It all started about 4:00 p.m. Friday afternoon, August 27. That is when I noticed I had pain in my stomach. I had eaten lunch at my normal time that day and had just finished doing a couple household chores (vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms, etc.). I drank some water and noticed the pain, so I chalked it up to maybe drinking too much water all at once. Unfortunately, the pain didn't subside. I ate dinner and throughout the evening I continued to feel bad. The pain started to come in waves (like nausea), so I chalked it up to maybe eating something that wasn't settling well. Sure enough, at midnight I tossed my cookies and hoped after doing so I'd start to feel better. No such luck. 1-1/2 hours later I tossed my cookies again, and did so a third time at 3:00 a.m. I was able to then finally sleep between then and 6:00 when Jay woke up for the day.
We were expecting to see Shawn, Mike, Alex, and Josh later that morning. I thought about calling them to give them a heads-up, but I honestly didn't feel like I had a catchable "bug." I honestly thought it was food-related and continued on with my day.
I managed remarkably fine all day Saturday. Then I had another bad episode late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. Again, about 11 p.m. I woke up in pain - this time in my lower abdomen - and in a cold sweat. I got up and told Matt I "just didn't feel right". He took my temperature (I was normal), but I certainly didn't feel good. I asked Matt to look up some of my symptoms on the internet, but the symptoms he entered didn't trigger any ideas on what it might be. Eventually the pain subsided and I was able to sleep (although it was restless).
Sunday morning we took it easy. We were going to go to church, but decided against it since #1, we hadn't had much rest the last two evenings because of my pain, and #2, I still wasn't exactly sure what I was dealing with. Before I hopped in the shower late Sunday morning I mentioned to Matt that "It hurts right here (pointing to my lower right side of my abdomen), but it also generally hurts all over my abdomen." That triggered an idea. Matt went to the internet to see if it might be appendicitis. Sure enough, he reported to me that I had every single symptom of appendicitis. I finished my shower and started to pack for the hospital. I called my doctor and discussed my plan to go to the ER with possible appendicitis, and we also made some calls to our immediate family letting them know of my possible appendicitis.
THANKFULLY Shawn, Mike, and the boys were in town and available, so they came from the church service they had attended that morning right to our condo unit. Matt and I had put our two boys down for their afternoon naps, I prepped for the hospital visit, and off we went to the local hospital's emergency room. What a huge relief it was knowing that our boys were being cared for perfectly while we were gone. I was admitted to the Emergency Room around 1:00 p.m., I finished my approximately 64 oz. of "creamy vanilla smoothie" flavored barium (yuck!) by 2:20, waited the necessary 2 hours for it to make its way through my GI system, received a CT scan of my abdomen, received the results with confirmation that indeed, I had appendicitis at 4:45, and by 5:30 I was upstairs in pre-op, 5:50 on the operating table, and by 6:15 the surgeon was talking to Matt in the surgery waiting room letting him know the laparoscopic surgery to remove my appendix went smoothly. I awoke out of the anethesia in post-op around 7:00 (feeling so much better, though my incisions were a bit tender) and was moved to my overnight hospital room by 7:30.
Shawn, Mike, and the boys were SUCH A BLESSING to us! Shawn agreed to spend the night at our condo to allow Matt the flexibility to check on me at the hospital and to then return the next morning to take me home from the hospital.
The surgeon visited me at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning and wrote up my discharge papers. I was back home by 9:30 that morning! Shawn, Mike, and the boys left late Monday morning to make their way back to their home in Oregon. Matt's Mom (Nana) made her way up from the Portland, OR area and stayed with us Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning to help me around the house while I recovered allowing Matt to focus his time and energy doing his job. (I needed to take it easy and not lift anything over 20 lbs. for a couple days. Jay is over 25 lbs, so lifting him up to care for him would have been super challenging had family not been around.)
We saw God's providing hand in such a tangible, visible way. He provided care and comfort through our family members - Shawn, Mike, and the boys, my sister Molly who arrived after they left to make a dinner for us for Monday night, and then Mom Carol who arrived shortly after my sister finished. Truly we could not have planned it better! God is so faithful, loving, and kind. My family truly felt His presence and care and peace in the midst of what could have been a very frightening, crazy, and difficult situation.
My recovery was quick! It went so well, in fact, that we didn't change our plan and left Wednesday morning, September 1, for Eastern Washington. (More on our Labor Day Weekend in the next post.)
I'll leave you with a few photos that were somewhat appendectomy related.
Monday morning (while Matt and I were at the hospital) Shawn captured this moment on camera. She had put David on the living room couch and went to the kitchen to grab something. David started to fuss, but then he was quiet shortly after. When Shawn returned to the living room this is what she saw...Jay was "helping" to comfort and care for David! Jay must have remembered watching me pacify David (on rare occasion, mind you) by sticking my knuckle in David's mouth. I had seen Jay do this exact thing to David once or twice before this moment that Shawn captured. I think it is so funny that she was able to capture the sweet moment on film! Let's just say I am more vigilent these days about cleaning Jay's hands JUST IN CASE this sort of thing happens. Ha! Jay really loves helping me out with David.
And I would be remiss if I didn't share with you the beautiful "get well soon" floral bouquet I was surprised and touched to receive from Matt's financial planning firm. It was GORGEOUS! This picture doesn't do it justice.
To say the least, I'm so grateful for God's abundant blessings!!
1 comment:
Love the videos and pictures of the Seattle Arboretum! Looks like you enjoyed a beautiful Seattle day:)
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