First ER Visit, IV, Anesthesia, Surgery, and Hospital Stay.... May As Well Get It All Done In One!

November 9th... 2 days before we get married... I start the morning off cooking breakfast for Kameron before he goes to clinical. I had some extra potatoes I needed to use up so I told him to come over a little early and I would cook him breakfast. 

I start cooking, he gets there-has been there for literally like 3 minutes and I start not feeling very well and have abdominal cramps. I ask Kameron to watch the potatoes for a minute while I go into the bathroom because I am now feeling nauseous, and while I am dry heaving (TMI? 😜) in the bathroom my cramps escalate to 10/10! (That's a pain scale 😜) And I am a nurse. We don't mess around with the pain scale 😜, I know what a 10/10 is, even though I had never experienced it myself.

Rating your pain at a 10 is supposed to mean you are seriously about to die! And I still give the pain I felt a 10! There were a couple times that I thought to myself man I would rather die right now than keep experiencing this pain!

Anyways, so off my pain scale soap box 😒, back to the bathroom... haha my "watch the potatoes for a minute" turned into quite a few minutes, so Kam came and checked on me and I was in so much pain, doubled over on the bathroom floor that I couldn't even answer him when he was asking if I was ok.

I'm pretty sure I told him not to call in to clinical (I don't like being a wuss! And kept thinking it would pass) But then I was like wellllll... maybe.. (and that's a lot coming from me.. just saying, I am very independent!) Ha! So thankful I swallowed my pride though and that he didn't go to clinical! I seriously would have probably ended up calling an ambulance! Guy's my pain was that bad! 

Anways, he couldn't get a hold of the OR where he has been precepting though so he had to run to the hospital to tell them he wasn't coming in. Kam's Mom later asked us why he didn't just take me with him to the hospital 😂 haha well I'll tell ya why! Because I was not convinced that I needed to go to the hospital just yet 😜

But while he was gone, it was the longest 10 minutes of my life, I wanted to die, and literally thought about calling an ambulance! (I also had the thought man that would be expensive! It would actually be cheaper to get life flighted-because I only pay $50 a year for life flight coverage-I wonder if they would come get me in life flight 😂) But I made it until Kam came back to get me :) I tried to reposition to ease the pain while I waited for Kameron to come back, but every other position I tried made the "cramps" (I seriously can't even call them cramps! That doesn't even begin to describe what these were!) worse, and when I tried to lay down I couldn't breath.

So we made it to the ED, and I recommend a Thursday morning at 6:30am if you want to get right in! 😜 There wasn't anyone in the waiting room which I was so totally thankful for! They got my name and birthday, had me sit in a wheel chair, and called the triage nurse who came right out! She asked me where the pain was, and at that point I could actually pinpoint my right lower quadrant, where as before I couldn't even tell where the pain was-just everywhere! haha Anyways she asked if I still had my appendix and I said yes and she didn't even triage me, just took me straight to a room.

At this point I was pretty sure it was my appendix too, because when I was a kid I was "diagnosed" with a "spastic colon" and the pain was always on the left lower quadrant. I had never had pain on the right. But when the doc came in and pressed on my appendix the release didn't hurt. So if it's your appendix, pressing on it will relieve the pain but when you release the pressure, the pain will spike, and mine didn't, it hurt just the same pressing and not pressing. And get this! I was so mad that I came into the ED because remember how the pain was a 10/10? Ya. After I had kind of gotten settled in the ED my pain went down to like a 4 or 5 😒 I was so ticked and just kept telling Kameron "I shouldn't have came in... should have just toughed it out"!

But anyways they tried to start an IV in my L hand, and that freaking hurt! I have put IV's in, but have never had an IV--they suck! 😜

That IV was a miss, so they she put one in my R wrist, and later put another one in my L AC (where your elbow bends) when I was going for surgery. I wasn't nauseous anymore, and wasn't in that bad of pain, but they gave me morphine anyways... and then my pain was like a 3! I tried to tell them I didn't need any, but I am glad they gave me some because I needed it shortly after!

