on taking the next step on my journey than to throw myself pitty parties when things don’t go my way.

I thought I’d share these two short videos from Nick to help bring some perspective. I’m so thankful to have come across the story of Nick’s life again. He’s inspired me and I pray that his story will inspire you! [Read more]

On The Road To Recovery

Original image found here. I modified image based upon Creative Commons License.

It’s been a few days since my last few posts. In reality, this post is a conclusion to the previous posts titled, “In The Hospital,” “Scheduled For Surgery – But Frustrated!,” and “Now I’m just P—ed Off!” If you’ve not read these previous posts, I’d really encourage you to read them to get a full understanding of what this post really means to me.

So here I am, a few days and I’m still alive!

In the last update to my last post, I mentioned that I really felt that I could trust the GI Doctor that had come to visit and talk with me in the hospital. You will recall that based upon what he was seeing in my test images, he didn’t feel that I really needed the ERCP. However, at the same time, he said that he could tell something was in my cystic duct and that the surgeon really felt as though the procedure was absolutely necessary. After talking with me, my GI doctor spoke to the surgeon one final time and they both came back and said that the ERCP before having my gallbladder removed would be the best thing for me.

Wednesday morning, they took me back for my ERCP. My GI doctor said “It’s a good thing too.” He told me that my common bile duct was absolutely clear. However, there was a gallstone that was blocking my cystic bile duct. He went in and made a small incision and squirted some sort of solution into the duct twice. The second time, the stone dislodged and flowed out of the cystic duct. He was able to capture the stone and remove it using the scope.

Had this procedure not have been done, I would have had my gallbladder removed and I could have had this stone come out and drop into my pancreas which could have caused hepatitis, pancreatitis, or even death!

In essence, I hope that all these blog posts serve as a wake up call to anyone that ever goes into the hospital that you understand exactly what it is that the doctors are communicating to you. If you don’t understand, make them re-explain everything to you. If something doesn’t sound right, don’t sign any consent forms for procedures until your doctor convinces you that it’s the right thing to do in light of the risks.

When it was all said and done, I finally had to put some faith in a doctor’s opinion. I’m very thankful that that doctor accepted the opinion of the surgeon in this case whose opinion on whether or not I needed this procedure was different. My intervening in the matter did two things. First, opened up the realization that the second doctor I had seen had completely overlooked the the scheduling of the ERCP procedure. Second, I was able to get two doctors with different opinions to have direct communication with one another rather than indirect conversations with a nurse assistant as the middle man.

After my successful ERCP and short recovery period, I was wheeled back to my room. However, I was not there for long as we were made aware of an opening in the surgery schedule. Just before they put me under, I was able to talk to the surgeon. Stephanie was with me. I asked him if they would be willing to remove my appendix as well while they were in there. I was informed that they used to do this all the time but they don’t do it without a request any longer. So I requested!!!

The doctor informed me that the removal of the appendix would require at least one additional incision. Now I was still quite a bit loopy from the anesthesia from the first procedure and Stephanie said that I had them all cracking up laughing when I asked if there was anything else that they could do while they were in there. I’m told that I even asked if they do liposuction.

Of course, after the endoscopic procedure, I still had my socks and my boxer shorts on. When they noticed this before wheeling me back for surgery, they told me that I’d have to remove my underpants and socks before doing the surgery. Stephanie says they were planning to give me some privacy to do this but before they were even done speaking, she said I hopped off the bed, pulled off my boxers first and then took off my socks and hopped right back up on the waiting room bed as if it were no big deal.

Stephanie said she’d never seen me so relaxed before but that it was funny to see just how casual I was about everything. And when I came back from my surgery and was in the recovery room, she was told that I simply had the entire staff in that area of the hospital cracking up with all my jokes.

Of course, I have NO IDEA what jokes I would have possibly told them at this point. But I’m sure I was having fun telling them.

After an eventful Wednesday, I was given Percocet for pain management. By Wednesday evening, I was up and walking around. Even under the use of the pain meds, I felt a bit of the tightness in my belly and in my throat.

