Getting ready to go into surgery
Drinking the disgusting oral contrast for the CT scan
What Nathan got to eat while I was sound asleep after surgery...I know, it's not fairUNEXPECTED APPENDECTOMY
So last Tuesday, I came home from the gym and I told Nathan that I thought I pulled a muscle in my right side. I thought I did it while I was on the torso machine trying to perfect my awesome abs (haha). It didn't really hurt...it just felt awkward when I would move a certain way. I continued my week as normal....I went to New Orleans on Wednesday for work, I went to the gym on Thursday, and I had a regular appetite. On Saturday morning, I woke up with my stomach feeling kind of weird but I thought it might just be the Mexican food I ate the night before. Nathan and I took Bella for a jog and then I went upstairs to dust and clean the bathroom. I ate lunch and shortly afterwards, maybe around noon, I started having stomach pain. It wasn't in a particular area...it was just a general pain. I thought I might be starting to have my usual stomach pain that I get every few months....kind of like gastroenteritis. I sent Nathan to the store to get some 7-Up, Gas X and Pepto just to help me out. After about 3 hours of pain, he told me he really wished I would go to the Rapid Med clinic near our house. I didn't think there was anything they could do for me....I just figured it needed to run its course. But I agreed to go to appease him and to maybe get a prescription of some sort to help me out. We got an appointment for 4PM and finally got to see a doctor around 4:40. He examined me and noted that my abdomen was pretty tender and he ordered bloodwork. When my white blood cell count came back really high, he was worried about appendicitis. I honestly thought he was completely wrong because I had always learned that appendicitis is a right-sided pain and my pain was more general. He said the only way that we could rule it out is to have a CT scan done and so we were sent down the street to the Imaging Center of Flower Mound to get a CT scan. At 7PM, they gave me the gross oral contrast stuff to take home to drink because it takes an hour and a half for it to go through my system. At 8:30PM, I had to go back up there to get the IV contrast and the actual scan. We got home about 9 and at 9:45PM, the doctor called to tell me I needed to get to the hospital to prepare for an appendectomy early the next morning. I was in complete shock and almost laughed when he said it because I thought it was crazy. But then I started thinking about the "pulled muscle" and the stomach pains and it all made sense.
The doctor was nice enough to call in some connections he had at the Denton Presbyterian hospital about 25 minutes away from us so we could get "direct admitted" instead of being admitted through the ER....it saves quite a bit of money and time to do it this way. We got there about 10:30 and I was in my room receiving IV antibiotics (apparently, you have to get two doses of IV antibiotics pre-surgery for an appendectomy) by 11:45. I sent Nathan home about 1AM because it didn't make sense for him to sleep on a crappy hospital chair when he could get some rest in our own bed. I didn't sleep much anyway because I was uncomfortable and people kept coming in to check my vital signs....soooooo annoying. Nathan came back about 5:45AM and the surgeon came to talk to us about 6:15AM to say that my surgery had been bumped by another emergency surgery that came in. So I didn't go back for pre-op until about 8AM. The surgery itself only took about 45 minutes which was impressive to me. I barely remember waking up....it was like I was too tired to open my eyes. I was pretty dosed up on pain medications which was a good thing. I was doing well enough to be released later that night and I was happy to be in my own bed.
The bad timing of this surgery meant that Nathan had to be on his own during the whole thing. My parents had gone to California to visit my brother who is stationed in Monterey, CA with the Army and they weren't due to be back until Monday night. Nathan's parents live in South Carolina so they weren't able to make it in a moment's notice. He handled everything really well and was able to distract himself with school work he had due on Sunday afternoon. My parents got back into town on Monday night and my mom stayed with us until this morning....which was a HUGE help. She cooked and cleaned and that allowed Nathan to go to work and school without leaving me alone. I feel so lucky to have her only two hours away and to have the kind of parents who are willing to drop whatever they have to help their kids. Nathan and I are both blessed that way....we both come from such good, close families. I also feel very lucky to have a husband who follows his instincts (if we hadn't gone to Rapid Med, my appendix would have burst in another day or two which is a much more complicated issue), who takes care of me, who loves my parents, who wants to update my friends/family without being asked, and who loves me unconditionally. I want to thank everyone for their texts, emails, flowers, and phonecalls this week....it's always a good feeling to know how blessed I am.
