It was late one night.
I had just come back from my second awesome workout of the day at the Blink Fitness gym down the street in Woodside, Queens, where I lived at the time with my Fiance.
I felt fine and full of energy as usual. My plan was to get more Vegan protein at the nearest GNC.
My wife, however, was enjoying her time with her aunt and since I hadn’t eaten anything all day she was adamant that I eat something.
So I went up to her aunt’s house and had an omelette. I didn’t think anything of it but after showering and getting ready for bed, I felt a sharp shooting pain on the right side of my abdomen like I’ve never felt before in my life. I chalked it up to a stomach ache or some cold air entering my belly, which is normal.
But that next morning I could not get up out of bed and either way I turned the pain was still there and growing worse and worse.
The pain hurt so bad it felt as if someone was repeatedly punching me in my stomach and then taking knives and carving out my insides.
The pain was so sharp and came in 3–5 minute waves.
Unfortunately, I had just started a new job at WebMD and was in my first week on the job so this was definitely bad timing. Nevertheless, I continued to work and on the 3rd day, for some reason, they had the air condition blasted high and this made my stomach pain much worse.
I was literally bent over at my computer struggling to sit up straight, let alone type anything.
I was also very hungry as I feverishly typed on Google what the best foods were for stomach pain or appendicitis. I saw soup and crackers, so I went to Hale & Hearty and got some delicious hot Chicken Noodle soup. Boy was that delicious.
For the next several days Hale & Hearty was my go to spot. It wasn’t too heavy. It was light and just right.
On the 7th day of my pain, I couldn’t take it anymore and went to the West 57th CityMD on my lunch break. I was taken care of by Dr. Margolis, who mentioned that I had an “inflamed filemon”.
He scared me but gave it to me straight, when he said,
Mr. Lama, I am going to be frank with you. In all my years of practicing, I’ve never seen an appendix this inflamed. I urge you to go to the ER now and get this taken care of. I do not mean to scare you but this is a serious situation.
Man, hearing those words just made me anxious and scared of how bad my condition was.
Immediately after, I called my Mother, then my Uncle and just cried because I was in so much pain.
Being the experienced and calm person he is, my Uncle calmed me down, told me everything will be alright and just go to Bellevue Hospita,l as it is one of the oldest hospitals and one in which many of our “Himalayan” people go to, since they provide high quality service at an affordable rate. So off I went.
There I was lying on a hospital bed in the ER at Bellevue Hospital. You would not believe the different walks of life that came through there with their various conditions. From drug addicts to bloody victims of gun violence to mentally ill patients. The ER was a wild place.
I was seen after about an hour and was sent in for a CAT scan. The results came back and the doctor told me that my appendix had ruptured inside me and that I would have to stay in the hospital for the next few days to stop it from spreading to my internal organs.
Boy I have to admit, this was scary. From my research of appendicitis I knew that if it ruptures and spreads to your internal organs, it creates something called “Sepsis”, which can be deadly.
I saw my life flash before my eyes and immediately told my Mom,
Mom, I don’t want to die. I haven’t done enough to help and give back to humanity. There’s so much more I have to do
To which she replied,
Son, calm down, you will be fine. The Doctors will take care of you
The uncertainty of my fate was literally killing me.
As I got transferred to my hospital bed, I began to think about my life up to this point.
I thought of what may have caused my appendix to rupture and immediately felt that it was due to my excessive intake of beef, apple cider vinegar, lemon, dehydration from too much coffee, too little water, overtraining and of course the last meal I ate before this all transpired, which was the omelette at my wife’s aunt’s place that could have been old.
I thought of my family, friends, my dreams, not achieving some of my goals I set out for myself, not being able to give back in the way I wanted to for humanity, my failures, my successes, etc.
As for the pain, it was still there. I must say after taking the various antibiotics and talking with my Doctor, it got better. However, those few days of not knowing if I needed to go into surgery to remove my appendix were so stressful.
But once I learned that the antibiotics had worked and that my body had created a wall and stopped the spread into my internal organs I was so relieved.
My worst fear had subsided and I no longer needed surgery.
As the days went on, there were times where I would have a bowel movement and think it was blood but getting the reassurance from the Doctor that it was just the strawberry jello I had eaten made me feel relieved.
Seeing my family and friends during visiting hours made me feel loved and cared.
But above all, my biggest support was my wife, who was 7 months pregnant with our baby boy, Kundun. She sat by my side, slept in the hospital chair, got me breakfast, brought me books to read, puzzle games to play, holding me while I practiced walking again ever so slowly around the hospital ward.
Her warm hugs and loving kisses were the best treatment I could have asked for. She got me through and reassured me that everything would be fine throughout our journey.
In total, I was in the hospital for 6 days. I lost about 15 pounds and looked as weak as ever.
But once I was discharged from the hospital, I felt so relieved and free.
Several weeks later during my follow up visit, I was told that I had the option to either remove my appendix or forego the surgery as my body had walled off the spread.
I then asked my Doctor what the long term effects might be and she mentioned that there is a very rare chance that it could be an early sign of cancer but she was quite confident that it was not and was actually just an inflamed appendix, which had ruptured.
As per working out, she went on to prescribe that I must not do any strenuous intense workouts for at least 1 month, preferably 2 months because if I continued my usual intense training sessions I could cause a tear in my appendix and it could rupture again, this time possibly much worse.
In those first several months into recovery, I was led into discovering, Vippasana Meditation, taught by the late, SN Goenka. This was a Godsend, as I was able to heal myself from within, focusing on where the pain was, not judging it, letting it just be and allowing it to release from my body.
After a year later, I am happy to report that I am healthy, happy, working and training harder than I’ve ever had.
However, I urge you to please not do what I did by trying to tough it out, because as you now know, this could have been deadly had I not gone to the hospital and learned that my appendix had actually ruptured inside my body.
My final message is this: if you or someone you know is experiencing severe pain in your abdomen or any part of your body, please consult a doctor or visit your nearest hospital or urgent care.
Your life could very well depend on it.