By Thursday morning, I was ready to get out of the hospital. I don’t know if I could take any more of those needles that they kept coming at me with. I saw both the surgeon and the GI doctors who cleared me to go hope. I called Stephanie and a few hours later, I was laying back in a chair in my own living room, sleeping with the help of the pain meds.

Amazingly, I have this extremely large bottle of Percocet tablets. However, I noticed that on Thursday evening, I was already feeling much better than I had felt on Wednesday. I had taken some meds Thursday overnight to help me sleep, but Friday evening was the last time I felt the need to take them. I think I had only taken the percocets a total of four or five times at most over the course of time since being home from the hospital.

On Saturday, I actually ventured out of the house to go to a social media meetup to meet with other folks who are interested in podcasting, blogging, twitter, facebook, etc. I probably stayed about an hour longer that I should have, but overall, I did extremely well. Not to mention I made some decent possible business connections there.

Today, Sunday, I made it out of the house to go to our weekend worship service at Watermark Community Church. We had a great sermon this morning and a great song to give a perfect ending to the message. I’ll be looking forward to putting that podcast out later in the week and listening to it again.

People asked me several times today.. “How do you feel?” I feel I’m running at about 85%. I’m not completely back to feeling like myself. I’m hoping that my motivation to get the ball rolling again comes back and comes back strong. Of course this “time off” has really give me a lot of time to evaluate many things about myself. There are many things that I hope to change when I do get back into a new routine.

I hope to spend more time with family. I hope to release more Almost Daily Devotionals. I hope to get back to my walking/workout routine, I hope to get back to producing consistent, quality podcast content. I hope to see the number of those who become Plus Members increase on a consistent basis and so much more.

I am thinking about going back into the studio to start back to work tomorrow. I think, however, I’m going to limit myself to like two hours straight and then maybe take a break and then work for another two hours, another break, and then a final two hours. I may try that this week so that I can ease myself back into this. One thing is for sure, I’m going to have to take it easy so that I can continue to heal and recover from all that my body has gone through.

I’m on the road to recovery. It’s not the way I had planned to start the new year, but I’m glad to have this behind me and I think that this extra time to evaluate my priorities will prove to be quite beneficial to setting the direction of what I am going to be doing in 2009.

Thanks everyone all your comments here in the blog over the past few days. I’ve read every single one of them and they were very encouraging to me as I was in the hospital.

Thank You!

Now I’m just P—ed Off!

Note: Two updates have been made to this post since it was first published!

For any of this to make sense to you, you need to read my prior two posts titled “In The Hospital” and “Scheduled For Surgery – But Frustrated.”

So yesterday, I explain that I was slightly annoyed and a bit frustrated. And anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not one to openly come out in public with a swear word. But this morning I am PISSED!

So I finally got to talk to a doctor this morning who had seen some results of my tests. He understood my concern as to why I didn’t want to sign off on the surgery. This doctor was very nice, as nice as the first two doctors that I’ve seen. What did this doctor say different than the other two doctors? NOTHING!!! I found it interesting that this third doctor drew me some diagrams to help explain what he was talking about with bile duct blockage.

Of course I’d already researched all of these things on a half a dozen medical sites on the net. What else am I supposed to do with days in bed with a computer hooked up to the internet?

So when this doctor explained that what they would like to do, would be to have an ERCP to clear any debris from the the bile duct prior to surgery so that they could simply go in and remove the gallbladder, I asked him why I was never scheduled for an ERCP when both prior doctors had told me that was their plan all along.

He told me…. “I guess with so many doctors involved things must have got confused.” THIS PISSES ME OFF! I’ve been in this hospital since Saturday! I’ve not eaten anything since Friday at 7pm. Unless you include the four Italian ices that I’ve had the past two days.

Yesterday, my doctor told me that I was supposed to be scheduled for an ERCP TODAY and I WAS TOLD that they would try to schedule my surgery to remove my gallbladder in the afternoon. If not, my surgery for the gallbladder would be tomorrow (Wednesday).

