Goodbye, Mr. Appendix- Part 1

As most of you have probably heard, I lost my dear Mr. Appendix last week.

Why not Miss. or Mrs. or Ms. Appendix? I don't know.

And the story begins.....

It was a hot Tuesday afternoon- June 12th to be exact. I was done babysitting Lizzie for the morning and was down in the courtyard of our apartment complex babysitting for a family in our ward. We were outside playing when I started to notice that my stomach wasn't felling quite right.I thought maybe I had eaten something bad- and later I started to notice some not-so-fun stomach cramps, but honestly- I just thought it was just some ulcer flare-ups so I didn't pay much attention to it.

Well.....5:00 rolled around and my poor abdomen was suffering some sort of hurricane of pain-- but you see- that night was the Marathon Managers' dinner at a fancy restaurant and for all I knew I was probably just having some bad gas- suck it up, Tabitha! So that's what I did- and as much as dinner was delicious, my tummy was hurting something fierce when I walked out of that restaurant.....little did I know then what was in store that night for me.

Jared and I got home around 9:00 or so- and boy was I hurting. It hurt to walk, to bend, to sit, to stand- and  by this point in the day my pain was definitely localized to my lower right abdomen. I couldn't call my doctor so I decided to tough out the night.

Note to self and spouses.....if you or your spouse are ever in a significant amount of pain- don't try to sleep it out. Just go to the ER because both of you won't sleep anyway.

To make a long story short, I didn't really sleep- and neither did Jared with all my moaning.

However, Jared DID ask me if I wanted to go to the ER that night- and I said no. Mostly because I honestly thought it was just really bad gas and "how embarrassing would it be to go to the ER for gas....I mean really. And I'm sure my insurance would love that too"......that is what kept me from going all night...

Stupid, Tabitha.

That morning I woke up from what little sleep I had and it actually felt a little better. So I went to work.......Jared had some shadowing to do at the hospital- so he had the car.....so I decided to ride my bike to work that morning....as I rode my bike to work, I realized that the silly gas pain was still there and seemed to be getting worse again. Dang!

So like any wise young lady- I called my momma!

After talking with Momma, I decided it would be very wise to call my doctor/ go to the ER if not. I stayed the whole time with Lizzie though, but I did have to explain why I had to sit the whole time....Walking was not fun. She was a trooper.

I made some more phone calls to my doctor who set me up with a CT scan at 1:30, which worked perfect because I get off at 12:30- and Jared was able to pick me up too, which was awesome (because I did not want to ride that bike all the way home uphill).

1:15pm- I went in and had my blood drawn at the clinic

1:30pm- CT scan procedure begins....which if you didn't know involves drinking this big cup of juicy juice mixed with the contrast fluids which taste like metal....not the funnest but manageable. Oh, and you have to pace yourself over a 45 min time period.

2:20pm-rolls around and they are ready for my scan. They had my take off all metal stuff and wear scrubs. Then some kid tried to put in my IV for literally 5 mins....my veins aren't the easiest to find, but there has to be a point where you should just give up and let me someone else do it instead of continuing to play a fishing game under my skin with a needle. CT scan was quick and painless- the contrast fluids they put in my blood made me feel like I peed my pants!! No really....it totally does feel like it, and it's really weird.

Then I got my IV out and got dressed and waited for the results.

25 minutes or so later- a nurse comes out to talk to us and says that the Radiologist says my appendix is enlarged and it looks like I had an ovarian cyst that ruptured.....news to me. Maybe that was what all that pain was about last night and my appendix is just large? But after a long and annoying attempt to contact insurance and see if we would be covered to see a surgeon for a consultation- we finally went to another hospital in Orem we knew was covered and entered through the Emergency Room with all of my CT scan information.

The ER was surprisingly quiet (i've never been in an ER) except for the lady in the room next to be who was all by herself just weeping- I wanted so bad to go over there and give her a hug and say that everything would be alright. It was so sad.

At this point, I was pretty sure that contrast juice was giving me diarrhea- not so much fun- especially after my second IV was in and I was in my easy breezy hospital gown.

The ER doctor came in and pressed around my abdomen (when he pressed on my lower right side I thought I was going to cry- ouch!) and he told us he believed it was appendicitis and that it would probably be best to remove it as soon as possible. We agreed and it wasn't much longer after that, that they wheeled me back into the Operation Room.

Once in the room they moved me onto the operating table- and the last thing I remember is telling the nurse,

"I'm sorry if I poop while I'm asleep- you see I've been having bad diarrhea the past few hours and...."

Well... then everything went dark.


For your visual enjoyment- here are some pictures Jared took of me in the ER

I look pretty good, right?

This is me right before going into the O.R.- I am a little less sure about this all- can you tell?

Well- here's the proof of the pre-surgery thumbs up, because there sure weren't any thumbs ups post-surgery....but since this post is long enough- that story will have to wait until next time.