Appendicitis Blues

As I awake Sunday morning to a gut wrenching stomach ache, I thought it was Satan once again telling me "You don't want to go to church today!!" but I carried on with my usual Sunday morning.---After all, my bishop did say he would send my records back to my family ward if I didn't attend my singles ward regularly, that did have somewhat of a burner under my butt. After getting ready, the stomach ache still present, thoughts were going through my head---food poisoning?...nah, no one else from the party was complaining. Too much chocolate fondue and chocolate cake?...maybe! Was I hungry?...possibly, so I decided to eat what I could force down--a piece of bread. Church time came and I rolled on in and chatted with Jilly Babe thinking I was feeling fine until Relief Society came---and it wasn't because it was Relief Society...I was in dying pain, and the last 20 minutes, which was going ever so slowly, felt like 3 hours. I don't think it helped any that the girl giving the lesson didn't know what her lesson was about and had he driest voice ever...Piece of gum???
As soon as I got home, my bed was calling my name...I quickly answered. The rest of that I ate dinner with the fam and slept.. Towards the later evening I kept coming up to my mom telling her that I was NOT feeling well.... She just kept asking where it hurt and what I wanted her to do about it??? NOTE: My mother is not one for much sympathy. I love her to DEATH, but she is the toughest woman in the world and just expects everyone else to be too! :)
Well, around 9:30 pm, I came up to her when the pain was getting unbearable and told her I needed to go to North Orem Instacare, something is up. She told me I might as well go to the ER, because if it's abdominal, the Instacare will send me to the ER.
We were off to the ER.
I was checked in and admitted. The doctor came in and pressed around on my stomach---OUCH! Where he was pressing and the way he was pressing, he said it was my appendix. They started an IV---a student nurse, OH boy. Not only did he stink like a dirty dish rag---yes I'm sick with a sensitive stomach, you need to smell good, but when he drew my blood, and I understand he is a student nurse, but make sure the blood isn't going ALL OVER my arm and blanket. Whew. We finally got that out of the way. I went in for the CT scan, they saw the "gunk" around my appendix, so I was blessed to not have to be given the dye that makes you feel all warm like you're going to pee your pants...no I saved that for after anesthesia!
I came back to room 11, that's what I was known as in the ER "11", I had no name. My mom asks me "Do you feel any better?"...Nope, I still had felt like crap, like I had all day long.
The doctor came back with my blood results and said my white count was not high, but there is 20% that have appendicitis that that is the case. He sent the nurse in to give me some morphine to help with the pain. My mom asks the nurse "Is that normal that her white count isn't high?" I swear that the doctor had JUST gone over this... hahaha The nurse told her in some cases, yes, it is. They had called Dr. Mark Fullmer in, the on call dr. that night. He was going to do the surgery. The nurse said that once he comes in, things would happen pretty fast, so to be prepared.
We waited.....They prepped me....We waited....We talked to the nurses in the prepping room....We waited some more....FINALLY.....the nerves were there. All of a sudden, I'm breathing heavy from the oxygen mask and out I go......
I wake up to not being able to breathe. This may sound really gross, but I have all this crap in my throat that I cannot clear. They're telling me to calm down---When you wake up from anesthesia you have no idea what has just happened--let alone not being able to breathe. So, I'm trying to cough and clear my throat, my stomach is hurting from the coughing, they have just taken my catheter out and I feel myself peeing!! The nurse was not friendly about that. ---either that or my saying sorry a million times!
I don't know what my problem was this time at the hospital with student nurses, but as soon as I got into my room, up pops another one! I think even my mom wanted to strangle him. I just wanted to sleep and he just wanted to explain EVERY LITTLE detailed thing and come into my room for EVERYTHING. Plus he gave me a huge bruise on my hip from the demerol.
I measured my incision, it is 3 3/4 inches. It is pretty depressing. I don't know if Dr. Fullmer was in a hurry and did the sloppiest job he could, but it is NOT a pretty job. I don't recommend Surgeon Dr. Mark Fullmer to anyone. Everyone my mom talks to says he needs to retire. My OB Dr. Gregory Gordon---that is another post down the road, he did my C-Section SO neat and straight, double the size of this incision and hardly noticeable. I took a picture, but I'll spare everyone the nightmares hahaha