So the doctor today confirmed my suspicion that today’s scheduled surgery without having an ERCP was an oversight! A PRETTY DARN BIG ONE IF YOU ASK ME! Seeing as how an obstruction in the bile duct left untreated could cause pancreatitis and could even be fatal.

So guess who IS NOT scheduled for surgery today? That’s right! Me! NO SURGERY TODAY!

The doctor then told me that it is likely that the GI doctors would simply come in and “talk to me” today. He further told me that they would likely schedule the ERCP tomorrow (Wednesday) and then the surgery to remove my gallbladder either THURSDAY OR FRIDAY!

Sure, I understand my health is more important than anything. Sure I understand I’m just supposed to hang in here. Sure I know that it’s just a good thing that I’m here and that this didn’t happen when I’m in Vegas. Sure I understand how blessed that this happened at the first of the year and not at the end of December or my deductible of $3,000 would be due twice! Sure I know all these things.

BUT I’m STILL PISSED!

I recognize this post is COMPLETELY OUT OF CHARACTER for me! Many of your are likely shocked to read that I’ve even written a post such as this. No I’m not on any medications for pain while writing. I’m just really upset that I’m adding a minimum of an additional two days into this month before I can get back to doing something to earn money for my family and to pay the bills for the business and the family that I was going to do this past Saturday.

Just very upset at the incompetent care that I’ve been given to this point. I could sugar coat it and put a positive spin on it and I could try to be more encouraging and inspiring. However, like everyone else, there are times that I simply get angry and this is one of those times.

1st Update 1/6/09 11:00am

Melinda Wrote: I can’t imagine that in your frustration and anger you treated your doctor in a disrespectful manner. i.e. calling him names, cursing at him, punching him in the face, etc. You are simply voicing your understandable frustration with this situation.

Melinda,

You are correct. In the midst of how I feel about the situation (I’m still angry), I’ve been nothing but respectful to my doctors and to my nurse staff.

The head of the nurse department nurse came in about 30 minutes ago and asked how things were going. Talk about Bad timing on her part. Again, I was extremely respectful to her and even said that the nurse staff had treated me rather well since I’ve been here.

I explained to her what had happened. She read all the doctor’s reports and it appears that it was my doctor from yesterday that made this oversight. You may recall that I told you that even she told me that she’d get the results of the MRCP and would likely schedule me for an ERCP in the morning and if possible, a laproscopic surgery to remove the gallbladder right after if possible. If not, the surgery would likely be Wednesday.

Seeing as how my laproscopic procedure was scheduled as late as 2:30pm, it seems to me that she simply “FORGOT” to do the write up for the ERCP.

I asked this head of the nurse department if there was anyone in this hospital who could hear about what had happened to me to see if we can get them to expedite my consult and possibly get me into the schedule this afternoon for the ERCP seeing how this was an oversight.

She’s doing what she can to see if this is possible. Until I hear back on whether my ERCP is definitely happening or not happening today, I can’t even have the clear liquids that I had the past two days. I’ll keep you posted!

Someone send me a direct message on Twitter saying:
I am praying for you and your family. I am glad you knew to NOT sign the surgery release, I would have no idea to do that! God IS in control.

Indeed, God is in control. I’m very thankful that He gave me the wisdom to ask these questions, to take control of the situation, and to not trust people who consider me to be a complete stranger with my overall well being.

If anything, I hope this serves as a reminder to folks that if you have medical issues, you should take special care to be as involved as possible with what is being done with your care. Nobody out there is going to care more about you than you do for yourself.

One side note that I didn’t mention earlier.. Last night, I told my 2nd shift nurse I was not going to sign the form for the surgery. You could tell that she’d never been refused before. She said, “are you sure you don’t want to just sign the form, we can still call for the doctor to come see you in the morning.” I said “No” very respectfully. I explained that my surgery was late enough in the day that they would have time to see me in the morning, have me sign the form and then do the paperwork.

2nd Update 1/6/09 12:10pm

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, they got worse, then better, then worse again. Let me explain.

So the nurse from my GI doctor’s office (I’ve seen him for GERD in the past) came in and saw me. She explained that my GI doctor does not do ERCP’s but that they had contacted a doctor that does do them. She explained that she left a message for this doctor and that he should call back immediately.

