Appendicitis Sucks!

Well, the last 48 hours have been pretty exciting for me (Ben). Friday afternoon, I started to feel a little sick to my stomach and thought I was having some indigestion. I left work a little early and tried to get home, but traffic was bad and it took me an hour to get home from Draper. It was a long, uncomfortable ride. I didn't think too much of it and expected it would run its course through the evening. I had planned to meet with my good friend, Adam Spencer, who I haven't seen in a couple of years. We enjoyed a good evening of catching up and reminscing about where we've been and what we're doing. I wasn't getting any better, though. In fact, I was getting worse. Late that night, I got nauseous and developed chills that I couldn't get over. I thought maybe it was the Cafe Rio burrito I'd eaten for lunch and I could just sleep it off. I had a pretty nasty pain in my side, but attributed it to the indigestion.

In the morning, I felt a little better. My pain had subsided, but was still there and was sensitive to the touch. I was supposed to go skiing with my dad, and we had a busy day in general planned, but I ended up staying home all day, honing my Guitar Hero skills. Jenny got back from her parties and errands about 2:00 or so. We ran some errands and decided to swing by the instacare, but the wait was an hour, so we decided to bag it. I was convinced that things would resolve on their own and wasn't excited about seeing the doctor anyway. We went back home to wait things out, but with a little coaxing from my father in law and Jenny, I decided to take another shot at the instacare.

We hit the instacare about 6:00 and I got all signed in, but when the receptionist saw my symptoms, she recommended I just go to the ER. She said there wasn't much they could do there if it was appendicitis. They were kind enough to give me back the copay and send us on our way. We got to the ER and I went and checked in while Jenny took the kids to Target where Jami was meeting her to pick them up. My wait in the ER was fairly typical. There weren't too many people there, but a young couple on a date came in after getting in a car accident. The girl had her arm broken by the airbag and her poor date was trying to help her out. I got the impression that this was either a first date, or they hadn't been going out too long. It was a little awkward when he had to ask her if she was pregnant, had given birth recently and the date of her last menstrual cycle. At the end of the form, he had to put in their relationship and they weren't quite sure how to classify it.

I got triaged ahead of a girl with congestion and a headache who checked in the same time I did. I also got in just ahead of the broken arm couple. They took me in and got me settled. Jenny had gotten back and my dad showed up a little bit later. They came in to draw some blood and I had to give a urine sample. While I was having my blood drawn, I thought I was going to pass out and had to lay down. I got really woozy and light headed, so they gave me some oxygen. They started an IV as well at that point. The doctor came in eventually and was pretty confident almost immediately that I would have to get my appendix removed. They waited for the blood tests to come back. The next time I saw the doctor, he said his findings were confirmed and they were going to get a surgeon to come in. He started to explain the procedure when the surgeon came walking in, did a little evaluation, explained the procedure, and off we went that quick to the OR.

I was fortunate in a lot of ways. The surgeon had just wrapped up a case and decided to call down to the ER to see if they needed him, which they just did, for me. I got to the ER at just the right time, and although they said they had a full house, I didn't have to wait long. By the time I was being wheeled to the OR, though, they did have a full house and it was starting to get overcrowded.

I was extremely fortunate to have my dad there to give me a blessing. I was also fortunate that the anesthesiologist was a worthy priesthood holder who was willing to annoint. It was special to have that calming blessing from my father just minutes before I was under the anesthesia. The next think I knew, I was awake in the recovery room. I hung out there with the recovery room nurse for a few minutes before they wheeled me up to room 207. Within a matter of 3 hours, I had been through the ER, operated on and was resting comfortably (well, as comfortable as you can feel post-operatively) in a hospital room. I was no longer with an appendix and had two small incisions in my belly and a reopened belly button. Other than that, no worse for wear.

My night was pretty uneventful except for the hourly vital checks for the first few hours of the night. I was able to get some sleep and overall have felt pretty good. I was discharged about 11:45 after my last prescibed round of IV antibiotics. We then came to my parents home to rest and recuperate.

Overall, I think things went as well as they possibly could. The timing was impeccable as apparently the thing was just about ready to pop. I should be back to full health for Chrismas and won't have to worry about an emergency appendectomy on the cruise in January. I've already been there, done that.