This month we've had the opportunity to get together with a lot of family! For conference weekend, Megan came down to visit. The weekend after that Steph and Marc came through town. The weekend after that, Megan came to visit again and we've gotten to see Geoff each of those weekends as well I think. We had a ton of fun with each of them, and somehow, I didn't remember to take any pictures!! We're grateful to have family pretty close so that we're able to get together and have some fun!
What Happened?
It was especially nice to have family visit because the Thursday before conference weekend when Megan came to visit, I had a nice surprise visit from a thing called surgery. I've never had to be in the hospital (that I can remember) for anything and I've never had surgery or broken a bone before. I had been having some really crazy abdominal pains all Wednesday evening and through the night. I didn't get much sleep at all but kept telling myself if I can relax enough to make it though the night, we can go to the doctor in the morning instead of the hospital. Having not much relief in the morning, we went to the doctor to figure out what was going on. They had a few concerns of what it could be--one of which was appendicitis. Thankfully, I'd been feeling so sick I hadn't eaten anything so when they told me I needed to go to the hospital for the ultrasound, I was good to go incase I needed surgery.
As it turns out, I did in fact have appendicitis and had a stone in my appendix. They said the stone is not an overly common thing, but they've seen it a few times before. Stone or no stone, had I not come in when I did, they said it probably would have burst within about 24 hours. With that news, they said I need to go in for emergency surgery as soon as possible.
Admitted to the Hospital?
I had a few minutes to contact those who I needed to contact before we walked across the street and checked into the hospital. I was a little naive about what the hospital experience would be like. Appendectomies are pretty routine, they said it's normally a same day (in and out) procedure. I figured, I get knocked out, they make a few cuts, I wake up and go home.
I may have been slightly naive in my assumptions. I was not a fan of all of the waiting, questions, and a million and ten nurses that would come in to ask the same questions while I waited. By the end of it, I thought if one more person asked me my birthday, I was going to scream. The wait before surgery was fine though. I had a really old school TV that I watched the end of Ellen on, and a delusional man near me who had mixed alcohol and drugs who kept saying ridiculously hilarious things (Don't worry, he was fine and stable, just out of it). Turns out laughing isn't the most comfortable thing to do while waiting for an appendectomy.
The long and the short of it: I had a lot of free time in the hospital, so you get a lot of pictures :)
The comparison of my naive before shot and the picture Jimmie took a few hours after surgery I think is one of the best. So funny. I guess I never fully understood how much even little things can hurt.
As you can see though, I was pretty happy when I got to see my sweet husband again who brought me a snuggly teddy bear. I was pretty lucky that even though I wasn't very with it while coming out of surgery, I was able to have a great husband and brother who were able to be there to visit with me, give me a blessing, and keep me entertained for most of the night as I struggled to stomach bites of jello and so many ice chips.
This little thing was fun... It wasn't in my arm super well so it kept twisting around and getting kinks in it. The machines kept going off as soon as I fell asleep to tell me it was twisting. Even though this was pretty early on, you can see that I was starting to bruise pretty bad. By the end of it, my arm was straight purple.
Staying the Night
I had to stay the night because I didn't actually get moved to surgery until about 4pm. The night was probably one of my least favorite parts. I made Jimmie go home because he had work the next day and I couldn't sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. There were also nurses coming and telling me I had to go to the bathroom at 3am even though I didn't feel like I needed to go to the bathroom.
The last thing anyone wants to do is get up and walk around, but apparently, that's the best road to recovery. Well I don't think they realized that one of my struggles of daily life is physically getting out of bed without getting dizzy and passing out. That first trip up was a doozy. It probably took me 15 minutes to even get up out of bed, was not able to go to the bathroom (apparently because the anesthesia hadn't worn off) and about passed out. Thankfully, because I'm used to near-passing out, I was able to tell the nurse that I needed to go back. She had to call for backup because by the time I made it back to my bed, I couldn't hold my body up and my eyes were rolling back and some monitor was going off. Thanks to this little stunt and me becoming whiter than the sheets, I wasn't allowed to move at all without the nurses. That, my friends, makes for a fun hospital experience. Eventually I got stronger, and about 24 hrs after surgery and a few hours before going home, I was able to get up by myself and stand long enough to brush my teeth. Never have I felt more accomplished.
Day 2
I've got some pretty great friends who care about me. One of my friends from school came to visit and brought all kinds of fun games like Scategories and Guess Who. When was the last time you played Guess Who!? It was a ton of fun and bless her heart, she stayed with me for about 3 hours.
Finally, a few hours before leaving, I was able to eat some solid foods. Boy did I miss that! I hadn't really had anything to eat since Wednesday morning because I'd felt sick. This was such a nice treat.
My least favorite part?
Well, it wasn't being lonely. It wasn't being bored. It wasn't having pain where they made incisions, and it wasn't the recovery. It was most definitely, hands down, the anesthesia. Most likely because I wasn't prepared for it at all. Having low doses for oral surgery is 110% different. Having your body pumped full of it so that the gas is trapped there for so long is not fun. They could have prepped me for waking up a little better. I understood I'd fall asleep and not remember. But I did NOT know that I'd wake up and feel like I was choking and unable to breathe. I woke up bawling, could not calm down, couldn't swallow, and therefore felt like I couldn't breathe. I woke up alone as the nurses were attending to the other patients, with the stupid oxygen mask on my face. Well HELLO, I don't like having things covered my mouth, it makes me feel so contained and unable to breathe so I start to hyperventilating. I would try and pull it off and get the nurses attention and they just kept yelling at me. I couldn't talk because the mouth was so dry to tell them I couldn't breathe. All I could do was cry. They just kept telling me to calm down or the medicine wouldn't work. Eventually I was able to communicate I needed water, and the brought me a heavenly ice chip. Ice Chips=miracles after this. I didn't realize that it would have such a strong effect on me, and having a dry mouth to the point where you cant swallow or talk, is one of my least favorite things in the world. Well! Now I know. And if you've never had anesthesia like that... now you do too. And by the way, your shoulders will hurt like heck because the gas bubbles apparently move up to your shoulders causing continual stabbing pain and discomfort.
Okay, that's probably enough ranting about the anesthesia. I just wish someone, anyone, would have told me about it. Because the surgery wasn't bad, but the effects of anesthesia sure as heck was.
Recovery
I'm recovering super well, and it has made no apparent negative affect on my body's health in any way. The first few days/week was a little bit slow, but not much pain. Just very weak overall. I was able to take a week off of school/work to recover. I'm super blessed to have family and friends close who love me and care so much. And I'm sure grateful that everything went smoothly and for all of the things I've learned from it. I have a greater appreciation for my regularly good health and the ability to move around like normal. The bandages have been removed, I passed my follow-up visit with flying colors, and all that's left of our fun experience are a few pictures and 3 tiny little scars. Love you all! Thank you for keeping our little family in your prayers.