She went on to tell me about the fact that my MRCP results showed no blockage in the common bile duct, however they did see some debris in the cystic duct that could be cause for concern. She explained that out of the endoscopy procedures they do, this is the only one where they warn of possible death. She continued to say a lot of scary things about the fact that the scope used has a camera on the side instead of at the tip which means that the doctor is going down sort of blind until he gets where he needs to go. Said that it is possible that there could be tearing of tissue, bleeding, infection, pancreatitis, hepatitis, etc, etc, etc…

Lovely right? Yeah, she said possible death! (This is where it got even worse!)

So after the fun pep talk. She checked her voice mail. She actually let me listen to the whole thing after she listened to it. Turns out that this doctor, who’s supposedly the best at this surgery, says that from the two imaging tests, there did not seem to be anything in the common bile duct. He said that the report shows some “stuff” (Can’t remember the medical names) in the cystic duct but the results are underwhelming at best for a stone. His feeling was that I probably passed the stone. He said they should go ahead and do the gallbladder surgery and that they could do (something medical with a baloon) to test for blockage in the cystic duct while in there and if there was an issue, he could do an MRCP on the cystic duct after the fact, but he didn’t feel that there was any reason to put me through the RISK OF THIS SURGERY with what he has seen.

(That is when it got even better) This was the FIRST TIME I’d had a DOCTOR talk to me about the actual MRCP test results. And well, heck, it wasn’t even TO ME. It was on a voice mail to a nurse. But I understood what the guy was saying. He was saying that he felt that I was pretty much okay in that area based on the test results and that laproscopic gallbladder surgery is the best option in his opinion.

So this nurse from my GI Doctor’s office went to go and see if they could get me back in for my scheduled surgery at 2:30pm today. She came in about twenty minutes later and told me that she spoke to this Male surgeon that came in and saw me today. She told me that he told her to tell the GI Doctor that he is certain that there is an issue with my common bile duct and to schedule the MRCP.

Now, up to this point EVERYONE who had seen my test results told me there was nothing wrong with my COMMON bile duct. So did the nurse misspeak? Doesn’t matter, I’m told this doctor that left that voice mail will be the one doing the MRCP and that he will be in to see me. From what I understand, his visit will be today and that they are currently trying to get me in for an MRCP today.

So now I’m going in for what is a super risky procedure that they tell you has all these possible issues, including death. Of course I shared this with Stephanie and I don’t think she wanted to hear that. Things are pretty rough at home with the kids worried about dad. Stephanie is worried about me. And I’m sitting here all alone dealing with this crap on an empty stomach.

I’m going to stop for now and go spend some time in prayer.

—- I take that back. As soon as I hit save, a lady came in to draw blood. Because of how uptight I am, not veins were to be found. She poked me twice with a needle and then resorted to a finger stick. Man what a lousy day. My spirit is crashing.

3rd Update 1/6/09 1:26pm

Linda G. posted a comment on Facebook:
“I dont understand why they cannot do a Cholangiogram (sp) while they are removing your gall bladder? Thats where they look into & flush out all the bile ducts while they are in there. That’s what they should do, then there will be no need for an ERCP before or after the surgery.”

This is exactly what the doctor on the voice mail said that he suggested. When comes in, you can bet that I’ll be asking about that and whether or not his advice had been voiced to the doctor. Is it too much to ask these two doctors to speak to each other?

Anyway… I reached out to my wife and explained that I was feeling alone here. She’s getting some help from those in our church so that she can come and be with me. I hate to make her go through these extra steps, but I really feel like having her here will help me calm down just a little.

Still no word from the doctor.

4th Update 1/6/09

I’m feeling a lot more at ease that I was during my last update. I’ve now seen the GI doctor I spoke of above. He and I had a good long talk about the procedure and his feelings about whether or not it was needed. His feelings are that on his scale, he doesn’t think the results of the tests warrant the ERCP procedure. However, at the same time, he said, while there are some serious risks involved, he doesn’t feel as though he’d be doing the procedure for nothing. There is stuff he could do to clear out anything in the duct once in there that would help protect from things happening in the future.

