My Appendectomy Story | Part Two

  

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If you missed the first part of my story, you can read it here. 

It's Wednesday and I'm at home with the boys, waiting for my Dr. appointment.  Things were a little different today, I had a different kind of pain. I had been jogging Sunday night, felt okay on Monday and on Tuesday I started to get really sore. I wondered if it was from jogging, I mean, I had a baby 5 months ago, maaaaybe just maybe my body wasn't used to jogging regularly again. It was lower abdominal/pelvic pain, which made me think that maybe this was something different than my other issues. But should I get this checked out? It started hurting really bad and I remember jumping out of bed one time, landing on my right foot and I felt a lot of pain. It was mainly hurting on the right side. When I started looking things up I did see Appendix on the list this time. 

I tried to camp out on the couch or on the bed with the boys but they were both so needy. They also picked this day to not sleep at the same time. My parents were in town visiting a church member who was in the hospital and they had planned on stopping by and saying hey anyway, so I texted my mom asking if they could come get Kyler. Who kept doing all sorts of crazy things including breaking one of mom and dad's movies we were borrowing! I don't know what took me so long, but I finally started saying something about how I was feeling. First, I talked to my mom and mom-in-law about it. When they heard my symptoms they BOTH urged me to go to the ER.  I posted on social media for prayer and got so many messages/comments. I think I would have been stupid not to listen to the lit up, flashing sign saying "GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM". Sooo I did. Justin was about to get off work but came home when I called anyway.  We hurriedly made plans for the boys and I left thinking "Eli has enough milk pumped for two bottles, that should hold him until I get home". Ha ha. 

So we drove our route to the hospital, only this time there was no new baby to look forward too. Rats! We waited a while and finally got checked in. They gave me Tylenol for my fever and pain when I got there and got on to me for not taking anything sooner. But honestly, I didn't want to take anything before to make my fever go down because I wanted the hospital to see my true symptoms and not think I was fine, haha! I kept putting this whole thing off like it was nothing, but deep down inside I think I knew something was wrong. I think any normal/right minded person would be like "YEAH something is DEFINITELY wrong, here!" But I have this high pain tolerance that has helped me get through some things and that's great...but it really got me into trouble this time. You gotta listen to your body! And don't ignore. Okay, so Justin and I ended up having a party in the ER all evening, only splitting a granola bar and drinking some vitamin water while they tried to figure out what was wrong with me. It was confusing because apparently my appendix is lower than it is on people generally. But the ultra sound they decided to do definitely showed it to be a horribly already burst appendix. Ugh. No wonder. As bad as it all was, I was just glad to finally figure out the problem. 

Now I really do love the hospital I was at. The people are great and so is the care. But things get busy and filled up, and I was laying on that hard table/bed thing (nurse friends, help me out here) for hours while they tried to get a room. They ended up moving me to a small room in the ER where I would sleep on a stretcher. Noooo! I want to go hoooome! I was just glad to have a room though. After my family visited me and got to see me and feel sorry for my staying in a tiny little room on a stretcher and after my sweet sister loaned my cold feet the socks she was wearing, they moved me to a nice big room with a bed. Yesss. 

I don't really know anything medically at all...so my first thought was "if it has burst, why am I still HERE!?" Because it was walled off and the poison was staying in one spot, they decided it was safe to do the surgery in the morning. Of course this is the part where my family goes crazy. Good thing my brother in law is an ER nurse at that very hospital. He knew the Dr's and nurses and respected their judgement, understood the situation and why they were waiting, and assured everyone it was fine. Okay that's good. But I was still pretty nervous...this being my first surgery. I had no clue what to expect. 

My surgery was around 11 I think, and I couldn't eat or drink anything since midnight.  When they took me down, I remember waiting and talking to a nurse, the Doctor and the Anesthesiologist.  I don't even remember them wheeling me out of the room or when they gave me the anesthesia. I barely remember looking at a light in what must have been the surgery room. And then I woke up (barely) in the recovery room and saw a nurse in the background. I remember hearing a voice next to me asking me how I was and they later told me I said, "I'm so happy!!" They said they never really had anyone wake up so happy in the recovery room, ha! I do remember feeling happy only because I was SO glad it was over and that I made it through, haha. 

After my slight panic attack when I got back to my room because I felt like I couldn't breathe (which is kind of normal after surgery because of the tube they put in your throat I think?), I was fine. Still a little out of it though, according to my family who could totally tell!  I found out a little later what happened. Apparently what was supposed to be a 30 minute-2 hour simple surgery, turned into a FOUR hour slightly complicated surgery. My good ole appendix was the worst one they said they had seen in 5 years.  It was so bad they couldn't quite tell where to take it off, so in order to do it properly they had to remove a few inches off my colon and my small intestine. Don't you love reading this!?? Hmmmm great news to hear this after waking up from some hard anesthesia! But I was still just glad the surgery was over.  

