Weekly Blog - Our Wild Medical Experience (05/22/2020)

Hi Patrons! It's story time. Warning: Medical stuff, could make you squeamish.

I recently mentioned some "personal stuff" going on that was keeping me busy. Well, we are finally at a point where we can share the story.

2 weeks ago, Kristin (my wife) complained of severe abdominal pain. She was vomiting all day and couldn't keep anything down. By 8pm, she said the pain was too severe, so we headed for the ER. Obviously with the pandemic, we were both nervous about going to a hospital, but we put on our face masks and headed out.

Luckily the ER was mostly empty. After doing some tests, the doctor wanted a CT scan. The scan revealed Kristin had some sort of tumor on her right ovary. The tumor was fairly big and could be causing "ovarian torsion", where the ovary twists on itself (this hurts). For the guys out there, this can also happen to your testicles (yikes!). The doctor gave us some pain meds / anti-nausea meds and referred us to an OBGYN, who could do an ultrasound and get a better look.

The next day, I called the OBGYN to get an appointment ASAP. The receptionist took down our information and said we would get a call back. A whole day goes by and we finally get a call back with: The doctor will look at your scan results in a few days and then schedule an appointment.

This was not ideal. Kristin was still having tons of pain and didn't have enough medication to last through the weekend. We quickly got in with our family physician, who got us more medicine. Our plan was to get through the weekend and, hopefully, the doctor would look at the scans on Monday and see us quickly.

Monday came and the doc calls with an appointment: June 4th. Almost a month away. There was no way Kristin could wait that long. Luckily our family physician saved the day once again, and got us in with another OBGYN. After having the ultrasound, the doctor determined Kristin had a dermoid cyst (don't google image this). She needed surgery. 

So this past Monday, May 18th, Kristin had surgery to remove the dermoid cyst. But during the operation, the doc discovered it was not a dermoid cyst - it was a hemmorhagic cyst that had BURST and twisted Kristin's Fallopian tube. There was also ANOTHER cyst on her left ovary. All of the cysts and her Fallopian tube, were removed. 

This whole experience was draining, but I'm so happy Kristin is feeling better. We still have a few more weeks of recovery. I'm playing Nurse Norman and taking care of her. 

So that concludes our crazy past 2 weeks. Things are slowly getting back to normal here at Gaming Historian HQ! The Mario Paint video is still in production and I've been interviewing many professional artists who grew up with the game. I still have a target date for mid-June as a release.

That's it from me this week! Best wishes and good health to you all.

- Norman