It's a beautiful Friday morning, and here I sit at home watching movies while gingerly moving around so as not to make me any more sore than I already am.
So what the hell happened?
It all starts Tuesday evening. My stomach did not feel well and I had figured I had eaten something bad or picked up a stomach bug because I had felt like this before and it passed. I got up the next morning and went to work still feeling a little crappy but it seemed like it was getting better. However, it did not get better, I started feeling more pain, and I got nauseous as well. I decided to take myself down to the infirmary to be checked out. The nurse took a look at me and poked at my belly and she noticed I had reflexive pain in the lower right side, so I was advised to go to urgent care or the ER to get checked out and see if I could have appendicitis or if it was something else. So I made a few phone calls and got my priest to come pick me up from work since they did not want me to drive. Then they wanted to put me in a wheelchair and be wheeled out to the front gate. I'd be lying if I said I didn't fight with the nurse a little about this because at this point, yeah, I hurt, but I was still capable of walking and moving around.
Connie arrives, and there's a joke that I'm being dramatic, but what can I say, gotta follow the nurses orders. She gets me over to Doctors Community Hospital and I get myself checked in. Thanks to triage, I'm seen within ten minutes, they draw blood and take a urine sample to see if there's any white blood cells. By this time "Grandma Josephine" has arrived to sit with me and get me taken care of.
The test results came back and nothing was abnormal so they decided to take a CAT scan of my abdomen to see if my appendix was indeed inflamed. So after getting some morphine and anti-nausea drugs, I drank down the contrast solution (luckily it wasn't all chalky) and then waited. They wheeled me in and took the CAT scan then it was back to the ER to wait for the results. Fifteen minutes later they tell me that it is indeed appendicitis and they are going to be putting me into surgery ASAP. I would spend the rest of the afternoon waiting to go in, and boy did it suck major donkey balls. Despite the anti-nausea meds, I ended up puking a number of times, and even when I was empty, there was plenty of dry heaving. This continued all the way up until I was being prepped for surgery. Believe me, I never ever want to throw up again if I can help it.
As soon as I was given the drugs to help knock me out for surgery, I was down, the next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room. I was told that the surgery was successful but it took more than expected. See, earlier when I had talked to the doctor, they said they were going to do it laproscopically, meaning they would make a small incision and use a camera and tools to take my appendix out. I'd heal up quickly and be back on my feet in time to still leave for Europe. However, when they got in there, it turned out that my appendix was higher up than they expected, and it was "hot" meaning it was very infected. If they had waited much longer to take it out I would have been in deep shit. I talked to the doc and asked about whether or not I would still be able to travel. He said that I could not travel, and that it was likely I would have to stay for another night in the hospital.
I was devastated. I'd be lying if I said I didn't break down a bit, especially after all the work I had done to get to go to Europe and now I was not going to be allowed.
I was moved to my hospital room and i was in and out of sleep for the rest of the night. I was generally a good patient, and even the nurses commented on that. I think I had driven them a bit crazy because every other hour I was calling them to disconnect my IV line so I could get up to use the bathroom. Actually it was a good thing that I was able to go and pee. When it got to be early morning I was offered a liquid breakfast. I would later talk to the surgeon's assistant and learn I would actually be able to go home that day. In the late morning, Connie and Billy showed up to visit and then Josephine arrived with my clothes so I could go home.
I was brought home and helped up the stairs and got settled in for the rest of the day. Let me tell ya though, it is not easy right now to move around. Since they cut through one of my belly muscles to get to my appendix, it hurts to get up and move around, however, I keep on doing it because it's the only way I am going to get better at this point. I think with a few days rest I should be back on my feet and ready to go. Luckily because I have Netflix and a Roku box theres plenty of TV and movies I can watch so I won't be bored. Now to just heal up.
I am extremely thankful I have my church family and they were able to take care of me during this time. Hopefully I can think of something to do to tell them all thank you.
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