I feel like a part of me missing

ha ha well something is missing! I got my appendix removed and I really don't miss it since it spent it's last hours within my body causing me huge amounts of pain! So I am going to share the story since I am BORED out of my mind while I am banned from work by my doctor. I mentioned in a previous post that I have been having some gastrointestinal problems well hopefully this is the cause of it. Last Wednesday, December 1, 2010 I was at work and I had an attack from within. I felt like my guts were having some sort of war. After 10 minutes of just sitting there the pain went away for the most part but I had some nausea and over-all blah-ness. So I went home after work and just hung out and then about ten, my bed time, (please don't make fun of me, I know that's an old lady bed time) my tummy started to hurt again. So I took some Prilosec and went to bed. I woke up aboyt two hours later because I was in soooo much pain. I tried so hard to go back to sleep or even just to get comfortable. No luck. So after about 1.5 hours of this I decide to text my friend, Jared, who is a NP as well as genius. To see if he thought my diagnosis of appenicitis was going to get me laughed at if I went to the ER. He didn't text me right back so I tried to watch Inception, thinking that thinking would take away some of the pain. Nope, it was only getting worse! So Jared texts me back and I didn't have diarrhea and I hadn't vomitted (despite my best efforts) but when I tried to hop on one foot (I am sure I looked like an idiot) I almost died with the pain. Also I looked on www.webmd.com one of my favorite websites and it said my symptoms could indicate appendicitis and and it also said if your instincts are telling you that you have appendicitis, follow your instincts. ha ha So between Jared saying that I have to go to the ER now, it's 3 something am, and my instincts, I decided to call Chase to take me to the hospital. Luckily he woke up. And he came and got me and took me Timp's ER. I bawled because I had to go there because of insurance reasons, I know I would have been way more comfortable at UVRMC where I would know most of the people in the ER atleast. Anyways, I got to the ER and checked in and said I have an appy to the registrar. And so they walked me back to the room and the doc came in and listened to my story and then said "everyone thinks that because they have abdominal pain on the right side that they have appendicitis but I think you have an ovarian cyst that has ruptured." I'm thinking "pretty sure I don't have a cyst, this is hurting too much, for too long for that but you're the doctor." So they start an IV and when I go to pee for my urinanalysis the ultrasound tech takes me (so Chase thought I falled in the toilet) Well the ultrasound tech had to be a little mean and push really, really hard when she saw that both of my ovaries were in pristine condition and had to begin looking for the source of my pain.... 45 minutes and many tears and curses under my breath I was taken back to my room. As I pass the desk the tech says, "better call the surgeon" so I knew I was in for a treat! About 30 seconds later the ER doctor came in and said I had appendicitis. (Wonder how those words tasted!) This is where I texted my Mom and said I'm in the ER with appendicitis. So my Dad went and got the guys he works with caught up to speed so they could try to cover for him for the day so he could stay with me because Chase had a test and who wouldn't want to spend the day in the hospital with me. So the surgeon on-call was Dr. Cook and he's my favorite surgeon in the county so I was so releived to hear that news. Bad news was he probably wouldn't get to me until the afternoon. Good news I got my good old friend Corby as my nurse for a while! So they moved me up to a room and kept me comfortable with morphine and zofran. I love medicine! So that was a really boring part. Finally Dr. Cook's assistant came and explained the surgery and yada, yada and before he was done the orderly was there to take me down. Yikes. I have never had general anesthesia. Plus I was going to be intubated which total made me nervous. So they rolled me down to holding and I waited. They asked me some questions, Dr. Cook came (ha ha he recognized me from the ER and the Dr who was going to put me under talked to me and then it was time and I don't remember... Then I wake up. Holy crap. I have been cut in half with a chainsaw. (that's what it felt like) Then I start yelling for my Dad. The recovery nurses probably wanted to shoot me. I think I fell back asleep then. Then I woke up and yelled for my Dad again. The nurses told me I could see him when I was more awake. ugh. Then I fell back asleep. Then I woke up and in my little mind I think"if I smile they will think that I am more awake" so I do the biggest smile I know (how it really looked? I probably don't want to know) So I hear the nurse go "she's smiling, she must be more awake than we thought." My thoughts, "it's working!" Then I wake up in my hospital room. I could hear my Mom. I was really, really grumpy! And I recall very little of this. I was really mad because it was like after 6 and I was only supposed to be on the table 20 to 60 minutes so in my mind I was sure that the surgery had not gone well or they had found a cancerous tumor or something. They didn't but it took me a while to be convinced. What had taken me so long was that I was not waking up. I fell asleep while Chase tried to feed me my delicious green jello. So that night I slept and the nurses woke me up every chance they got. The next day I woke up feeling not that bad. I went for a walk, ate jello, ice cream, and orange juice because they brought me cream of wheat for breakfast. barf. So I'm thinking oh yay I get to go home. Suddenly, it is afternoon and my pain is way out of control. Turns out my nurse didn't know I was supposed to get Toradolas well as Dilaudid. So I maxed out my narcotics and the nurse tells me no more pain meds and I am dying! She says the only thing i can have is a percocet. Well I haven't really eaten for 2 days almost but I was desperate so I took it anyways. Thirty minutes later I threw up all over the bathroom. ugh. Gross and it hurt. So I go back in lay in my bed and my nurse comes in and I say why did they take away the torodol away? That's when we found out she hadn't been giving it to me all day because she didn't know it was ordered. Well she came and gave me a dose of that and things were much better for me! They talked to the doctor and he had kinda planned on me staying that night anyways because apparently my appendix was HUGE. My belly button incision is extra large because my appendix didn't fit out so they had to make it bigger. Yikes, good thing that thing didn't rupture! So my Mom and Chase came to visit that night and then I went to sleep. The next morning and I woke up to Dr. Cook shaking me awake. He says he's going to let me go home but he wants me to take 3 weeks off! WHAT?!?! I told him that was a ton and he's like you have to atleast wait until you see me on December 14. This is sad because I don't like other people to have to do my work and I was covering for a lady I work with who had surgery. Oh dear. Good thing I have an amazing boss and co-workers! So I have been pretty bored and spent more time on Facebook and online and watching TV than I normally do. But now the 3 weeks is looking pretty tempting and I have short term disability... ha ha free money and the week before Christmas off? We shall see what the doc says! And I am sure that reading all that was more painful than the surgery itself! Thank you so so so much to my wonderful family and friends for taking such good care and me and sharing the love. Love you!
PS I will scan the pics soon! I told Dr Cook before the surgery that I wanted a copy of any pictures he took of my guts and he laughed and told me usually they don't take pics on this surgery but he would just for me and then he even wrote captions for me.