When it was all said and done. I’m on this doctor’s side saying that it is likely that I don’t need this procedure and he was going to try to talk the other doctor out of it. However, at the same time, he said that if the other surgeon insists on the ERCP, he’ll do it as long as I don’t object. He said that either way, he’s scheduling the ERCP procedure tomorrow morning as it is easier to cancel a procedure than to make an appointment for one.

He said he should hear from the surgeon tonight and he’d let me know whether or not I’m going to be doing the ERCP. Out of any of the doctors I’ve seen so far, I trust this doctor. He made me feel calm and he spoke to me as though I was a human and not a number. That felt good. I told him that I would go through with the ERCP procedure “if HE felt I needed it” after talking with the surgeon.

So that’s where I am. Now that I look back. I’m wondering if the doctor that I saw yesterday actually overlooked anything at all. I’m wondering if she saw the results of the two tests and decided the ERCP simply wasn’t needed and that’s why she only scheduled the gallbladder removal. And well, I would have been cool with that, I just wanted them to tell me that’s what happened today.

But when they through this third surgeon from that same office, I think he may have been busy today, called to come talk to me, and simply told me what I wanted to hear. In a way, I’m wondering if anything I shared about how the prior two doctors didn’t mention this “3rd option” of not worrying about blockage caused him to simply have a strong stance on making sure that I got the ERCP that he then “maybe PERCEIVED that I definitely wanted to happen.”

This has all been so much to take in really.

I hated to bother Stephanie as I know all this has been hard on her. I sent her a message after my last update and told her that I was really upset. This was before the “good doctor” came to visit me. I was in tears when I sent it. Since then, Stephanie came to visit with me, my real dad came to visit with me, and Jeremy L came to visit with me. Overall, I’m feeling a whole lot better about the ERCP “IF I HAVE TO HAVE IT.” I’m sure that I have enough people praying that the possible side effect of “death” won’t occur! Okay, so even if you don’t believe in God, please just do me a favor this one time… Please just pray… “Hey Guy, Girl, or Whatever up there that I don’t believe in… in the slight off chance that I’m wrong and you do exist, please help Cliff through this risky procedure if he has to have it.” -LOL

That’s all for now. I’m exhausted!

Oh, and hungry!

And hey… If you are having a surgery that “may cause death,” should you get to choose your last meal?

So obviously, you can tell people have been praying for me and my spirit’s are back up!

Final Update 1/6/09

The GI doctor called me back as promised. He said that we are definitely a go for the ERCP tomorrow morning at 7:30am. I really trust this doctor and I told him that if he felt that it was the right thing to do, then I would do it. I told him if he didn’t think it was the right thing to do, to tell me and I would not do it.

Obviously I don’t know the conversation between the GI Doctor and the Surgeon. I just know the result is that I understand what the procedure is and that after the conversation, the GI doctor feels that doing to the procedure is in my best interest in his opinion.

If you’re up that early, please say some prayers for a very successful procedure. Please also pray that while they have me under, that they change my IV at that time. It should be easier for them to stick me when I’m not awake. At least I would hope. After the ERCP, then I hope they will be able to get me right in to get my galbladder out. If not, I may have to wait another day to get that scheduled.

Folks, I must admit that I have a bit of anxiety about the procedure in the morning. However, I have a faith in a God who knows the plans He has for me.

I love my wife and my children!

Scheduled For Surgery – But Frustrated!

Scheduled For Surgery: But Frustrated.
This is an update to my last post regarding my visit here to the hospital. I should be excited to tell you that I’ve been notified that I’m scheduled for surgery tomorrow afternoon and that it is scheduled to be a laproscopic surgery to remove my gallbladder.

However, I find myself a littel more than annoyed and frustrated as to how I came to find out about the scheduling of my surgery. I’m veen in the hospital since all weekend long. I’m not sure who, but someone ordered for me to have a HIDA SCAN test on Sunday morning. When I finally saw a doctor for the first time, Sunday afternoon, I was bummed to find that not only had she not received the results of the of the HIDA SCAN to discuss with me, she wasn’t particularly interested in seeing them. She said she’d prefer to see the result of an MRCP SCAN.

I was told that she needed this test to be run to see if I had a bile duct obstruction. If that were the case, she was going to order and endoscopy and see if they could clear the blockage through with the scope. This would allow them to perform laproscopic surgery rather than an open surgery.

Fast Forward to today. I woke up this morning. They took my blood. I praised God once again for the nurse getting the vein on the first stick. THANK YOU FOR ALL THOSE PRAYING FOR MY NEEDLE ISSUES! A little later, they came and wheeled me off for my MRCP test.

WOW! All I can say is that I’m glad that I’m not claustrophobic. That was really weird! Anyone who’s had an MRI done, it’s basically the same machine. I was told that the results should be ready around noon today (Monday).

Around 1:30pm, a different doctor from the same practice came in to see me. Did she have my test results from the MRCP to discuss with me? NOPE!!!! In fact, she didn’t tell me ANYTHING different than what the doctor told me the day before. If I’m not mistaken, I think she told me that she’d check the the results later and let me know what she found out. Did she? NOPE AGAIN!

Instead, around 4:00pm, an anesthesiologist came in to discuss what I should expect during my procedure that had been scheduled for tomorrow. I asked him, “What procedure?” He said that that I was schedule to have a laproscopic surgery to remove my gallbladder tomorrow (Tuesday) at 2:30pm.

Here’s the thing… I was told that I had because of my blood work and infection that I had when I came in on Saturday, that I likely had a bile duct obstruction. I was informed that both the HIDA SCAN and the MRCP tests were to discover where the blockage was. When discussion with me what my options were, both surgeons that I had seen had said the same thing.

Option A was going to see if the blockage was in a place where it could be reached with a procedure called Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatogram (ERCP). If they were able to successfully remove the blockage by this means, they would then be able to remove the gallbladder as a laproscopic procedure.

Option B was what would happen if they did not feel the ERCP would work to remove the blockage. In this option, they would simply go in and do a full open surgery to remove both the blockage and the gallbladder.

Since no doctor had come in to discuss the results of either the HIDA SCAN or the MRCP, I was SHOCKED to have the anesthesiologist come in and tell me that I was simply scheduled for a gallbladder removal via laprocopic surgery. This is an OPTION C that had not been previously mentioned by either of the two surgeons that I spoke with.

Did they not find a blockage? Did the stone pass and found to be no longer an issue? DId they simply schedule my surgery and forget about the blockage? I have no idea!!!!

So when the nurse came in and asked me to sign my permission form for the surgery, I chose not to sign it. My procedure is scheduled for later in the afternoon, which would allow for plenty of time for one of these surgeons to come and speak to me about what they found from the results of the two tests that they ran and why were are no longer concerned about a bile duct obstruction.

So that is where I am as of right now. I’m “scheduled” for surgery but not going to sign the form until I understand why were are going a different route than had been previously discussed with either of the doctors I’ve seen.

Outside of that. It broke my hear to contact the folks about the Panasonic/Vegas/CES trip to let them know that it is certain that I would not be able to make it to be a part of this awesome opportunity. I’m very sad about it indeed. I’m trusting God to open other doors for amazing opportunities that be yet to discover in 2009 and beyond.

I appreciate the outpouring of encouragement and prayers that you guys are all sending my way.

On a side note… Don’t forget Stephanie in your prayers. She’s a little overwhelmed by her responsibilities with the children and her desire to be here for me. We’ve been blessed by those from our church who have been offering to help by bringing dinners by the house this week and offers to help with the children so that Stephanie can be with me when needed.

We are surrounded by such an awesome community, but locally and globally!

YOU ALL ROCK!

In The Hospital

For those who follow me either on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I’m currently stuck sitting in a hospital bed at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Crestview Hills, Ky. Why? while the reason why may go back farther, let’s start with Tuesday night.