So last Tuesday, I came home from the gym and I told Nathan that I thought I pulled a muscle in my right side. I thought I did it while I was on the torso machine trying to perfect my awesome abs (haha). It didn't really hurt...it just felt awkward when I would move a certain way. I continued my week as normal....I went to New Orleans on Wednesday for work, I went to the gym on Thursday, and I had a regular appetite. On Saturday morning, I woke up with my stomach feeling kind of weird but I thought it might just be the Mexican food I ate the night before. Nathan and I took Bella for a jog and then I went upstairs to dust and clean the bathroom. I ate lunch and shortly afterwards, maybe around noon, I started having stomach pain. It wasn't in a particular area...it was just a general pain. I thought I might be starting to have my usual stomach pain that I get every few months....kind of like gastroenteritis. I sent Nathan to the store to get some 7-Up, Gas X and Pepto just to help me out. After about 3 hours of pain, he told me he really wished I would go to the Rapid Med clinic near our house. I didn't think there was anything they could do for me....I just figured it needed to run its course. But I agreed to go to appease him and to maybe get a prescription of some sort to help me out. We got an appointment for 4PM and finally got to see a doctor around 4:40. He examined me and noted that my abdomen was pretty tender and he ordered bloodwork. When my white blood cell count came back really high, he was worried about appendicitis. I honestly thought he was completely wrong because I had always learned that appendicitis is a right-sided pain and my pain was more general. He said the only way that we could rule it out is to have a CT scan done and so we were sent down the street to the Imaging Center of Flower Mound to get a CT scan. At 7PM, they gave me the gross oral contrast stuff to take home to drink because it takes an hour and a half for it to go through my system. At 8:30PM, I had to go back up there to get the IV contrast and the actual scan. We got home about 9 and at 9:45PM, the doctor called to tell me I needed to get to the hospital to prepare for an appendectomy early the next morning. I was in complete shock and almost laughed when he said it because I thought it was crazy. But then I started thinking about the "pulled muscle" and the stomach pains and it all made sense.
The doctor was nice enough to call in some connections he had at the Denton Presbyterian hospital about 25 minutes away from us so we could get "direct admitted" instead of being admitted through the ER....it saves quite a bit of money and time to do it this way. We got there about 10:30 and I was in my room receiving IV antibiotics (apparently, you have to get two doses of IV antibiotics pre-surgery for an appendectomy) by 11:45. I sent Nathan home about 1AM because it didn't make sense for him to sleep on a crappy hospital chair when he could get some rest in our own bed. I didn't sleep much anyway because I was uncomfortable and people kept coming in to check my vital signs....soooooo annoying. Nathan came back about 5:45AM and the surgeon came to talk to us about 6:15AM to say that my surgery had been bumped by another emergency surgery that came in. So I didn't go back for pre-op until about 8AM. The surgery itself only took about 45 minutes which was impressive to me. I barely remember waking up....it was like I was too tired to open my eyes. I was pretty dosed up on pain medications which was a good thing. I was doing well enough to be released later that night and I was happy to be in my own bed.
The bad timing of this surgery meant that Nathan had to be on his own during the whole thing. My parents had gone to California to visit my brother who is stationed in Monterey, CA with the Army and they weren't due to be back until Monday night. Nathan's parents live in South Carolina so they weren't able to make it in a moment's notice. He handled everything really well and was able to distract himself with school work he had due on Sunday afternoon. My parents got back into town on Monday night and my mom stayed with us until this morning....which was a HUGE help. She cooked and cleaned and that allowed Nathan to go to work and school without leaving me alone. I feel so lucky to have her only two hours away and to have the kind of parents who are willing to drop whatever they have to help their kids. Nathan and I are both blessed that way....we both come from such good, close families. I also feel very lucky to have a husband who follows his instincts (if we hadn't gone to Rapid Med, my appendix would have burst in another day or two which is a much more complicated issue), who takes care of me, who loves my parents, who wants to update my friends/family without being asked, and who loves me unconditionally. I want to thank everyone for their texts, emails, flowers, and phonecalls this week....it's always a good feeling to know how blessed I am.
1 comments:
I love you Dear! I am sorry I couldn't help with anything! I am glad you are better!
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