I don't know why I never sat down to document the experience of my appendix removal. I don't think I ever even wrote about it in a journal. I came across a Facebook post from around the time my appendectomy happened and was reminded of the whole situation. If anyone remembers it, you'll know it was quite a whirlwind. But there were a few things I remembered that I would like to document.
So, for starters can I just say that I spent the whole previous day frolicking around White Rock beach, Vancouver and Langley, all while my appendix was just gradually getting more and more inflamed inside of me. Let me back track a bit. March 15th 2021 was the one year anniversary of some bad things happening in my life. So I had a whole day planned, filled with fun activities to celebrate my progress and hang out with friends and just have a good day. So when i woke up in the morning and felt so sick and dizzy and nauseous I was bummed but also was not about to let anything get in the way of my fun day. My last stop of the day was to my Grandparents house in Langley. I left their house around 10pm that night and actually felt like I would have to pull over on the side of the road to throw up. I didn't, but by the time I walked into my house at around 10:30pm I could barely walk it hurt so bad.
Most people probably know that one red flag for appendicitis is a sore side. It hurt to push just above my hip and it hurt to breathe, walk, laugh, sit up straight, lay down and yeah pretty much move at all. My dad drove me to the emergency room and told me that the worst case scenario would be that I had to get surgery. Then, I cried. I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to anything medical and the fact that it was in the middle of Covid and my dad couldn't even come into the hospital with me made me feel really nervous. I made it, checked in and sat and waited. I don't have to bore everyone with the details of waiting in emergency, but I found some fun photos from the night that sum it up pretty well.
I think I cried for like 14 hours straight that night/day. (I went in to surgery about 17 hours after I arrived to the hospital) I do not like needles or things going up my nose so when they gave me a covid test at the same time they put my IV in, let's just say I wasn't happy. One memory that i thought of the other day that actually had a pretty great affect on me. I was in my hospital bed losing it, talking to the nurse about my woes. The lady who was on the other side of the curtain overheard me talking about my anxieties, the worst of which was the fact that I was doing all of this without my mom and dad. Of course me being me, I also genuinely thought I was going to die but I didn't want to die without my parents by my side. Anyways, the lady opened the curtain and told me that her daughter had also recently been in the hospital for an emergency procedure a couple nights previous. She told me about how they were so scared and they didn't know if she would make it through. She told me that I was very brave for being here and that she knew my parents were proud of me.
Obviously, I am alive so I made it out of the surgery in one piece. The whole experience was quite traumatizing and awful. I think it is to blame for a lot of the anxieties/issues I have now. My nurse was great and the hospital didn't really do anything wrong ( except for the whole Covid test/IV situation) but I just remember waking up every 2 hours in a complete panic during the night, not knowing where I was. I have come to realize since then that I actually don't respond well to anesthesia at all. My surgery I had a few years after the appendectomy in 2022, it took me a full 3 days to feel completely right again. So I was definitely confused waking up alone in the pitch black, feeling sick and drugged. Fun times for sure.
Now I know this is just an appendix removal and people get them all the time and that it's a routine procedure, but it was still really scary and I can't believe I made it out alive. When I woke up from the procedure, the first thing I said was "I'm so proud of myself." I still am! I have one less organ and a big fear of hospitals but a great story to tell.
Comments
Post a Comment