It was Tuesday, January 30th. That evening, one minute after midnight, I was schedule to do a 24 podcast marathon where I would record a total of 34 podcasts back to back to celebrate our three years in podcasting as well as to celebrate the end of a successful first year in doing podcasting as a career.

To prepare for this 24 hour marathon, I had decided that I was going to sleep from 4pm to 11pm that day. Well, those plans changed around 9pm. Out of nowhere, I woke with very sharp abdominal pain. The pain was so severe that it not only made me nauseous, it literally brought me to tears. I had feared that the podcast marathon may have to be canceled.

After about thirty minutes of moaning and groaning, I finally found that if I laid on the couch a certain way, the pain was somewhat bearable and I fell back to sleep. After about an hour on the couch, I found that the pain and nausea had subsided. I continued to lay on the couch for just a bit longer until it was officially time to launch the 24 hour marathon.

During the initial launch of the marathon, I had explained how the even almost got canceled at the last moment but all was well at the time. I recall agreeing with someone in the chat room that it was likely brought on by stress. The podcast marathon was a HUGE success. Thousands of people joined us live over the course of the twenty four hour period and like I mentioned earlier, we recorded a total of 34 individual podcast episodes. As a result of the buzz going on twitter about the event, we even brought in a few hundred potential new listeners to our shows.

One minute after the ball dropped in Time Square, the podcast marathon was complete! I recall being in bed and sound to sleep by 12:30am. I slept in very late on Thursday morning and just took it kind of easy that day. On Friday, January 2nd, I woke up around my normal time, headed down to the studio get get some work done. I found it very had to concentrate on anything. Of course I thought I might still be recovering from my lack of sleep.

I tried to stay focused as possible. However, around 2pm, it was obvious that I needed to lay down for a quick nap. That nap turned into a three hour nap, which felt really great by the way. After waking up, I hung out with the family for a few minute before going back down to return to work on my projects. I was able to get the majority of the work that I needed to do for my consulting clients done before I simply felt like I could do no more.

Around 8 or 10pm, still on Friday, I went upstairs and asked if Stephanie would take my temperature. By this time, I just simply feeling “ill.” At that time I had a temp of 101 F. I decided that I would just lay on the couch next to Stephanie for a little bit. Before long, I started to experience the chills. When Stephanie went to bed, I really didn’t have the energy to walk to be, so Stephanie brought me my pillow as I had figured I’d just sleep on the couch.

Falling back to sleep was not an issue and I was out like a light in no time. That is until 2am! At 2am, I was woken up with that same type of pain that had hit me on Tuesday evening. Only this time, when I tried to toss and turn my body into a position where the pain would subside, I simply was not able to gain any relief.

The best way for me to describe the pain is to tell you that is felt as though someone had stabbed me with a jagged shard of glass in the center of my abdomen and was twisting it around inside my chest. This was pain so severe, that I had not remembered having pain like this since nine years earlier when I had passed two kidney stones. That pain was so severe that I’d simply rather not even think about it long enough to even consider writing a blog entry about it.

I stood up, walked around the house, freezing of course due to my fever, hoping to walk off the pain. I tried to use the restroom, thinking maybe I had severe gas pains. Before long, the pain rose to such an intensity that it made me extremely nauseous. From 2am till daylight, I simply sat up straight in a chair in our living room, covered with a blanket, freezing with chills from a fever and experiencing excruciating pain.

When daylight came, my children started to wake up. I believe my son, Matthew, was the first to come out. I tried to hold a conversation with him, but just talking made me feel even more nauseous. When Stephanie woke up, I think I headed back to our bed and laid in there in pain with a fever for a few hours.

Around 10am, I had gone to the restroom and noticed that the color of my urine was extremely dark with a red tint to it. Although the pain was in a different place, this sure did remind me a lot of when I had passed my kidney stones nine years ago.

While laying there in bed, all I could think about was my trip to Vegas to cover CES for Panasonic. I figured I needed to get immediate confirmation of what was going on with my body with all hopes that I’d still be able to make my flight on Wednesday morning.