Given my medical history, the doctor wanted to do an abdominal ultrasound, so they took me to ultrasound and I was feeling pretty good at this point, but when the tech had to press down on my stomach with the probe the pain came back! Also, I had to lay flat which was super uncomfortable and I couldn't breath. But I pushed through the pain and not being able to breath during the ultrasound until like the milli-second she was done I couldn't take it any longer and could barely get out the words "help me sit up" and had to have Kameron help me sit up real fast so I could breath! I don't really remember much, but I remember gasping for air and crying and being in excruciating pain again and just continuously gasping for air trying to stop the feeling of suffocation😔.

Transport came and got me and took me back to ED where they gave me more morphine 🙏 The results came back, the surgeon came in, and I was going to surgery. 😬 I had never had anesthesia, never had surgery, I was a little bit nervous.. and not to mention, was supposed to be getting married in 2 days! 

They took me to preop and I was in surgery before I knew it. Oh ya and while we were wheeling down to preop Kam was calling my nail girl to tell her I wouldn't be coming to get my nails done today haha I also had to have him text my lash lady when we were in the ED and tell her the same thing! My appointment was at 9 and I was waiting as long as I could just hoping that my pain wouldn't be anything and would resolve and I would get out of the ED in enough time to make my lash appointment before I cancelled it, but when 8 rolled around I figured if I did make it out, it wouldn't be before my appointment haha 😔. 

When we got to preop I remember the anesthesiologist coming in to talk to me and I told him I couldn't breath while laying flat so if they could put me to sleep before they layed me down. And wheeling out of the preop room he pushed something in my IV and I asked "what was that" and he said "versed"..👋 haha I remember kind of seeing Kamerons reflection in one of the glass doors as he walked to the waiting room and I was out!

I woke up with the worst pain in my shoulders EVER!! I remember waking up crying-which the Doc warned me I would, and the nurses asking if I wanted medicine and I kept shaking my head no and saying I was ok, and they kept saying "honey you're crying...." like duh! Take the pain medicine! Haha but I really wasn't in that much pain.. I was just crying. Well I wasn't in that much pain that medication could help haha my shoulders were killing me! And the nurse probably thought it was so silly when I was blubberingly asking her if she could just rub my shoulders haha 😂 So, if you have never had laparoscopic surgery before-they blow your belly up with CO2 and the "gas" pain afterward goes to like the front of your shoulders and is a killer!!

Long story short, ha ya not really 😜, they took me up to Women's and Children's and I stayed there for probably like 5-6 hours before I went home. Slept, tried to eat, walked the halls trying to get that dang CO2 moving so my shoulders would stop hurting!

I ended up having to have a female "organ"(not sure they are classified as organs😂) removed that had ruptured and been bleeding for awhile- I had 300ml of blood in my abdomen, hence the reason I couldn't breath when laying down! All that blood was pushing on my diaphragm. 

The doc asked me "you hadn't been having any pain? This should have been painful prior to today!", but I hadn't! In fact I had been to the gym Monday-ran 2 or 3 miles (I can't remember), did Zumba, and Bodypump (a weight lifting class), worked Tuesday, went to the gym Wednesday-and ran another 2-3 miles and did Bodypump again! 

Nothin like deciding to rupture your insides and having to have surgery to remove your ruptured insides 2 days before getting married! Kameron told me, "If you didn't want to marry me, you could have just said so, you didn't need to go rupturing things and having surgery.. it would have been a lot easier" ;) or something similar haha And I will tell you what! This surgery crap is no joke! Even the laparoscopic! I can't imagine if they would have had to open me up! I may have not gotten married 2 days later! Haha It was just crazy to me how much it got me down, how sore I was, how little endurance I had-I got fatigued so fast!

So glad to be past that! 👆 I have my endurance back, went back to work the next Wednesday, and have been back to the gym 3 times 👏 I still have to take it easy 😔 But went to Bodypump yesterday for the first time back (3 weeks!!😬), had to keep my weight pretty light though so I didn't strain my abdominal muscles😒(I hate not being able to kill it at the gym!), and ran 1.5 miles, and ran another 2 today! 👏 We're getting there!!

Kam was such an awesome nurse and took such good care of me!! Thanks Babe! 💋