Apparently, God creates us all fearfully and wonderfully with this one little thing that we really don't need.
An Appendix.
And...apparently, mine didn't want to make it's cozy home attached to my colon any longer. So, it decided to be a pain in my side. Literally!
Since this blog is a scrapbook of our lives and my acute appendicitis is atypical, I thought I'd document it...for my children's sake at the very least.
Let's back up to this time last week....
After church on Sunday, we made our usual stop at "The Pepper" {a local Mexican restaurant we frequent} for lunch. We came home and I felt fine until just before bedtime. I put on my jammies just before bed and noted to Scott that my tummy felt really swollen and bloated. I, of course, attributed it to too much Mexican food. ;)
Monday morning I had my normal routine with two cups of coffee and some Jesus. I followed it up with my favorite two egg "pancake" topped with some peanut butter. {When I say I eat the exact same thing every day, I mean it...except for dinner. Breakfast and lunch are always the same though. I'm OCD like that.}
I felt fine until about mid-morning when my tummy started cramping. Let's just suffice it to say that I spent the remainder of the morning and most of the afternoon in the bathroom. I went to my Ladies Bible Study that night since I had not eaten anything and was feeling a little better with my gut completely emptied.
Tuesday morning, the kids and I had plans to go see my daddy. He had just returned from a two week trip and we were anxious to spend some time together. Except I was in pain. It started in the middle of the night and woke me up twice. A sharp pain in my right side. I tried to sleep flat on my back and that seemed to ease it some. Hard headed me decided to push through and get dressed to go see Grandaddy. So I did.
On the way to his house, my back began having the sharp pain to the point that I was completely uncomfortable. This coming from someone who NEVER takes pain pills...and even after 3 C-sections only took motrin for pain. I have a crazy high tolerance for it. {Maybe that's why I decided to run a marathon last year??? Nah, just crazy!}
So, we arrived at Grandaddy's and I was in tears. I called my doctor's office and they told me to come on in. My doctor thought that it was an appendicitis immediately and sent me for a CT scan that afternoon. I had to drink this chalky stuff first though.
CT scan at 3 on Tuesday and the results ordered STAT. I go back to my doctor's office across the street and he says the results were "indecisive". My appendix was "enlarged" but apparently no appendicitis??? He wasn't comfortable with that so he prescribed me pain pills {still never filled the prescription} and said for me to come back first thing Wednesday morning.
I go home and sleep great! I still have little to no appetite and hadn't since Monday morning.
{In the midst of all this, my husband had to drive back from Florida. He got home around 8pm on Tuesday night after driving almost 12 hours straight. Bless him!!!}
Wednesday morning, Scott and I go back to the doctor. I'm actually feeling better. Now I have more of an all over radiating pain but nothing sharp. I also started sweating and feeling like you do at the end of the flu. My body temp actually went down to 97.3.
No wait at the doctor and he wants a second opinion so he sends me to the new hospital down the road and beside our church to see a surgeon.
{I made a pit stop to see a precious 1 day old baby boy and the new beautiful mama who were at that hospital, too. Amanda took care of my babies for so long and I just HAD to see her sweet boy first! After all, I actually felt better than I did on Tuesday!}
After my little stop, I head to the surgeon. He looks at the CT results, comes in to chat about my symptoms and then tells me that he'd already booked the OR before he walked in the room! I was having surgery in AN HOUR!!!!
My daddy rushes my kids to the hospital...I head over to surgery and began getting prepped...and it's go time.
I did so well in recovery that they sent me home almost immediately afterwards. I was home by 3:30 after having surgery at noon.
To my children: Mommy never ran a fever or had the excruciating pain or threw up like most describe with an appendicitis. I actually thought I may have had just some food not sit right with me. I took a shower and washed my hair that day and honestly didn't think I'd need surgery. However, the surgeon said that I did in fact have acute appendicitis. It's very scary once it ruptures so he's glad that we got that second opinion and got it out early.
Now the fun part begins...recovering.
No lifting over 10 pounds for 2 weeks. And with a little Velcro baby that has finally attached so well and stays as my shadow this is proving to be much more difficult than I thought. Big brothers are a big help!
But, I can lay in the grass and play in the floor and am only taking a little motrin as needed. I like to listen to my body and know what's going on {which is probably how I caught this little hiccup so early}. I'm enjoying sticking my feet in the water as I can't swim for two weeks either and am thankful that I can.
When you've been through so much...so much harder than an appendicitis...you learn to look for the silver lining. And there's so much silver here that I can't contain it! It'd for sure make one gaudy looking chain long enough to stretch around all five of us here and the sixth one in Heaven and back at least twice.
Yesterday, I found silver in my baby girl wearing a bonnet like the one my mom made me...and my boys helping their daddy early in the morning doing "working guy stuff"...and the sun shining...and having my husband by my side as I lay in bed at night.
Today, we woke up hand in hand on the 12th anniversary of the day we said "I do"...and that's more than I could ever be thankful for with all that we've faced.
Appendicitis or not...I pray I'm always seeing the glass half full as I am right now.
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