hospedSaturday afternoon, I started feeling abdominal pain. I thought it was just food poisoning or the stomach flu, but when it didn’t improve by Sunday afternoon I went down to the local urgent care center and learned that it was, in fact, appendicitis. They operated right away, removing the no-longer-necessary appendage from my body through laparoscopy, and sent me home to stay with my parents on Monday morning.

During the operation process, a few more things about the iPod Touch vs. the iPad for e-reading were brought home to me.

While I was waiting for the verdict from my CT scan, and then to be wheeled over to the hospital for an operation, I read an e-book on my iPod Touch. I did have my iPad with me (and, for that matter, my laptop), but in this situation the iPod was simply the better choice for reading—I could pocket it when necessary, and hold it in one hand. Reading from the iPad would not have worked in that kind of situation, and is part of why I love the iPod Touch so much.

After the operation, when I got the iPod Touch and my earphones back, I wasn’t really in the mood for reading between the pain and the aftereffects of the anesthesia. But it was nice to have the device to play the soothing sounds of Easy Relax Ultimate to help me try to get what little rest I could under those conditions. (I highly recommend that app for anyone who needs to be hospitalized. It’s great for blocking out sounds of hospital equipment and intercoms.) I also checked some e-mail and RSS feeds when I felt up to it.

When I was feeling a bit better the next morning, I used my iPad for some web browsing, RSS reading, and chatting with friends from the hospital bed. Even though I had my laptop with me, the iPad was light enough that it was a lot easier to work with; in my condition I wouldn’t have wanted my laptop on my lap.

Right now, staying with my parents for a couple of days while I recover, I’m not doing much e-reading, but I am using my iPad for my usual Reeder RSS reading to locate things that would make good TeleRead posts, and my iPod Touch for more Easy Relax Ultimate listening. I have my laptop set up at a small desk with a secondary monitor for writing these posts. I do, of course, look forward to returning to my own apartment where I can write from my desktop computer.

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