Where is Chris Coleman? In the Hospital!

Little did I know that a fun trip to Disney World in August would lead to me being in the hospital -- twice.

My medical saga started during the week before Labor Day when I decided to finish the summer by taking my daughter to Disney World for a few days. We had a ball! But while I was in Florida, one morning I woke-up with a very dull, minor pain on the side of my stomach. I thought I pulled a muscle or something. I took a couple Tylenol and felt fine. I didn't think much of it for the rest of the trip.

We flew back right before Labor Day and I started feeling worse and worse. During Labor Day weekend, I started having really high fevers that I couldn't explain and Tylenol wouldn't fix.

Labor Day Monday, I went to an urgent care place here in South Jersey and the doctor that I spoke to rather bluntly told me, "You need to get to the ER. I'm calling them and telling them you're coming over right now."

That got my attention.

Turns out, that dull pain that I felt on the side of my stomach? That was my appendix rupturing. The whole time I was in Florida and for the few days before Labor Day, I was fighting a very nasty infection (note to self: the next time I get a fever and I can't explain why, I will see a doctor sooner).

Now, from what I read and from what other people have told me, here's what is supposed to happen: your appendix ruptures, you feel a tremendous amount of pain, and you can get really sick from the infection.

My appendix ruptured and I never knew it. It never hurt -- I spent two days in Legoland and Disney World chasing around a 3-year-old while I had no idea what was happening inside of me.

That nasty infection landed me in the hospital for a week. That's how long it took them to get it out of my system, at least enough to where I could go back to work. All told, I was popping powerful antibiotics for a month. And it was that nasty infection that prevented my doctors from removing my appendix at the time, but it finally came out this past Monday.

The past nine weeks have been quite a roller coaster. Up until I went to Florida in August, I had spent a grand total of zero days in the hospital during the first 41 years of my life. Then my appendix decided to not want to hang around any longer.

As I'm writing this, I am finally out of the hospital and (hopefully) done with this medical episode. A big thank you to all of the wonderful doctors, nurses, and staff at AtlantiCare -- everyone that I saw was absolutely incredible.

Be back on the radio soon!