Now for the story I know that everyone has been dying to hear. On August 26th at about 5 in the morning I was woken up by this intense pain in my lower stomach. I got up and went to the bathroom, tried drinking some water and it didn't go away. I've had lots of problems with my stomach for years so I figured that it was just a continuation of that and decided to ignore it going back to sleep.
I had to go to work at 9:20 so got up at about 8 to shower and get ready, my stomach was still hurting so I tried eating something but it still did not help. I took my shower and when Mom woke up I mentioned to her what had happened. Despite being only half awake she immediately jumped into Mom mode, asking where it hurt, how much it hurt, should we go to the doctors right then, was I sure that I really wanted to go to work, etc. I wasn't a very good sick person when I was little, I was a very big complainer and not fun to be around so I tried to play it down and said that I was fine and I was going to go to work.
My car was currently out of commission so my Mom drove me to work, she said that if I needed to be picked up to call immediately and she would come and get me. I went into work and laid down on the couch, because I hadn't really said anything to anyone everyone knew that something was wrong. My supervisor was so nice the whole shift, he would come check on me and see if I needed anything. When the 1 o'clock shift came in he sent someone to where I was working to tell me that I was going home as I looked green. I called Mom to come get me and laid back down on the couch while I waited.
I arrived at home and Mom told me that I had two hours to sleep and unless I was feeling immensely better she was taking me to the doctors...one and a half hours later I was rudely awaken and asked how I was feeling, when I flinched as I was getting out of bed she told me to get my shoes on and that we were going to the doctors.
I am a person that avoids the doctors at all costs unless I have to, so I was terribly excited as you can imagine to be going. The doctor was really kind and gentle and after I had explained to him was had happened that day, he pressed down on different parts of my stomach and seemed to find it great fun to watch me wince.
He immediately expressed that he was concerned that it was appendicitis, he asked some questions and because of some of the answers that I gave he felt that I still had sometime before it was going to rupture, but he still felt that I needed to get it taken care of.
I was sent to Timpanogos Hospital in Orem (I was very impressed with this hospital, they bent over backwards to be kind, helpful, give me the best, and cheapest bills possible) to have a CT scan done to see what insides looked like.
(hanging out waiting for the results in my scrubs after having the CT scan done)
It was a very unique experience having the CT scan done, they put this dye into an IV, the nurse had told me that when it entered my body I would suddenly feel like I need to pee (even though I wouldn't need to) and that my body would be washed over with warmth. When it happened I definitely knew what she was talking about, I asked her how long it was going to last because I felt like I needed to pee so bad, luckily it only lasted about a minute or so. After the scan was done I was sent back out to the lobby to wait for the results, I was sitting waiting for a long time when all of a sudden the nurse came back out and told me that she was supposed to be taking me to the ER, we immediately were worried and asked what was going on. She said that she legally wasn't supposed to tell me anything but that I had appendicitis and that was supposed to be taking me to the ER.
I arrived in the ER, they didn't have any rooms available so I was put in a nice curtained off bed, where I got to change into my very first backless gown. I was told that I was really lucky, the surgeon was in the hospital and that I would be able to get in very quickly. He came in and introduced himself and went through the whole procedure with me and answered all the questions that I had. After talking to him I was still a little nervous but felt a lot better about what was going to happen, I felt comfortable with him and that everything was going to be ok.
I tried to power nap before I went into surgery, I'm not sure how well that worked.
The surgery went very quickly, I was done in less than an hour and I don't remember any of it :) Besides when I came out of recovery I remember Mom trying to talk to me but I was so tired and could barely keep my eyes open. That night at the hospital was very long, they had to come in every hour and check my vitals and replace my IV's. The IV was put in kind of weird on my arm so if I moved it an alarm would go off and it wouldn't stop until the nurse came back in and cleared it. I'm not sure that I really got that much sleep so I was kind of glad to be going home.
Beautiful flowers from Leisa in my Relief Society, she came over Sunday and visited with me.
My very own hospital band
I even got an awesome hospital water jug!
A cute card that Brea made me.
Two weeks ago I went back to the doctor to have a check-up, he looked at all of my incisions and asked how things were going. He made me laugh when he said that you could barely see the incisions, when I agreed with him he said "man, I'm a great surgeon!" :D He told me that I am all clear, I still need to be a little slow at lifting heavy weights and I can't jerk my body to the sides quickly. I mentioned to him that I had been so tired lately, he said that it will probably be something that will go on for a couple more months. Besides being exhausted everything seems to be all better, I'm so grateful that everything turned out a lot better than it could have and everything is healing perfectly.
I now can say that I am missing a body part :)
