Ouch!

On Wednesday, while at work, before I had to leave for the day my stomach was starting to really hurt. I had just finished up a stressful conversation and figured it was just stress getting to me. Went and picked up the Bear, found out he didn't have T-ball practice after all, since he would have a game on Thursday. After watching Puss In Boots a handful of times this past weekend Bear kept asking for a sword that he had seen at Target, which he actually called "The store at the exit for summer slides." I decided to spoil him after creating home made versions of swords the past few days. While walking through Target the pain suddenly got much worse, I was struggling just to walk. The pain was right around my belly button but my whole abdomen hurt. I breathed through it, got Bear some foam swords and hopped back in the car home.

When I got home I thought the pain was getting better, but when I stood up out of the car I had a stabbing pain followed by radiating pain. Thought maybe it was the worst gas bubble of my life and should take a hot bath to calm it down. Went straight to the tub with my legs up against my chest praying to god for the pain to go away. About 20 minutes in I realized the pain was just getting progressively worse, ate some tums and laid down on the bed. Struggled to find a position that didn't hurt. The pain ranged from moderate to severe, enough to put me in tears, and although I don't have the greatest pain tolerance, I never cried from the pain of labor with Bear. Then the pain started to move to the lower right side of my abdomen. I remembered hearing warnings about this pattern of pain being appendicitis.

I did what anyone does when in severe pain. Turned to WebMd symptom checker. While I was clicking on the symptoms, red boxes kept popping up saying things like "If you are experiencing abdominal pain made worse by pressing on right lower abdomen please seek emergency medical attention," which led me to do what anyone else does...deny deny deny (what do you mean that's not what anyone else would do? pfft). "I don't need to go to the ER, if I go to the ER they're just going to tell me it's gas and I will have spent 300 bucks for fricken gas problems!" I'll just wait it out.

Throughout the night I tried to find a comfortable way to sleep. Finally was able to lay on my right side in the fetal position, and as long as I didn't move, the stabbing pain only happened occasionally. Normal, right? Pain causing me to cry...pain worse than contractions when I was giving birth...no reason to go to the ER...this is just gas. Uh-huh...

Eventually I fell asleep, like around 3am, woke up at 6am...still in pain, but the stabbing pain wasn't there. Alright, I must be ok. Right? Uh-huh... exhausted and my intuition still urging me to call the doctor I called in to work. Feeling guilty for calling in, despite pain and exhaustion. That's how deep the denial ran. Also thought to myself, I hope this gets serious so they feel bad for thinking I need to set up my own sub. I Googled appendicitis some more, checking symptoms...the pain was coming and going, sort of...so it couldn't be. I didn't have a fever, didn't have diarrhea...my abdomen was swollen, but that could be from gas too you know. So I continued on the path of denial. Then I saw a site that said to press on the abdomen everywhere except where the appendix lived...I did, nothing hurt...didn't hurt one bit when I pressed everywhere that I thought I was feeling pain. Then I pressed down where the appendix lives. HOLY HELL THAT HURT!! Alright, alright, calling doctor.

Made an appointment for 915, perfect to get Bear to school first. Took Bear to school...waddled back to my car...still denying the level of pain I was in. Headed to the doctor's office. Sat in the waiting room, hunched over, with a smile on my face, pretending everything was OK.

Nurse calls my name, I wince as I try to stand up, walk it off like it didn't happen. She asks how I am "Pretty crappy to be honest, but that's what I'm here for." *big smile* Check my weight...126 lb...consistent with the past 6 months, nice. Nurse asks me to describe what's going on...she asks "Do you still have your appendix?" I laugh and say "Yup, and that's why I am here, need confirmation before I go spending money for the ER." She checks my pulse "Is your heart rate normally this high?" laughter..."No...not unless I'm running. It doesn't feel high..." followed by checking my blood pressure. "Is your blood pressure normally this elevated?" again, nervous laughter "No...usually on the low side." Nurse leaves saying the Doctor will be right with me.

Doctor comes in, same song and dance "Do you still have an appendix?" etc. She tells me to lay down and warns that she's going to poke around. She starts everywhere that I said it doesn't hurt to press. Doesn't hurt. She goes to press down where it does hurt and "OOOWWW!!!!" followed by instant tears. Doctor apologizes and says she's very suspicious of it being appendicitis, since she said she didn't even press down as hard as she should have needed to for it to hurt. I pee in a cup to make sure I'm not pregnant, comes back negative as expected. She sets up an appointment for a CT scan a couple blocks away, but it wouldn't happen until 4pm...so I had 6 hours to kill. Went and picked up the nasty contrast drink to make my insides glow for the scan. I remembered when Sandra had to drink it in high school and we all had a taste, it was the most volatile drink in the universe.

