l Ooh what a night. l

| October 09, 2005 || 1:05 p.m. |

My ODS boss ended up meeting me at my house right around the same time I arrived from the store. I thought that my tummy that just started hurting was only hunger pains from not having ate much earlier or too much.

I made a nice taco pie from a simple recipe my Mom had given me years ago. It turned out pretty damn good considering I didn't have a pie pan; a casserole dish worked fine.

Well my stomach started hurting a little more but now the pain had travelled down more to the right so I figured it was gas pains from eating too much too fast. Unfortunately the pain did not go away even after going to the bathroom which normally it does.

Poor Kristen did not know what she could do and felt so bad that I was in so much pain. Little did she know that after she left it would get much, much worse.

It had to have been around 10pm when she left and I finally gave in around 11 to run to the corner 711 for maalox. A few hours later it still had not kicked it. My pathetic belly was distended with so much gas and pressure yet no relief was in site. I was seriously considering calling my Grandma or younger brother to pick me up to go to the hospital but I really did not want that to happen. Hindsight, I really should have.

It was sometime after 330am that I was able to finally go to sleep even with the pain. Once my alarm clock woke me up at 6am I got up still in pain and tried again to go to the bathroom. I kept thinking "if I could only get this gas out I would be fine".

I called in sick and made the earliest appointment with my Doctor that I could: 145pm. My boss called to check in on me around noon and she had figured that I might not have been able to see a Doc so early. I told her in detail how or what was going on. I didn't want to be very discriptive on a voicemail so I had originally said that I was up all night with stomach problems.

It didn't take more then 5 minutes with my Dr [whom btw is fabulous!] when she diagnosed me with appendicitus. She made a call to the Hospital she works with and they were expecting me to show up at the er soon after I left her office.

Well I called my Grandma "If I stop by your house, do you think you could take me to the emergency room?" That is the last thing she was expecting to hear from me but of course she said she would.

We arrived at the er at 3:26 and I was finally placed in a bed about 5pm. The Doc wanted to first rule out "female problems" [der I just had my period and how long has it been since I have seen Suisse??], then I had to do a series of xrays - for what I really don't know. After the results of the x-rays came back they brought me 2 large 33 ounce bottles of water mixed with an iodine solution that I had to drink. 10 ounces every 15 minutes. I started at 10 to 7pm and didn't finish until two hours later. I had thrown up some of it when I was more then half way done. That shit tastes discusting and really makes you nauseated.

It was a little after 9 when they finally wheeled me into the ct room for my scans. First though they had to give me a shot of morphine for the pain and some other crap for the nausea. That morphine shot really messed me up. I was higher then a kit and not liking the trip. Not only that but I had visions of my Mom laying in her bed with the morphine drip attached to her. I had quite a few break downs because of thinking about her... The first, not to go back, was at my Dr's office. The computer screen that was up said:
Mother: (living) breast cancer at age 43
Maternal Grandma: (deceased)breast cancer at age 43
I had to correct her on the medical history that in fact my maternal grandma was very much living and my mother was not.

Anyhow, it was off for my scans. Even at close to 10 at night they were able to email the scan results to a Dr. at home for their review and report. Unfortunately for me though that meant that I was told I had appedicitus and they were calling the surgeon in immediately to do a consult. The Dr. wasn't sure if the surgeon would want to do it that night or wait until morning. It was that night though. The surgical team was all ready there, just my luck, and as soon as they were able to get my bag o'antibiotics through my iv tube I would be wisked away to the OR.

For being my first surgery I wasn't too scare. I was nervous since this was all happening so damn fast but also I just wanted to get it over with. I didn't like the idea of staying the night at the hospital but thankfully since this was my first appendicitus attack it was still fairly mild and they could do the surgery laparoscopically I would only have 3 small incisions and would only have to stay that night and most of the next morning for observation to make sure everything was taking well.

My OR doc was great, so was the anesthesiologist, very funny guys which made the entire experience that more comforting.

I had the hardest time in the recovery room. Coming out of the anesthesia I because very sick and threw up a lot, mostly reichting though because I hadn't eated anything that Friday other then a small bowl of cereal at 11 that morning.

They moved me into a room after recovery and talk about a bad choice of roommate pairing. There was a half deaf bitch of a woman sharing my room and at 2am, vomiting, shaking and having breathing problems [from the pain shot they gave me, bad reaction], I was not in the mood for the TV to be on blasting. I asked the nurse to see if she could turn it down but I heard the reiched woman say "if I turn it down I can't hear it, I'm almost deaf!!" To which I retorted "It's two o'clock in the god damn morning to fucking sleep allready!"

That damn woman complained the entire time and argued with the nurse, something about her baby not being able to sleep away from her and she needed her husband to come up with the baby so she could get some sleep. Of course they don't allow small children in that wing of the hospital and it was well beyond visiting hours.

Because I was having such a difficult time with these meds they gave me, or bad reaction I should say. They moved me into a room that was much quieter. Now I don't remember a lot of this so I am going by my Grandma's word.

I slept the rest of the night and kept napping through out the day. Finally they released me after 230pm - I was there exactly 23 hours total, me and my Grandma.

I don't stitches but I do have a super glue type adhesive thing on all 3 lacerations. One on the top of my pelvic bone, one in my belly button and the last one under my right breast.

I have been given strict instructions not to lift anything, walk very carefully and not too much, no working at least for the next week and I can't even drive for 2-3 days since I have a manual transmittion car. The other restrictions are all for 4 weeks - including sexual activities... that I can do standing on my head by now.

Okay, so now it's Sunday, I slept from 6 pm yesterday until 9am this morning at my Grandma's. I will stay here for Sunday dinner and then my brother or someone will have to drive me back to my apartment because I can't drive my own car right now. There I will stay for the remainder of the week bored out of my mind.

At least I have internet back again! Okay I have to get off this computer, I am getting sick just reading all this as I type.