I was seriously so overwhelmed with the love that was shown to me. People visiting, people praying, people that didn't even know me were praying. I can't tell you how encouraging that is and how much of a comfort it was to know that people were lifting me up to the Lord. Plus, my flowers made my room MUCH happier. :)

Basically, a simple surgery/healing process turned into a complicated one.  The Dr. said it would be about two months until I would be back to normal again.  The first two weeks I wasn't able to lift anything heavy, which of course included my kids! That was really hard. So grateful that my husband took one whole week off of work to help me, and also grateful for my family who helped a ton after he went back to work.  In the hospital though, it was a really tough recovery time. I had four incisions due to the fact that they started doing my surgery laparoscopiclly first, only to realize that it was worse than they thought. So they ended up cutting. I mean, I always knew surgery and recovery was a hard thing, but I really feel for people now when I hear they are having surgery or had one and are recovering.  It is tough people.  And I'm a youngin'.  I can't imagine dealing with recovery like that in my old age! Those old people rock, you guys!  The first day I literally did not move except to pump, pretty much.  My feet stayed in bed. The second day I think I worked on sitting up better and pulling up. The third day was the worst. I think I started walking that day and I had to get out of bed. NOT FUN. I had to re learn how to walk, or so it felt.  The space that would take a person like 2 minutes to walk, took me like 20 minutes.  I was proud of every little bitty inch my feet took me.  They also had me working on my breathing while I was at the hospital. I literally would sometimes forget to breathe good, and the machine would chew me out.  I had this thing I would blow in to help my breathing and so I wouldn't get pneumonia.  I had one nurse (my favorite) who would make me cough every time she came in. I hated it, but I needed it. So I appreciated it.

                        

I had my surgery on Thursday, and I got out on Monday. Y'all, it was hard to go that long without Kyler and Eli!

  

 They did amazing. I was so worried about Eli going back to breastfeeding. I kind of had this fear that he wouldn't go back so easy. But he did! I kept pumping a day after I got out of the hospital because I still had morphine in my system...I just didn't feel comfortable breastfeeding him like that. When I got out I went on ibuprofen. It was so funny because my mom went to get him out of his crib for me the morning I was going to start feeding him again. And it's like he knew, he was so happy when he came to me and knew exactly what to do. The doctor later told me he was more surprised (very surprised that he did so well!) that he went to a bottle so easily after being breastfed for five, almost six months. I'm so proud of my boys. I think my little Eli just loves his food too much to go without it! He didn't seem to enjoy the formula as much as my milk though I noticed. He also seemed to be breaking out. I'm so thankful I'm able to breast feed him. I know not everyone is able to do that. It was hard keeping it up without him at the hospital, but so worth it. For any of those going through the same thing, I started not producing as much while I was in there and I was worried about him not having enough. I started taking fenugreek though, and that helped a lot. I also got plugged milk ducts on both sides (which is always super fun and super non painful right...) and I applied eucalyptus oil to it and that helped. Also heat helps, like warm tea bags. 

I spent the first few days out of the hospital at my mom and dad's before Justin got off work for a week. They live an hour away so I just stayed at their house. If you ever want pampering, go to your parents house. ;)

 Our whole family was so good to us during this whole thing.  Justin's parents watched both boys and made sure they brought them up to the hospital to come visit me.  Justin's mom and sister later stayed with me at home for a day to help with the boys and cleaning up the house. I'm so beyond thankful that the boys have such a close and fun relationship with their Grandma, Pop Pop and aunts.  I know they are family by marriage, but they are seriously my real family! Staying at my mom and dad's house was healing for my body and refreshing for my spirit.  I just love those two and I love the love they constantly show Justin, me, and the boys. They are always so giving and sacrificial of their time, always putting others before themselves. So thankful for them and the relationship we have with them. 

 

 

 

Since my surgery I have had slight complications but I am SO pleased to say that I feel completely normal now and it has been over 3 months. I felt normal after 2 months. I had to take a laxative to clean out my body because I had horrible pain from being clogged up. My body still had to get used to doing without a few things. ;) I was just thankful that it was not an infection that set in, because as good as they were to me, the LAST thing I wanted was to go back to the hospital!  I'm just so, so thankful I can play with my boys and be there for Justin without being in pain.