Since I wasn't sure how long a CT scan would take and I didn't know if I'd head straight to the hospital after, I went and got Bear and took him to Grandma and Papa's while I tried to stomach the contrast drink.

<--- Most REVOLTING drink. Period.

After plugging my nose and trying to chug it, I (here's where I get graphic) puked in my mouth, but knew if I threw up I'd just have to start over...so I swallowed it again.  I stopped drinking at that point and brainstormed a game plan to get this stuff down.  Gum! I'll chug and then throw gum in my mouth to cleanse my pallet.  Tried that...worked a little better.  Got some more down, but same result, puked again, caught it in time to swallow back down. NASTY.  Need new game plan.


GTS! (Google That Shit) According to a feed I found via Google about the best way to drink this stuff, using a straw could get the drink past my taste buds.  Alright. Ready (straw in bottle), Set (nose plugged), GO (sucking...).  SUCCESS!  The second I got queasy I stopped and popped the gum back in my mouth to cover the taste.  Repeated this method until bottle was gone.  Took approximately 30 minutes.  Began to dread the inevitable...having to drink the second one in an hour.  Only I'd have to drink it in my car since the appointment was set for 30 minutes after that.  So I planned accordingly, arrived in parking lot to drink nasty stuff before appointment.  Much better success, used the straw from the get go and stared at the clock saying I'd stop when the minute hand changed.  Got through half of it within 5 minutes.  Met goal.  I'd have to drink the other half while in the room with the technician.


Walk in, announce my arrival...experience new symptom...sick bottom.  Ugh.  This sucks.  Bathroom break...then go to get the scan done.  Such a weird experience.  I drink more of the nasty drink, I don't puke.  Then I lay on this narrow table with this huge circle thing at my feet that looks like it could teleport me to another galaxy.  The tech sets up an IV in my right arm, says that I'll smell the medicine then have a warm sensation.  Sure enough I was able to smell it and taste it, so bizarre.  Then they leave and the table moves me through the circle, it begins to power up and make crazy noises as I see the inside of it begin to circulate.  Loud booming male voice tells me to breathe in, then hold my breath.  Then the table moves me slowly back out of the circle.  The tech comes back in and gives me something else in my IV, warning me that it will make me feel very warm, like a hot flash and I may feel like I've peed my pants, but she promises I won't.  Sure enough I suddenly get very hot and literally felt like I had peed my pants...my pants that I technically wasn't wearing, they were pushed down with the waist at my thighs instead of having to waste time getting in a gown.  Had a blanket draped over me though, so I guess it felt like I peed the blanket, haha.  Same booming voice starts up telling me to breathe and hold my breath...then it's done.  Tech tells me my doc put in the order to be priority so I should hear from my doctor fairly soon.  I assume fairly soon means in like an hour so I head back to Fernley.  I'm still in denial that it's anything serious, since whenever you see appendicitis on TV they are in SEVERE pain, vomiting, and have to have their appendix taken out by the doctor that just happens to be there at the house party when they are conveniently snowed in...and they use like house hold items and chop the legs off their great grandmother's table to make it lower like an operation table. (Reference: Everwood, when character Bright's appendix nearly bursts)



10 minutes later my phone rings.  I swerve into the right lane to exit quickly and take the call, thinking, whoa, the doctor is already calling...maybe she's calling to check on me.  Turns out she had already talked to the radiologist and he says my appendix is still intact but the walls are thick and inflamed, aka acute appendicitis.  When you hear "acute" you think it's no big deal, wrong.  Big deal, life threatening deal in terms of appendicitis.  Doc tells me to go to the ER at Renown and that she'd call them ahead of time so they'd have a room ready for me upon arrival, she wants a surgeon to have a look at me.  She doesn't tell me if I'm going to need surgery...just that she wants a surgeon to look at me.  Well...alrighty then.


