I am finally home recovering from… get this, APPENDICITIS! What a crazy freaking ordeal. Aside from having Alex, I have never ever been hospitalized, and now I have been operated on twice in the small span of one week. CRAZY. Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?
About a week ago, I had routine surgery to remove a walnut sized growth (cyst? lipoma?) on my right shoulder. No biggie, the cyst was a little too large to remove in the office, so it had to be done in the hospital under sedation. The procedure took a little over an hour, followed by an hour in recovery, and then I was sent home on my merry way, albeit a little sore. All in all it wasn’t too bad, except that I was told to lay off lifting heavy objects for a while (ahem, like hyperactive 22-month-old toddlers). Well, I was still recovering from this when…
Fast forward to a little after midnight on Wednesday morning. I was experiencing what I thought was well, bad gas. Anyone who knows me, knows that I will avoid taking medication at all costs (I am a big sissy when it comes to ingesting pills that don’t taste like candy and have cartoon characters on them). Well, my stomach felt like it was a giant balloon being pumped and pumped with air until it would eventually explode. Even with one of those microwaveable heating pads on my tummy, the pain was so bad that Rich was able to persuade me to take not only Tylenol, but also Tums (I hate these, yuck), and even some expired (2005) gas pills. We thought maybe I was having a reaction to the antibiotics I was taking for the shoulder surgery, so I convinced Rich to call my surgeon to see what she thought.
When Rich finally got her on the phone he said something like, “she says her stomach hurts real bad and she thinks it’s because of her antibiotics.” Now maybe I am exaggerating a little, but I just didn’t feel like Rich had properly conveyed the PAIN and AGONY I was feeling. But in any case, the doctor assured us that if I was having a reaction to the medication, I would have had it sooner rather than later, and that it was probably just gas or constipation. She suggested I take some Milk of Magnesia to settle my stomach. So I sent my good husband to the 24-hour pharmacy to get me M.O.M. and whatever else he could find that might possibly give me some relief.
Three hours later and the pain had worsened. I could not pass anything (gas or other– I know, too much information…) and I was writhing in pain (and tears). I really didn’t want to drag Alex to the ER with us, so I tried my best to suck it up and see if the meds I took would do their thing. But by 5am I was at the end of my rope. I called my mom to come watch Alex (I prefaced the early wake up call with the lie that “mom, this is not an emergency”) so we could head over to the ER.
To be continued…