Derek felt unwell over Sunday and Monday, with fever, nausea and stomach-ache. On Monday evening, the doc told him to have a CAT scan the next day, and on Tuesday, the scan confirmed that he had appendicitis. An appendectomy was performed on Tuesday night, and though he had a lot of pain this morning, and afternoon, he was able to come home by 5pm or so. Here was his update just before leaving Barnes-Jewish Hospital:

“Here’s an update on me: I’m about to be discharged. The severe pain I encountered suddenly from late morning to early afternoon has subsided, so hopefully it stays that way (not even a morphine injection was able to reduce it). I’m actually in the wheelchair on the way down to the exit right now, where they will most likely dump me out onto the sidewalk. :-).”

He was duly so dumped, after a ride in the “Patient Family Shuttle”, in the parking lot. Anjana. having found an interesting-looking specimen lying on the sidewalk, brought it back home. The pain level has subsided considerably,but he’s still suffering from a significant amount and is resting now, at 5.15pm.

When he came into the house, there was a magic box waiting for him. When he said “Abracadabra” (at the box’s command) a piece of paper saying, “Appa, get well soon” suddenly came out. Here..you can see for yourselves: