I thought it would be good to give everybody an update here.
Sorry if this is long-winded it's just the last couple of days were pretty profound to me.
I mentioned the pain that I experienced. My appt for the doctor was actually for today (Thursday).
About 3 hours after making this original post the pain in my abdomen began increasing. My wife convinced me to put away my "man card" and go visit the ER. I ABSOLUTELY hate going to the doctor and the ER is generally out of the question. I was pretty terrified however that I may have finally damaged something and that waiting until Thursday would be stupid.
I called the advice nurse who quickly arranged a phone consult with a doctor. She called back in 5 minutes. After describing my symptoms she said she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if I didn't head straight to the ER. So I did.
My wife dropped me off and went to look for parking. I went to patient check in and was tagged (wrist band) and lead immediately to a room for vitals etc. Blood pressure was through the roof (of course). From there I was lead to my main room to visit my nurse and doctor. Between about 6:30pm and 9:00pm they put in an IV, took several viles of blood, took a urine test and gave me a CT scan.
Even though it was incredibly quick in "medical time" it felt like ages I had to think about the fact that this was finally it. All these years of drinking and partying had finally caught up to me. My bed was stationed right next to the BLUE command station of the ER where the attending doctor would assess patients and then communicate with someone on the phone the best course of action. Two of the patients he would refer to as "alcoholics". Neither of them was me but it was strange because you could tell it was almost as if they were some second-class type of patient (even though I am sure they were not in the physicians eyes).
I was dreading when the subject of alcohol intake would come up and was surprised it hadn't already.
About 30 minutes after my CT scan my doctor casually walked in and said "acute appendicitis". Amazing. Scary. About the one thing that actually didn't involve alcohol.
30 minutes later a surgeon walked in and discussed options of which he said there was really only one. Emergency surgery. The next hour was spent with 3 separate people discussing my history of alcohol consumption. Not because of causing appendicitis but because of complicating the surgery with withdrawal symptoms. I assured them I had more than 30 days of sobriety in the last 35 or so days and we proceeded with the surgery.
A huge shout out to the medical teams. It was the most efficient, seamless application of quality health care I have ever been a part of.
Surgery went well and I was home by 3pm yesterday.
This experience has changed me forever. I will no longer continue to abuse my body. I will never ignore severe pain. When my doctor said I had a high tolerance for pain - I said maybe, but I have a lower tolerance for hospitals.
Sorry for the rambling but thought it was important to conclude what happened. I sit here making his post happy to be alive.
I don't ever want to be referred to as "alcoholic" in the the ER.
Very humbling.