I had first thought we would save some money by going to Urgent Care. We sat in the waiting room for a while before I went up to ask them if it was okay if I were to eat a “protein bar.” I had not eaten since Thursday at 8pm. In fact, as I type this, it’s now 6:22am on Monday morning and the only think I’ve had to eat was three small cups of Italian ice on Sunday.

The front desk staff at Urgent Care asked if were were the ones there for possible kidney stones. After confirming that was us, she notified us that the doctor would probably just refer us right up to the ER as they didn’t have the diagnostic equipment to check for kidney stones. We went ahead and removed our name off the waiting list there and Stephanie drove us to the Emergency Room of St. Elizabeth Hospital.

By this time, my pain was finally starting to subside. Of course, without having the pain, my symptoms that I gave to the ER nurses sounded a lot like a simple hangover. I assured them that I had not been drinking and that the pain that I had experience up till that afternoon was as though something was really wrong inside by body and that it would take a lot for me to come to the ER knowing that I would be stuck with needles upon arrival.

By this point, I had already been posting regular updates to Twitter and Facebook. Hundreds of people were praying for me and I can tell you right now, the power of prayer is amazing!

Let me explain… I have a terrible fear of needles. It goes back to when I was a teen who was always being sent for tests for diabetes. It’s those eight hour glucose tests where you drink a sugary syrup and they draw your blood every hour, on the hour, for eight hours. It never failed. Every time they went to draw blood, it took about three or four pokes of the needle with a ton of digging around inside my arm looking for vains. I became traumatized by this event. Of course I’d had about three of these tests at age 17, 18, and 19 and the same thing happened each and every time. Since then, the sight of a needle, even on television makes me sick to my stomach.

So what does this do with the fact that I know prayer works? As I mentioned, I’d been posting regular updates about my status and literally hundreds of people responded, saying that I was in their prayers. Since then, the person who drew blood in the ER got me on the first stick of the needle, the nurse who put my IV in got it in on the first stick of the needle and even this morning (Monday) at 5:45am, another tech came in and drew my blood and got me on the first stick of the needle. To me, this is a MAJOR answer to prayer! Not only that, but I was the most relaxed while being sticked than I had ever been before. THANK YOU FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PRAYING FOR ME IN THIS AREA!

So back to the ER on Saturday afternoon. After having my blood drawn and giving a urine sample, I was sent to have an ultrasound so they could look at my liver and gallbladder. The doctor in the ER said that what I was dealing with sounded more like gallbladder symptoms than kidney stones.

The ultrasound confirmed that I indeed had some stuff going on inside my gallbladder. I was relieved to learn that I may be able to have a simple gallbladder surgery and that I would not be passing kidney stones any time soon. The only thing that the blood work came back and showed that I had bilirubin in my blood. Upon further examination, the doctor in the ER checked and saw that my eyes were quite yellow. I was told this is a symptom of a possible bile duct obstruction and was clearly the cause for an infection and the fever that I had experienced.

At this point, I was admitted to the hospital and the nurse from the ER came to put my IV in. Again, I thank God for the fact that IV went in on the first try. I was wheeled to a private room where I’ve been ever since. Sunday morning I had a HIDA Scan performed. However, when I later met with the surgeon, she had not yet seen those results and already told me that she wanted me to have an MRCP test done to see if we can find a blockage. Seeing as how this test could not be performed on a Sunday, I’m now here on Monday waiting for this test to be completed.

As to what will heppen next, I can only guess based upon what limited amount of information I’ve been given so far. My guess is that if they are able to find a blockage with this test today, depending on where it is, they would like to see if I can have an endoscopy to see if they can clear the blockage that way. If so, they would be able to remove my gallbladder with a laparoscopy surgery which has a much faster recovery time than having to do an open chest operation to find the blockage and remove the gall bladder.

Anyhow. That’s about where I am up to this point. I had been without pain meds since yesterday at this time, but am just now starting to experience some bad stomach pain. This means that I’m going to be given another dose of pain meds, so I will end this post now.

If anyone is interested. I just released episdoe 353 of My Crazy Life in the Plus Member Feed which is an audio journal recording that I recorded throughout this whole time. Note: I was on morphine througout some of that recording!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Cliff