Ouch ...again!

Never a dull moment in the Pedersen Pad! I woke up very early Wednesday morning with a knot in the middle of my tummy. I hadn't heard from John from the night before (he was in Houston, traveling to Louisiana) and was worried that something had happened to him on his way home from dinner. After getting in touch that morning (turns out his phone service was having issues) I went on with my day, but still continued to have sharp pains. I developed a mild temperature and had trouble sitting straight up at my desk. I left work a bit early and immediately got in bed where the pain in my stomach continued to get worse with sharper and deeper pains. I managed to make it through the night with a few calls to John for moral support.

The next morning, I knew something was seriously wrong as the pain has isolated itself on the right side of my body and was not subsiding. After attending my physical therapy session for my foot (yes - I am still learning how to walk again), I headed into work and looked for a doctor that could see me ASAP. I was able to get into a physician close to my office and after 20 minutes from arriving, I was being rushed to the local emergency room for surgery.

It turns out it was my appendix and it needed to be removed ASAP. Everything happened so fast from there. I called John to tell him I was going into surgery and he was 7 hours away, as well as my parents (thank God they are retired) were able to meet me at the hospital before I went under. My co-worker, Stormi, closed down my computer and packed up all of my files for me and filled out all of my paperwork to get my admitted in the ER, while I tried to get comfortable in one of those super sexy gowns. You know - the ones that open to the back.

I spent the night in the hospital and the majority of the next day. Poor John was stuck with a 3 1/2 foot long couch for the night as well as the sound of all of the machines right next to his head. This picture shows the stages of the removal from left to right. I had 3 small incisions made. One in my belly button, one over the appendix and one on my pubic bone. The sugeon went in, sliced it out, put it in a baggy, dropped a couple rows of staples and took it out through one of the incisions. The surgeon said mine was pretty bad and definitely wanted to come out. There is no reason for an appendix nor is there a clearly defined reason why they get infected and need to be removed other than straight bad luck. Go figure!

I am at home now recovering and have a good two weeks to go before I am back to "normal". So happy birthday weekend to John (this would be the second one in a row that had to be rescheduled; last year was hurricane Ike) and happy two months to the day from my foot surgery was this surgery. I guess this year is the year of hospital tours for me!