Appendicitis Adventure

So, I am copying these notes from facebook because I am too lazy to retype everything.

Appendix-less
Just for anyone who is curious, here is the story!

Monday afternoon my stomach started to hurt. It was similar to the pain I felt before I had my gallbladder removed. I did not think too much of it. Well, Tuesday I woke up and good grief it hurt!! Pain all over my abdomen. So I spent the majority of the day curled up in a ball watching movies/sleeping or spending quality time in the bathroom. It was pretty pathetic.

On Tuesday I had called my mom for some motherly advice. She suggested keeping an eye on things and in the mean time drinking fluids. She wasn't sure what it could be but said I should consider the hospital if it didn't make improvements by Wed.
Mid afternoonish the pain was so bad and I was being so pathetic that I called Danny and asked him to come home. He did. He is wonderful like that. He also went to the pharmacy to ask about some drugs. They suggested that it could be food poisoning. This made sense so I upped the liquids intake.

I woke up like every hour last night. Such a long night.

This morning I woke up and all the pain seemed to have transferred down to my lower right side. "Oh, crap" I thought. So, I called my Grammy who has much medical knowledge being a retired RN and all that. She said I should go to the hospital ASAP. SO again I called my wonderful husband to come to rescue me. He did. Off to the hospital we went!

I was admitted very quickly into the ER where they ran all the good ol' tests like blood, urine all that fun stuff. Asked me about a million times what was wrong. Well,eventually it was time for the CT scan. They already had a good idea it was appendicitis and sure enough, the CT scan showed a very inflamed appendix.

So the nice dr/nurses came in and told me that I would need surgery but the OR in the hospital was full for the next few hours, but the outpatient center across the parking lot was good to go right now! After they made sure that this was in fact allowed they put me into a wheel chair and pushed me over to the Outpatient center. People were waiting for me there and they told me about the procedure, risks, etc. I signed stuff. And then it was time for surgery!! I guess the surgery went well and they got out my appendix in good time. Apparently it was pretty inflamed and it is good I came in when I did. The recovery room nurse was sooooo nice. When I was coming out of the anesthesia I was so disoriented that I started to cry! I don't even know why. But she was wonderful and helped me to calm down, which I did. I think I asked her like a million questions too. She was so patient with me. I was glad.

Anywho- after the recovery room and staying at the outpatient center for a bit they wheeled me back over to the hospital to spend the night. Yikes! I have never spent the night in a hospital. Danny has been with me the whole time. He just went home real quick for some dinner and to get me my toothbrush and stuff like that. Did I mention how amazing he is???

My Grandma Jean came by to visit which I thought was so incredibly sweet of her. She is pretty sure Grandpa Ken stayed in this room too after one of his many surgeries.

My mom ordered some flowers and balloons from the gift shop here. They're beautiful.

My room has a window too! Cool, right?

My room also has wireless internet. So here I am in the hospital rockin' out to oldies on my ipod (that is what I called the playlist, seriously) and playing on my laptop.

Fortunately my teachers have all been very understanding and I will be able to make up some tests I missed today/yesterday.

And did I mention that all the nurses/doctors have been so wonderful!! They have seriously all just been so nice and friendly. I love it! I am trying to be a very good patient too. I think I am succeeding for the most part. hahaha. I do ask a lot of questions though. I just like to know what is going on and medical stuff is very interesting to me.

Annnnnnd this is turning out way longer than I meant for it to. Ooops! Sorry guys! I just wanted to write this because I thought at least one or two people might be curious and I have already told the story like a million times. :D




Update:
Hi friends,

Well, here I am, night number II in the hospital. They informed me this morning that they wanted to keep me here longer because my white blood cell count was still a bit high and I guess my appendix was very close to rupturing so they're just being safe and stuff.

Today has been long. The air they pumped my stomach with all settled in my shoulder so there has been some very excruciating pain to say the least.

Hopefully they will let me go home tomorrow.

I got to eat something resembling food today which was nice. I am on a 'clear liquids' diet. mmm.

I have also been up walking around a bit today which is good.

People are still being nice. Danny has been absolutely amazing.

I am starting to get semi restless though just because I hate having people do EVERYTHING for me. Well, they're not doing EVERYTHING. I don't mind them bringing me stuff especially because getting up is kinda painful. But nurses are constantly coming in to check on me so I am not getting that much rest. But at the same time it is good they are checking on me because they are making sure I haven't gotten sicker, or you know, died.

Oh well. It's just been a crazy day. I do not know what to do about my homework situation. I haven't been able to do any. This not has taken me forever to type because of the way my IV is situated in my arm. It doesn't like me writing or typing much. THe pain meds also make me a little loopy. So I am just worried because I had planned on getting a lot of homework done this weekend. Yikes.

I think I will watch a movie now. :D Thank goodness for my laptop!!




I'm home:
I am very happy to be home. It is so nice to be back on my couch and have the use of my right arm again. *happy sigh* I missed my right arm.

I was so worried that they were going to keep me another day because no one was telling me anything. Ugh.

But the doctor finally came in and asked how I was doing and looked at my incisions and he said I could go home!

I took a shower as soon as I got home so I no longer smell like hospital. Such a nice feeling.

Now I am just chillin' on the couch watching a movie. There is still a good deal of pain so I am taking it easy today.