The sick saga

Being sick sucks. (warning gruesome photo ahead)

I started out last week with what I thought was period cramps. The next day I started yelling and screaming in excruciating pain. Meghan thought it was the contraceptive cramps and reminded me of how bad hers were. It made sense. So I told myself to suck it up and take it. But it seriously felt like dengue but concentrated in my abdomen. It was like stabbing and wrenching altogether in my body. Oh and also that my body decided to reject all my organs. That was fun.

The next day (30/03/2011) wasn’t much better…. I stayed in bed and  realized that I may in fact have appendicitis. So, I texted the trusty flatmate and she said “Hospital?” And thank the Lord we went because it turned out that my appendix actually burst. And there was pus around it and other organs. Good times. That was one of the most excruciating cab rides of my life AND I walked to it. I’m not one to brag but I was a soldier that day. They pretty much admitted me right away and put me in the plaster room at the time because there was no space but then they ended up putting me in an actual room. Doctor after doctor after nurse after nurse kept coming in and telling me “soon… soon… soon” and also the timeline. I was getting a bed first and THEN going into surgery… but thank GOD again that a theatre opened up and I was wheeled straight to surgery.

In the anesthetist’s room I was sooooo discombobulated. So many things were going on and I didn’t know where to place my concentration. It didn’t help that I couldn’t see so that was out. Eventually they got everything together and then they had me hold the mask on my face and the next thing I remember is being in recovery! No, “okay countdown” or “we’re going to start now…” just BAM! Gone.

Then I was wheeled up to a room of 6 people and I was the youngest by at least 20 years. Well, four out of us are 69 and above. One woman was around early 40s I’d say. But in any case, there was this one woman, who was excruciatingly annoying. Like she was all in everyone’s business all the time. Such a gossip. It was almost like God’s way of saying, “See? This is what happens when you’re a gossip.” Oh and I ended up looking like this:

Hospital fashion

The next day I felt pretty okay but then the horror began. It felt again as if my (now non existent) appendix blew. Every time I moved it was painful. I had been vomiting like crazy and so I had an NG tube put in… That was so not fun! They started sucking everything I had in my stomach out because nothing was going the other way. Good times. It took a few days but I got an x-ray and then a CT and it was confirmed that I had an obstruction. I had an open surgery and this time I made sure to take more notice of when I was going to sleep. In the anesthetic room, the doors broke so for a while it looked like we wouldn’t be able to get out. It was pretty funny actually. They had me hold the mask again and I tried to really take notice of what was going on but it was not happening. OUT super fast again. Haha.

(At the end of this paragraph is the promised gruesome photo... I just know some people like this stuff that's all... Haha) Since the surgery, I’ve been in a lot of pain again but honestly more than anything, it’s been more like I just want to get out of here. I was on a self-administering morphine drip but it kept making me sick. So then they put me on Demerol but that made me dizzy. So then I was on basically nothing much for a day and that was like the most excruciating day of my life. I was in so much pain. It felt like I was dying all over again. But I think that was an important turning point. Since then, I’ve been on oxynorm and oxycontin but I try to not use it very much because of the constipation factor. But I definitely feel SO much better! Even though I look like this: