Appendicitis

It was Saturday night; I had just finished a great day of skiing, complete with my first perfect 180! I finished my homework by about 11:30, and made it to bed before midnight. Unfortunately, I was woken up about every hour by my brother’s lamp (which he had left on when he went to bed after me), but I was too tired to get out of bed to go turn off the lamp.

At about 6:00 I made it out of my bed and turned off the lamp, but the victory did not last long because at 7:00 I woke up and filled the entire toilet full of diarrhea. Then I was able to get back to sleep, but at 8:30 I emptied the rest of my stomach into the toilet.

At 9:00 I decided I could not sleep anymore because I was in so much pain. I took baby steps all the way to my parents’ room, but the door was locked so I did not go in. I went back to the couch and carefully laid my body down on the couch until my mom came out about a half hour later. When she saw me, she was very concerned and gave me a couple of things to drink to see if they might help me. But, I threw them up rather quickly right after drinking them.

I decided to go back to bed to see if I might feel better while my family went to church. While they were gone, I tossed and turned and I could not get to sleep. It also felt like I was starving to death.

When I heard my brothers rushing through the door because they were happy to be home to eat, I decided to go back upstairs. When I made it upstairs I was out of breath and I felt like eating something. So, I asked my little brother to make my most favorite peanut butter and banana sandwich with some milk. Half way through the sandwich I felt sick and I did not feel like finishing it. So, I decided to lie back down on the couch and wait for this sickness to go away. My stomach was hurting like none other and I did not feel like I was going to live through this (but of course I did because I am still here).

I was very thirsty so my mom had me drink a sip of Gatorade every 10 minutes. I was watching the clock like an eagle and as soon as it turned to the exact minute I would drink my desired sip of Gatorade. But as this continued, I felt more and more sick. The pain started moving from the center of my stomach to the right side of my pelvis.

My Dad was gone because he received a new calling and he was sorting things out. My mom was freaking out that I was going to die (just kidding, not really!). So, my mom called my Dad and told my Dad to come home and get me. While my Dad was coming home I had another barf attack.

When my Dad came home, we rushed our way to the hospital. My mom decided to come with us because she wanted to know what was happening. The car ride was very miserable. When we finally arrived at the hospital, I was just happy to be there. My Dad got out of the car with me and we went into the hospital. (My mom parked the car.)

Because my Dad is a doctor, it seemed like I went right in to see a doctor. (But, my mom says it wasn’t quite that fast.) When I told the doctor my story, he said that it was the perfect story for appendicitis and if I were his child I would go straight to the operating room. Next they had my blood drawn which was very sweet! (I liked how it felt and plan to give blood as soon as I am old enough.) The truth is it felt like peeing out of my arm, and everybody knows that that is refreshing. Then they put an IV in me which they kept in my body for quite some time.

They had me change into some clothes, special clothes that I could only wear in the operating room—if you call them clothes. These clothes were basically a piece of cloth that went over your front side with some knots that tied in the back.

The most uncomfortable experience at the hospital was moving from one bed to another. I had to move onto a moving bed to go to the operating room. When I got into the operating room, I had to move from the moving bed to the operating table. This was move number two. The last thing I remember about my surgery was the doctor putting some sleepy medicine into my IV and saying you are going to get pretty sleepy about right now. I was out.

When I woke up, I was being rushed through the hall to my room where I would spend the night. I was very cold. When we got to my room I got to experience moving from one bed to the other bed again. I finally thought I would have my good night’s sleep. But in the hospital it is difficult to have a good night’s sleep because my legs were constantly being squeezed to prevent a blood clot and a nurse was constantly coming in to make sure I didn’t pass out and to check my blood pressure.

The nurse said if I needed to use the bathroom I should ask for her help. Not wanting her help to use the bathroom, as soon as she had left the room, I asked my Dad to come and help me go to the bathroom. My Dad was a substitution for my abs because I could not sit up. As soon as I was on my feet I felt like the floor was going to come out from underneath me and again I needed to take very little baby steps.

I was very tired and I just wanted to go to sleep. It seemed as soon as I would close my eyes the nurse would be waking me up at my side and making sure everything was O.K. At about 6:00 I thought I finally got some good quality sleep, but then unfortunately a different nurse came in and told me what to do for breakfast.

Because it was 7:00 I could now order breakfast by dialing 7700 and tell them what I wanted for breakfast. Room Service! When I finally figured out how to work the phone and I called Room Service, there was a recording that said, “Room Service can not help you right now, it is not in our hours, we will be open from 7 am to 7 pm.” I didn’t know what was going on because it was already 7:15 so I decided just to wait a little bit longer.

Unfortunately I had to go to the bathroom again. It took me forever to get out of my bed and take those little baby steps over to the bathroom and the urine felt like it would never stop. When I got back to my bed and I felt like a new man.

Then I dialed room service again, this time it worked. I asked for two bagels, a popsicle, and some apple juice. As you can see, this is a very balanced meal (so says my mom, not really…). The meal tasted very good because it was my first real meal since Saturday night that I did not throw up.

The nurses came in and told me I could go after they told me all the stuff I could not do. I can not do any sports for two weeks, I can not do anything active for 2 weeks, I can not lift 10 pounds for 2 weeks and I have (can) miss school for 5 days.

By this time, I was feeling more comfortable standing up than I was sitting down. But because we were in the hospital we could only leave by going out of the hospital in a wheel chair. During the wheelchair ride, every little bump felt like I was having a seizure.

When we finally made it into the car, I felt like I had just conquered the world, but unfortunately the pain had just started compared to how bad the bumps were in the road. Each bump in the road felt like I was getting shot over, and over, and over, and over again in the stomach. My mom tried to help me and avoided some big bumps in the road and she might have been a bit of a road hazard because another driver became angry at her. This driver honked at her and it was pretty funny.

Then we went to Walgreens and ordered the prescription. Then we went to Bowman’s to get some popsicles. (My mom went in the store and I waited in the car.) When I finally got home, I felt that the pain was decreasing because there were not any more bumps! This is where I am right now, in pain. This is my story about getting my appendix out.

3/11/10

On Monday (when I wrote the first part of this) I did not have any medicine because my mom and I forgot to get some. By the afternoon I felt terrible and I could not do anything. At that time I knew why people steal prescription medicine. This would be because it relieves so much pain. I feel so much better when I take my medicine then when I do not take my medicine.

This whole week has been different than any other week in my entire life. I am able to sleep in on everyday of the week. I can watch movies whenever I want. I can barely walk. I can not laugh without intense pain. I can not talk loud without intense pain. I can not even go to the bathroom without intense pain. When I flex my abs I have intense pain. Most everything I do I have intense pain, but this pain would be worse without medicine.

This week I can eat anything I want. Popsicles are very good. Bananas are good too. Yogurt is also very good. Now I can eat most anything without it hurting. Earlier in the week that was all I wanted to eat. On Monday morning in the hospital I had a bagel, popsicles, and some apple juice.

My mom cares very much about what I eat because she has learned so much about what foods can help you and the foods are really bad for you. This week she let me eat anything even if it does not balance, if it has a ton a food coloring, or even if it is packed with preservatives. I have really enjoyed eating any food that I want to without worrying if it is good for me or not.

Because I am in French III, Mrs. Comiskey invited me to come to the French plays today. The French plays were very funny because the actors did such a good job. I was going to be in Cinderella and Snow White.

In Snow White, I was going to be “Happy,” one of the seven dwarfs. This play turned out very good especially because the play was not ready last Friday. The actors did a very good job, and pulled it together very nicely.

In Cinderella, I was going to be one of the ugly step sisters. One of my friends that is also a boy was the other ugly step sister. I am very grateful to the person that filled in for me in Cinderella. She was a girl so that might have been uncomfortable for her because she was an UGLY stepsister.

I have also enjoyed spending more time with my five year old brother. He has a funny mind with a huge imagination. One thing he does is point out the obvious, and most of the time this is pretty funny. One example of this is when we were watching the plays. After the first scene in Cinderella he pointed out that one of the ugly step sisters is really a boy. It may not sound funny now, but it made everybody laugh around us. I even started to laugh, but because of my pain I stopped. My little brother is very funny. It is fun to play games and do other things with him, especially when I am not feeling good.