I had big plans for Wednesday, March 12! Brie and I were going to head to Alec's sister, Anne's, house for the first part of the day to celebrate his mom's birthday. Then that night we were going to be hosting bible study at our house, with the new church we have recently started attending in the last couple weeks. Well....that all changed super fast when my appendix decided to become infected!
It all started Tuesday night, I went to Allyson's food tasting for the wedding with her. Afterwards we were leaving there to go and get a drink together and talk wedding, I said to her, "Man, I kind of have 'gut rot'" I had almost a heartburn sensation right above my naval, common for me though. I just figured I had eaten too much or something wasn't sitting right. We went out and got a drink, I felt totally fine the entire time. I came home and talked with Mike and Lauren, my brother and sister in law that babysat Brie for the evening since both Alec and Mike (who lives with us) were in Wisconsin for work. I was feeling a little 'ick', but after they left I took some stomach medicine (Tums and Zantac). It was now about 10:30/11pm; I was in bed and called Alec to say goodnight to him. While on the phone with him I really started getting uncomfortable, I even said to him "I don't know how I am going to sleep through this, my stomach REALLY is hurting" At this point I was still figuring it was just some gut problems I was having. We even joked how the food we were going to be having for the wedding gave me a stomach ache....oh great!
Well I just figured I would try and go to sleep and it'll go away. I could not get comfortable, and the pain was just getting worse. Finally around 12:30a I got up and threw up; I threw up again around 1:30 and 2:15. It was after the 3rd time I was laying in bed wondering why oh why I was getting NO relief from the pain after I threw up. At this point I have not slept a wink, was so uncomfortable, and was just laying in bed imagine all the awful things that could possible be wrong with me. Laying on my back I was pushing my hands on my abdomen to try and relieve some of the pain; I realized I had almost no pain on the left side and could barely even touch the right side. I laid there and thought about this fact and immediately thought "OH CRAP! I know very well what this could be....." So like any normal person would do, I grabbed my phone and immediately googled appendicitis. Sure enough I met like 5 out of the 6 bullet points of symptoms on WebMD. I called Alec, who had said to keep him posted if I was feeling worse, and told him I think this may be appendicitis. I decided I needed to call someone more qualified and called Alec's mom, thank heavens she answered right away (2:30am). I told her what was going on and she definitely thought it was appendicitis. At this point though my adrenaline was going (which can mask pain) and so then I started panicking that I was making this all up and I was being dramatic. She assured me if I was unable to sleep through the pain it was bad. We realized though we still needed more people involved since I was home alone with Brie. I got a hold of my brother, Bryant. Again, so thankful he answered his phone at like 2:30am! He and his wife, Kaitlin, were more than willing to jump up and come over and help. The roads were terrible with snow, so it took them a long time to get here. At this point I was in TONS of pain. They arrived and Kaitlin stayed at the house and Bryant took me to the hospital. Oh. My. Word. That was a loooooong drive; I struggled the entire way there. My poor brother.....I was literally writhing in pain while in the car and at some point my hands/arms went numb in response to the pain. I will say without a shred of doubt in my mind it was more pain than being in labor was for me.
We arrived to the ER the same time as my mother-in-law, around 4am. She said she knew it was us pulling in because we just ROARED up to the front entrance and he threw it in park. I actually felt a little better just being at the hospital knowing we were where we needed to be and we could figure it out from here. I slowly got feeling back in my hands and my pain level came down from a 10/10 to probably a 7/10. From there we got all checked in, got the IV in me, started fluids, and talked to the doctor. I did have to ask after a little bit if I could get some pain meds, it got really bad again and we had to wait a while for the nurse to bring my something......grrrrrr. I needed IV pain meds about every hour before I ended up having surgery just to give you an idea of what type of pain I was in! They did an CT with contrast which is what confirmed the appendicitis. I finally went into surgery around 11:30am I believe, so we had to do a lot of waiting around.
Alec was traveling back from WI the entire time this was going on, the roads were awful for him as well. He actually arrived to the hospital just as I was getting out of surgery, so he was able to come see me in the PACU (room you go to right after surgery) afterwards. I was a little loopy post anesthesia, I guess I announced to him like 5 times I had to pee in a bedpan :) This was a new experience for me and I was proud! I just kept saying after surgery how much better I felt, I was so glad they were able to get that evil thing out of me with no issue! They surgery was performed laparoscopically; I have 3 small incisions on my abdomen. They took me up to my room and admitted me under observation (patients that stay less than 24hrs), around 1pm. As long as my pain was controlled and I was able to eat something ok they said I could go home that evening. And that was no problem, I was discharged around 6pm.
I cannot emphasize enough how thankful I am for all the family that helped me through this. My mother-in-law stayed at the hospital with me ALL day, from 4am-2pm....and she only got like 1.5hrs of sleep before coming! Bryant and Kaitlin stayed with Brie all day pretty much while I was in the hospital. Alec's sister, Lauren, was able come over for the later afternoon and be there until we got home. And then my mom came the next day and was such a huge help with taking care of Brie, doing laundry, and making us some food. Alec and I fully recognize how blessed we are to be surrounded by such loving and caring family!
My recovery is going well. I have a 20lb weight restriction, which Brie is far more than 20lbs. So it has been hard not lifting her up, but by Monday the surgeon said I can lift her up very occasionally (into bed and high chair basically) if I lift properly. I haven't been taking the narcotic pain meds anymore, just motrin and tylenol, and that has controlled my pain well. Taking it easy the next couple days though for sure, don't want to push it and set myself back. I am off work for 2wks, my manager has been so great about it all and even called me to check in and see how I was doing!
That was a long post, sorry! But I wanted to write it all down to keep track of it and be able to look back on it someday! Here are a few pictures my mother-in-law took while at the hospital:
This is when we were just getting settled in, lots and lots of pain.
On my way to CT to try and get some answers as to what is going on!
Finally, after a few rounds of IV Dilaudid I was able to sleep for a little bit.
Getting the full surgical experience with the special heated blanket!
This is my surgeon, Dr. Foster, he was explaining what they were going to do. I was having a lot of pain and nausea at this point and honestly didn't care. I think I actually said to him "just get this thing out of me"
Right after surgery, still in the PACU. Finally Alec is with me!
