Removal of Body Parts
The past few days have been pretty nuts. On Monday night I started feeling super gross- horrible stomach pains and nausea. At first I thought it was the flu since that has been going around but the pain was different then anything I have ever felt before. It felt like I was going to birth some mighty angry dragons or something. Not fun. The pain, combined with the nausea, kept me up all night. I think I maybe got an hour of sleep. Who knows. The last few days are all kind of a blur.
The next day I made an attempt to get ready for work which was pretty hopeless since the nausea had turned to actual vomiting every 10 or 15 minutes or so. I spent the next 12 hours either writhing in pain on my bed or vomiting in my bathroom. Pretty much anything I tried to consume came right back up so I was getting pretty dehydrated. On Tuesday night Hossler came down with some ginger ale and graham crackers which seemed to be ok but then came right back up. My mom came over once she got off work to see what she could do. Moms sometimes just know what to do, ya know.
Still thinking it might be the flu or maybe food poisoning, we decided to call my doctor. She called in an anti-nausea medication to knock me out and help me sleep through the night but insisted I come in the next day. She was concerned about the continual stomach cramping and dehydration.
After scrambling to find another sub I walked downtown to the doctors (slowly and in a lot of pain) and, after a few pokes on my abdomen, was promptly sent back up to the Broadway clinic in a cab so I could get a CT scan. She wanted to rule out appendicitis and, if it was just a bad flu bug, get me on some IV fluids to help the dehydration. While waiting for the scan I started freaking out a little. Maybe from the dehydration, maybe from the pain, maybe from the fact that all this was happening rather quickly, maybe form the fact that I already have major doctor anxiety, or all of the above. Anyways, I totally started shaking like crazy and getting all teary when they put in the contrast dye. When the scan was done I was FREEZING. They took me into a little room where they covered me with hot blankets and gave me those little hand warmer things.
They were about to send me up to get fluids while they were waiting for the doctor to review my scan when I over heard the nurse on the phone saying to get me into surgery as soon as possible. Ack. Not what I was expecting for the day. Within an hour or two of all this I met with the surgeon, my parents arrived and took me to Swedish, and was prepped for surgery. I can't believe how fast everything went.
Just before I went into surgery Ethan arrived which calmed me down a whole lot. I got kinda pissed at my mom though because when they were taking me down to to OR she just decided that she was going to be the one to go with me because "she's my mom" even though she stresses me out and I would have rather had Ethan with me. It all happened so fast and I didn't have a chance to speak up but it brought back all my feelings from my past surgery debacle with my leg and how everyone seemed to make all the decisions without me. It pissed me off.
Anyways, the surgery went fine. Going under freaks me out but it all went ok. I guess I fought the doctor a little when he was trying to take the tube out but he won in the end. I spend longer time in recovery than they were expecting because they wanted to make sure I got enough fluids. There was a crazy guy in the bed next to me who kept moaning about how they cut off his leg (they didn't) and how he needed to get out of there. I gotta hand it to nurses, they have to deal with so many crazies. At least I only have to deal with mini-crazies.
I have to say, after the surgery I felt SOOOOOOOOOOO much better! It felt like a miracle cure. I was sore and all that but it was nothing like the pain I had been experiencing the days before. Ethan and my parents were waiting for me back in the room. My parents went home and Ethan left for a bit to pick up everything I would need to be cozy- he is so, so good. Then we just kinda camped out in the hospital room (they brought in a cot for him) and watched stupid TV and stuff. Ethan had brought his own pjs and when the nurse came in to check on me and saw him sleeping on his cot she thought he was so precious. She thought it was so cute he came prepared to stay the night. It was. He is precious.
I feel like recovery is going really well so far. All the doctors and nurses were impressed and I am actually amazed at how I feel. Other than being super tired and sore, I feel pretty great. I'm trying not to stress out about having left my kiddos for so long with shoddy sub plans but there is really only so much you can do between pain, vomiting, and surgery. My goal is to be back to work on Monday so we'll see. I'm just glad I'm on the mend and free from that stupid, angry appendix.
The next day I made an attempt to get ready for work which was pretty hopeless since the nausea had turned to actual vomiting every 10 or 15 minutes or so. I spent the next 12 hours either writhing in pain on my bed or vomiting in my bathroom. Pretty much anything I tried to consume came right back up so I was getting pretty dehydrated. On Tuesday night Hossler came down with some ginger ale and graham crackers which seemed to be ok but then came right back up. My mom came over once she got off work to see what she could do. Moms sometimes just know what to do, ya know.
Still thinking it might be the flu or maybe food poisoning, we decided to call my doctor. She called in an anti-nausea medication to knock me out and help me sleep through the night but insisted I come in the next day. She was concerned about the continual stomach cramping and dehydration.
After scrambling to find another sub I walked downtown to the doctors (slowly and in a lot of pain) and, after a few pokes on my abdomen, was promptly sent back up to the Broadway clinic in a cab so I could get a CT scan. She wanted to rule out appendicitis and, if it was just a bad flu bug, get me on some IV fluids to help the dehydration. While waiting for the scan I started freaking out a little. Maybe from the dehydration, maybe from the pain, maybe from the fact that all this was happening rather quickly, maybe form the fact that I already have major doctor anxiety, or all of the above. Anyways, I totally started shaking like crazy and getting all teary when they put in the contrast dye. When the scan was done I was FREEZING. They took me into a little room where they covered me with hot blankets and gave me those little hand warmer things.
They were about to send me up to get fluids while they were waiting for the doctor to review my scan when I over heard the nurse on the phone saying to get me into surgery as soon as possible. Ack. Not what I was expecting for the day. Within an hour or two of all this I met with the surgeon, my parents arrived and took me to Swedish, and was prepped for surgery. I can't believe how fast everything went.
Just before I went into surgery Ethan arrived which calmed me down a whole lot. I got kinda pissed at my mom though because when they were taking me down to to OR she just decided that she was going to be the one to go with me because "she's my mom" even though she stresses me out and I would have rather had Ethan with me. It all happened so fast and I didn't have a chance to speak up but it brought back all my feelings from my past surgery debacle with my leg and how everyone seemed to make all the decisions without me. It pissed me off.
Anyways, the surgery went fine. Going under freaks me out but it all went ok. I guess I fought the doctor a little when he was trying to take the tube out but he won in the end. I spend longer time in recovery than they were expecting because they wanted to make sure I got enough fluids. There was a crazy guy in the bed next to me who kept moaning about how they cut off his leg (they didn't) and how he needed to get out of there. I gotta hand it to nurses, they have to deal with so many crazies. At least I only have to deal with mini-crazies.
I have to say, after the surgery I felt SOOOOOOOOOOO much better! It felt like a miracle cure. I was sore and all that but it was nothing like the pain I had been experiencing the days before. Ethan and my parents were waiting for me back in the room. My parents went home and Ethan left for a bit to pick up everything I would need to be cozy- he is so, so good. Then we just kinda camped out in the hospital room (they brought in a cot for him) and watched stupid TV and stuff. Ethan had brought his own pjs and when the nurse came in to check on me and saw him sleeping on his cot she thought he was so precious. She thought it was so cute he came prepared to stay the night. It was. He is precious.
I feel like recovery is going really well so far. All the doctors and nurses were impressed and I am actually amazed at how I feel. Other than being super tired and sore, I feel pretty great. I'm trying not to stress out about having left my kiddos for so long with shoddy sub plans but there is really only so much you can do between pain, vomiting, and surgery. My goal is to be back to work on Monday so we'll see. I'm just glad I'm on the mend and free from that stupid, angry appendix.