I call people to let them know I'm headed to the hospital.  I tell Roger to take Bear to his T-ball game and I'll let him know if he needs to drive into Reno or not.  I show up, fill out paperwork.  Sure enough they have a room ready for me.  Nurse hands me a gown to change into. I change and sit down.  Doctor walks in and asks a few questions, how it started, comes and presses on my tummy, doesn't press too hard on my appendix which was polite of him.  Tells me he's already looked at the scan and thinks I need to go straight to surgery.  I tell him, alright.  He asks if I need pain relief...I tell him I think I'm ok...he convinces me to take some by saying "There's no reason to be tough right now, if you're in any pain, you should relieve it."  I agree.

Nice nurse lady sets up an IV.  She gives me morphine.

NEW BEST FRIEND ---->

Then starts an antibiotic, warning that it'll make my head hurt at first once half of it is in.  She gets about 1/4 of it in and IT HURTS! "WHOA! You weren't kidding about the headache...my neck hurts worse than my abdomen!" Nurse grows concerned, saying that she hasn't even gotten half of it injected yet, I tell her it's a good thing she started with the morphine, and that at least it's distracting me from the pain my appendix is causing.

I text the universe, let everyone know that I'm going in to surgery soon.  I call Roger and tell him to get his butt there asap.  I wasn't scared, just agitated that every nurse or doc that walked in asked if I was really alone.  Which made me feel like they knew something that I didn't...or that I'd be wheeled off to surgery any second and needed a person to advocate for me in case something happened on the operating table.

Roger shows up and the doctor comes in and says that I won't be going in for surgery until 830pm, so they would set me up in a room upstairs.  *sigh* Alrighty.  We move upstairs, I feel like an Egyptian goddess as they glide my bed through the hallways (Morphine's really workin it's magic!).  I get a room all to myself.  Thank goodness.  I'm in no mood to socialize.


I catch Roger up on everything that has happened today.  We talk about how much in shock we are that it really is appendicitis, we both agree that we imagined it to be something so severe that there's no questioning going to the hospital.  Though the nurse I spoke with upon arrival got after me for not coming into the ER the night before when I was in so much pain I was curled up in a ball in pain.  I double check that Bear can sleep over at Gma's and that his aunt CJ can watch him...Roger is surprised and mentions how he thought we'd be able to go home after.  I laugh a bit...no, this is surgery, they will be removing a piece of me and I'll probably not be able to even walk for 12 hours after at least, and then about two to three weeks of recovery at home afterwards, unless they do laparoscopic appendectomy, then the recovery time is quicker....according to WebMd.  Which is where I've gotten all of my information about anything happening to me in the past 24 hours.  Then Roger complains that he'll have to sleep in a hospital...I tell him he can go home and get some sleep and pick me up tomorrow instead if he needs to, as long as he stays until after my surgery to make sure I survive.  He mentions being hungry, I realize he hasn't eaten dinner, I tell him he can go get food when I'm in surgery, the Surgeon can call his cell if there's a problem.  However both of our cell phones are about to die, haha, of course! Roger had already taken my phone to my car to charge it there, his was about to die as well.  I tell him to add that to the list of things to do while getting food.  Then a nurse wheels in a bed for Roger, telling him how to set up his bed.  Issue resolved, Roger will be staying the night, whether he likes it or not.

Times begins to move incredibly slow.  I stare at the clock and listen in on the conversations the nurses are having.  There's a dilemma about how to transport the patients to their destinations for surgery and other things.  I anticipate the nurse coming in to explain things soon.  Sure enough she does.  Lets me know that I'll be going down the PACU (because I totally know what that means) unit as soon as they have someone to take me there.  A few minutes later some guy shows up to take me.  Roger leaves to go get food, he needs it, he's grumpy, and we need our cell phones charged.

I arrive to the PACU unit, and the nurse (like the 10th one I met in a 2 hour time span) asks if I'm there alone or who my emergency contact is, I tell her I'm not alone, that Roger is my emergency contact...she asks what his number is and for the first time ever I remember it! I've always had to rely on my cell phone telling me people's numbers.  We chit chat...I am asked the same questions for the 10th time, tells me about Dr. Watson who will be my surgeon, and Dr. Moody will be the anesthesiologist.  Puts my hair up in a shower cap thing, sees that I already have an IV hook up in my arm, discuss what I've already taken.  Then another nurse over hears conversation about my son and says there's no way I'm old enough to have a 4 year old....she was just about to ask what high school I went to, legitimately thought I was only 14.  I'll love looking a decade younger in like...a decade, I look forward to looking 25 when I'm 35!  Then Dr. Watson comes along, and asks me all the questions everyone else has, pokes around on my tummy...is concerned that it isn't hurting much when he presses on my appendix, things it may have already burst.  But he doesn't stop talking long enough for me to explain that I'm currently high as a kite on Morphine and can probably smash my hand with a hammer and not feel a thing.  He explains how laparoscopic appendectomy works, that he'll put 3 holes in me, one in my belly button, one below the bikini line, and one between those two, so ultimately I'll only have one scar that will be barely noticeable in a swimsuit...I mention that scars aren't a big deal since I've got a plethora of stretch marks aka badges of honor spread across my abdomen already.


More waiting...getting tired.  The nurse asks if I'm OK, says everything will be fine, no reason to be scared, mentions that she assumes I'm scared based on my quietness.  I reassure her that I'm not scared at all, that I'm actually very eager to go in and have the source of my pain removed.  She had also heard my theory earlier about the headache from the antibiotic being a great distraction from the other pain.  She laughed and said I definitely have a "glass half full" perspective.  I told her having it half empty is pretty counter productive to life.

I overhear the nurses trying to get another woman to wake up from her surgery...complaining that they're struggling to wake her up.  So I start to coach myself, saying I will wake up.  When I hear the nurse say my name, I will wake up, I will do everything in my power to wake up.



Then Dr Moody came, my new best friend who delivers feel good stuff: anesthetic. Then I'm wheeled off into the operating room.  Three young people, two men and a woman, are spouting banter at one another, while also explaining to me what's going on.  They move me onto a very thin operating table.  Straps my arm down to a metal thing with cushion and makes sure the IV is all set up properly, then straps my other arm down to another.  Very vulnerable way of laying there.  Followed by strapping down my legs.  One of the guys makes a joke about how they do that because if I fall off there's too much paperwork involved.  I ask the guy to my right if he's ever had surgery, he says several times, talks about a hernia that he had to have surgery for and how the other guy (to my left) had pulled pranks on him during the surgery and he advised that the moral of the story is to not have surgery where you work, which the woman pipes in saying "Unless where you work is the best place in town, which is the case here," I wonder if she's saying that as a way to reassure me that I'm in good hands, despite the pranksters, or if she's just throwing in her own commentary.


Then, nothing, I don't even remember having to count back from 10 or anything like you see on TV.  Followed by waking up in the PACU unit, forcing my eyes open and trying to wake up completely as I hear the nurses still talking to that same lady that they couldn't wake up before.  I ask what time it is, they tell me 10:30.  I ask if they were able to get a hold of Roger, they were.  Then I got taken back upstairs to my room.  The nurse was very surprised by how awake I was when I got back up.  I begged for water.  All I wanted for hours before the surgery was water and now I could finally have it.  She offered Jello and crackers too; absolutely yes.  I took a bite out of the cracker and my mouth became so incredibly dry I couldn't even swallow, most bizarre feeling ever.  Threw the crackers down like they were demonic and tried the jello, jello didn't help.  Tried to chug water...finally relief.
 

Exhausted but happy.

Spent the rest of the night in and out of consciousness.  Scrolling through Facebook, Pinterest, watching this crazy movie where in the end this guy gets ripped in half by some psychopath driving a semi...insane movie, but it grabbed my attention enough that I couldn't sleep until I saw the ending.  Then my whole body just kept feeling itchy, I couldn't sleep, it itched too much.  Nurse came in, told her.  She left, did nothing.  Later another nurse came in, left and brought back benedryl, she should get a raise...if I could remember who she was.  Then finally mustered up the courage to try to go pee, since that is a requirement just to leave the hospital, I wanted to do that sooner than later.  Weird experience having a nurse stand there.  Fell asleep sometime around 5am, still woke up a couple of times.

Then I woke up to two people in scrubs hovering over me around 7am.  CREEPY.  Was delivered breakfast, it was all gross.  But I was thrilled to eat something.  Asked the nurse when I can go home, he said he'd check what the requirements for my discharge were and get on it.  While going through all the paperwork he is explaining to a trainee all the steps and says that they're going to go get the script for pain meds I'll need.  Then when he gets back he asks when the last time I had oral pain meds, told him I hadn't yet.  Then I realized that I hadn't received any pain meds since the morphine I was hooked up to long ago, which explained the level of pain I was experiencing.  He promptly remedied the situation so that I would have something before leaving.  Thank heavens.  Then on our way we went.

The End.