My New Experience

I asked him, "How many of these have you done?"

He said, "Thousands, we do at least three or four a day."

It started out Tuesday night with a tiny episode of diarrhea and then I went to bed.

I went to work on Wednesday morning and felt kinda blah! Remembering the episode from last night, I came home thinking I might need to be near a bathroom at my convenience. I didn't eat much that day - just a few jelly bellies (flavored jelly beans) - maybe around 30 or 40 of them. And I started "cramping" something awful. I figured all the sugar in the jelly bellies created a lot of gas in my intestines. So I was feeling really, really guilty thinking I'd done this to myself. I ate two or three chicken biscuit crackers hoping that would calm my stomach. It didn't. I ate Tums, I took some Phasyme - that didn't work either.

By 9:00 pm I called my doctor who called in a prescription for Dicyclomine - a medicine that allows your intestinal walls to relax, so if you do have a lot of gas it isn't quite as painful. He gave it to me for a promise that if I wasn't better by the next day, I'd come in. Thursday morning I was no better and the pain had kinda localized around my appendix area. I called the clinic to see what time they opened. My mother-in-law came over to help drive me into Springfield to see the doctor. The clinic opened at 8:15 and at 8:20 I was two miles away on the phone with them. They set my appointment for 9:00.

I finally got in to see the doctor who sent me for bloodwork and an x-ray. Bloodwork showed a high white count that meant a bacterial infection somewhere in my body and the x-ray seemed fine - no obstructions. At one point he asked me to stand on my tiptoes and drop to the floor with my heels. I looked at him like he was crazy because I knew that would hurt. But that was what he wanted. And of course it did hurt - right where my appendix should be. He then sent me over for a CT scan that would pinpoint where in my intestines the infection was.

We get to the clinic and ofcourse there are no close parking places so I have to walk it seems like a half a mile or so but actually it wasn't.

In the lab, all the people are drinking a white milky stuff and I'm thanking God that I don't have to drink that stuff. They all looked pretty healthy and I'm sitting there in all this pain. Finally, I go back up to the desk and ask if there's someplace I can lay down. That's when I find out I have to drink some stuff too, but mine is mixed in grape and cranberry juice. Unfortunately, the juice doesn't seem to help the taste. There's still a terrible aftertaste. I drink about 40 ounces and then they let me lay down. 45 minutes later, they come back with about another 10-15 ounces to drink. The first gets into my intestines and the last coats my stomach.

The CT scan is next. They hook me up to an IV with iodine running in my veins. Thank God they'd warned me that I'd feel heat. Never having had a CT scan before, they assure me that I don't go all the way into the machine. But they do have some water they have to put in me that I have to hold. Now that's a big worry for me wondering if I can hold it for the next six or seven minutes. But I find that it's amazing what the body can do when it has to. Next is the welcome bathroom break.

After about a half hour they come back and assure me that, yes, it's my appendix and I need to go straight to the hospital and it will be taken out that day. So my mother-in-law drives me over and I walk into Admissions. It seems like no one is in any hurry and I sit and wait and wait. By now it's around 2:30 - 3:00 p.m. But they bring in a wheelchair and take me to my room. People keep coming in and asking me the same questions over and over. You'd think that Admitting would forward those questions on with me, but maybe they're double checking. I wait and wait some more. My head starts to hurt and they suggest that I might be dehydrated, so they decide to hydrate me and that should take care of the headache. And I wait and wait some more. Meanwhile I can't eat or drink anything and though I don't want much, I still haven't had anything in over 24 hours. I can't even have ice chips.

Pretty soon, it's 9 p.m. and I suspect that they'll come up to ge me right in the middle of LOST. And for some reason, I'm right. Nothing on TV all day or all night and now LOST is on and that's when they decide they got time to fix me. But I'm in so much pain, it really doesn't matter that much anymore.

They wheel me down in my bed to the OR and I can feel every bump. Bill tells me I was talking so sweet and gently but I was complaining all the way down, he thought it was funny.

Down in OR, they ask me all the same questions that I've answered it seems like a hundred times already. I meet the doctor and that's when I ask him how many appendectomies he's done. Apparently they do 10-20 a week - I would have never thought. The anesthetist or anesetheologist whichever, comes and introduces himself. He's the one I fear the most. I have a dreadful fear of being put completely out. Back in the 60s I dated a nurse anesthetist and he told me all about anethesia and how dangerous it is. Up until now I have been able to avoid being put completely out. Even with my carpal tunnel surgery, I was only given a local. He advised me that he took his job very seriously and that things had come a long ways since the 60s. I resign myself to what will be will be.

They tell me that they're going to give me something to relax me before they put me out - something that's a cousin to valium. I don't know what it was. All I remember is that they started the IV, opened the OR doors and wheeled me in. I saw the lights and the room and the next thing I knew was someone was standing over me telling me it was over. I lost an hour to an hour and a half there. I never even felt the "high."

I tried to talk, but my mouth and throat was so dry. After a while I got to go back to my room to rest. I think I woke up at 11:30, but Bill says I got to the room at 1:30, so I don't remember a lot of what happened in Recovery other than them telling me it was over. I did ask if my legs were tied down because I couldn't move them. Believe it or not at 3 a.m. they brought me a liquid plate to drink - broth, fruit juice, tea and jello. And then they had me up on a potty chair about 3:15-3:30. They came in about every 15-30 minutes to take my vitals and at 8:00 they brought another liquid tray. Everything was delicious, but I couldn't eat or drink much. Around 10 they brought up some toast and scrambled eggs. I got to shower around 10:30. Then around 1:30 they brought a ham sandwich, grapes and cheesecake with tea.

And around 2:30 I got to go home. Less than 24 hours there. Everyone was so very nice to me. I would recommend St. John's to anyone.

But I do have to say, that at my age, the last place I would expect to be would be in a hospital having my appendix taken out. How do I feel now? Even though I only have three tiny incisions - they did a laparoscopy - it feels like someone drove around on my insides.