Dave from TLWH Gets Surgery in Thailand

“I could have died was said a few times. It could have been so much worse – so reassuring!” -Dave

Our old friend Dave from TheLongestWayHome.com just went under the scalpel in Thailand to remove a pesky appendix after a long bout of pain, misdiagnoses, and other medical blunders.

Last week that all came to ahead as I experienced a building pain in my left side. 24 hours later at 11.30pm I was lieing on surgical table going under for a 2.5 hour emergency surgery.

After dinner the pain kept getting worse. It was my left side. By midnight I was in and out of bed unable to lie down. I suspected, and hoped not, that it was a strangulated colon or internal blockage. I took painkillers. But by 3am I knew I had to quit the fight and surrender to the idea that I needed a hospital.

I was bounced between several hospitals looking for a doctor who was on duty. It seemed crazy. Why were there no doctors around? I’d been in an ER before and new the scenario. Take a painkiller and wait for the “real” doctor to arrive.

She swung her laptop around and showed me the uneventful endoscopy. Then she got a little excited about the colonoscopy.

“See this? It’s your appendix!”

I looked at the mutated creature at the bottom of my cecum. Last year I’d had another colonoscopy and it was all clear.

“I came in with a pain on my left,” I said knowing exactly where the appendix is.

“And you’ve been having a pain in your right for how many years now?”

“So I’ve had an appendix problem all along?”

“We need to get it out, now!”

Find out what happened next by heading over to The Longest Way Home.

As an added bonus, Dave has finally published some pictures of himself on TLWH, and they really show what the guy is like on the inside . . .