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| Go Fund Me page Symptoms of Appendicitis Audio Blog |
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I knew something wasn’t right as I was heading to work Monday afternoon, severe stomach pain and nausea was creeping in. As I had eaten a meatball sub just a few hours earlier, I thought it was just a touch of food poisoning. That “food poisoning” kept me up all that night vomiting, and extreme shivering when I tried to get to sleep. I called in sick the next day spending most of the day sleeping. As I was starting to feel better, I thought nothing more of the situation, thinking it was behind me. Boy was I wrong. Wednesday rolled around and I still had some stomach pain, but thought I could make it through my work day. I made it till about 5:30 (I work second shift, 2:45pm to 11:15pm) then had to notify my supervisor that something was wrong, as the abdominal pain was getting more severe and becoming more stabbing. He got me to our local hospital a little before six o’clock. After running a few tests, blood work, urine sample that the nurse’s aid described as being the color of bourbon, and a CT scan, I was informed of what I already suspected but wasn’t saying to my sister who had met me at the hospital, I had appendicitis. The ER staff immediately contacted a surgeon and scheduled surgery that night. They got me to the operating room a little before ten that night. When I came too it was 11:45pm and aside from a small amount of pain near one of the incisions, (the procedure was done laparoscopic using three small incisions) I wasn’t feeling to bad, a regained full consciousness pretty quickly. That was when my sister informed me that my appendix was in worse condition than originally thought, and that I was looking at a week in hospital to recover. Oh joy. I had my sister call my employer to let him know what was going on, he understood and told me to take the time I needed. The next morning the anesthesiologist came by to check on me and told me that my appendix should have come out a month ago. The next two days in hospital, they had me on what they call the clears diet, consisting of gelatin, black coffee, broth, apple juice, and popsicles. Basically just short of a starvation diet. By Saturday morning they put me on solid foods to see if I could keep them down, which I did, and they sent me home that day. So the predicted week long hospital stay turned out to be only three days; although I still needed to make a follow up appointment with the surgeon before getting a return to work date. I contacted the surgeon’s office the following Monday, and made an appointment for that Friday. At they time they removed the staples from my incisions and informed me that I could return to work next Thursday, as I was required to abstain from heavy lifting for two weeks from the date of surgery. During the time I was at home recovering I made a go fund me page to try and recover some of my lost pay, and maybe any costs that my insurance doesn’t cover. I went back to work with no complications. My appendix was so far gone that I pretty much got to the hospital just in time. I am posting this blog to help others avoid some of what I went through. The surgeon originally told me that if he got the entire appendix out with the laparoscopic procedure, which was 99% of the time, I could have gone home the next day. The prolonged stay was because of the severity of the appendix. Google the symptoms of appendicitis, learn what they are, and if you are experiencing any of them get it checked out ASAP. It’s better to be safe, get the symptoms checked, and have it be nothing, than assume its nothing and die from a ruptured appendix. Until next time, be sate and be well my friends. |
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