Bye Bye Appendix!!

this post is dedicated to Mom, who took care of me the whole time.

On Thursday before last I wasn't feeling well, just an ordinary stomachache. On that Friday morning I was close to calling in to Best Western, where I had handed in my notice a few days earlier, but I decided to go in to set everything up. I could then leave it and let someone else clean it up. When I asked my boss if I could go (the pain started to make me nauseous), instead of being all nice about it he yelled at me for about three minutes, accusing me of always trying to get off early (actually, I'd just like to get out on time once in awhile) and of calling in sick often (once, completely legit and by-the-rules) and just not being happy. Ok, the last one was totally true, but only because he made work miserable, accusing me of not handing in an ask-off slip when I had photographic proof that I had done so. The fun, the flexibility had ended when the boss who hired me left. So I left, right there in the middle of my shift. If I wasn't going to be allowed to leave when I needed, I didn't feel a need to go back.

Probably a good idea, since what happened on Monday would've kept me out anyway. Matt and I went to Dodgeville for the weekend. Matt went with Joe and a couple other friends to the Tomah tractor pulls while Mom and I had a girls' Saturday out, heading to Platteville for Pirates 3 (ending was disappointing) and some laughs. I felt soooooo much better. On Sunday afternoon after Matt dropped me off I wasn't so well. I thought it was like when I was a little kid, sick for three days with 5 different illnesses, so I didn't go into the hospital. It also wasn't localized. Over the course of the night it did get a bit more localized, on my lower right stomach area. I didn't sleep much either. I called the student health services a minute after they opened and went there about an hour later. They made me do all sorts of tests, but I was barely registering anything over the unusual. I didn't even have much of a temperature. However, they felt it could very well be appendicitis, and sent me to the hospital about 3 hours (of which I spent about 2 waiting for test results by napping in a spare room) after I had arrived.

It was a good thing they did, for after waiting another almost 3 hours I finally got a CT scan which read that I did indeed have a perforated (not completely ruptured, but on the way there) appendix. My friend Zondra had come to the ER to wait with me until Mom came and both were there until I found out.

My surgeon was awesome. At first he thought that the appendix may have completely ruptured, perhaps in several pieces, b/c the CT scans weren't the most clear. He said that I had a couple of choices, including surgery now or lots of antibiotics and surgery later. He laid out my options, with pros and cons, and didn't pressure me. At the least I'd be in for a couple of days and at very worse I would be in almost two weeks. For me, it was surgery now or surgery later. With this being the slowest time for catering, a bit crazy for my internship (budget season) but they'd understand, and Best Western gone, I felt that surgery now was my best option. So at 8PM Monday night I headed into OR #6.

When I woke up...well, the first time I remember I must've just woken up because I was cold, surrounded by people taking off the little vitals sensors they stick on, and rather fiesty for I was COLD. The second time I was talking to the doc, who thought I wouldn't remember that he said that everything went really well. I also remember seeing the very nice anesthesiologist after surgery. After that I woke up in the recovery room, and two nice nurses took me back to my room. The poor elevator barely held us all. We went to my room, G6-666. Yeppers....all sixes.

Mom and Dad were both there, as well as Matt (I think). He soon left because he went down to Dodgeville to take care of Buddy and Daisy. Dad left shortly after midnight. Mom had them make up a bed next to mine so she could keep an eye on me. Perhaps she was nervous that I'd try to catch one of those cute male interns without me concerned about my bum hanging out of that really skimpy hospital gown. :D Anyway, neither of us were going to get much sleep that night, because they were in and out every hour...well, except for that extra twenty minutes that the nurse gave me because she was having lunch at 2AM..I was very grateful for that.

I wasn't 100% the next day, but I did stay awake for most of Grandpa and Gloria's visit. Uncle Gary and Zondra also stopped by for a few hours to keep me company. Grandma Barb and Grandpa Marty sent flowers. The worst part of the afternoon was that one of the residents tried to kick me out early. She didn't even look at my chart, trying to convince me that I was on a different medication (which I wasn't), telling me that insurance wouldn't pay for an extra night that I needed because she didn't see any medical need for it, and pushing through the paperwork in record time. Zondra told me I should contact Dr. Cho and after the medication argument, I knew I must. I was afraid she wasn't getting info right, including possibly my discharge. I knew I wasn't ready to go. I hit the nurse's call button and asked to speak to my surgeon (who is also an attending). I had two nurses at my door asking me if everything was ok within a minute, and the resident within 5, apologizing for trying to push me out the door. At one point she'd dragged another resident in to try and explain to me the importance of getting out of the hospital when I wasn't sick because there were sick people there...duh. Problem was that I was still sick. Another resident came in the following morning again apologizing for the rude one, saying that she was new to the job. I just told her I was upset that she hadn't read the chart and that someone else may have had the same problem I did. My surgeon himself came in a few hours later to check on me and also apologize about the overzealous resident he had told to discharge a few patients. The surgeon said I could stay as long as I needed. He came back again at 5:50AM on Tuesday morning to make sure I was feeling better.

It was fairly uneventful from there. Since they'd done all the discharge stuff the day before, it was easy to leave Tuesday morning. Mom went to my apartment to take care of Ollie and getting me clothes and such. We headed back to Dodgeville and stayed there until Sunday, when Mom and I came back to Madison. We fed the very hungry fishy and met Matt for a movie "Evan Almighty" which was EXCELLENT and dinner. Then I got left at Madison to try and get used to the daily grind.

My Monday's been pretty quiet. On Friday I had applied to several AmeriCORPS programs, basically PeaceCORPs for the US, with people volunteering to help out communities. I got two phone calls today, one from someone from Milwaukee Public Schools and another from Spooner Elementary. Both are looking for a volunteer for the upcoming school year. I haven't given up my plans on grad school, but I think that I could also do some good before I go back in. I get health insurance and a living stipend which, although not much, is better than nothing. I've got to decide by the end of the week since I need to get registered for stuff by then. A big decision to be sure. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, I probably should head to bed. I'm getting back to my internship tomorrow and I'll be in catering on Thursday and Friday. Both jobs completely understand that I can't do much right now and have thought up really random stuff for me to do I guess. Which is really really nice of them. I look forward to some normalcy, especially since this decision is going to be very hard. Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

Lots of love to everyone, Christi and Ollie (happy to have me home)