Daily Dosage - 11 Hours In A Hospital

I've never woken up to pain before; and let me tell you, this was not the way I was planning on spending my morning. I had woken up at exactly 7 o'clock with extremely sharp pains in my stomach. I could hardly move a muscle without wincing from pain. I tried to shake it off, falling back asleep or taking a hot bath but nothing seemed to be doing the trick. Hours later, and with no signs of improvement, I broke down and started calling family and friends for help. Luckily, my Grandmother was up and ready to take to me to the hospital the moment I got off the phone with her.

I've never been a "huge fan" of hospitals. I know how important they are, but I just don't like the...feeling of being there I guess. I was checked in within 10 minutes of arriving and not much longer after that the nurses have already obtained their samples of blood and urine which then leads to me stripping down naked and placed in a giant hospital gown that was practically inches away from my toes. I'm mostly waiting at this point, listening to the beeping sounds of monitors and machines. My Dad arrives from work with a controlled look on his face. I knew he wasn't going to leave my side at all and that made me feel much more calm. Minutes later my friend arrives in full on "don't-touch-her-she's-my-friend-I-know-how-to-take-care-of-her mode." (Don't worry, she's a nurse too) 

I'm wheeled into a new room, feeling like a beached whale, and directed to shimmy onto a new machine. Specifically for a CT Scan. I'm not entirely a fan of small spaces either, but luckily there was a cool spider man sticker for me to focus on. They slowly scan my stomach to look for what could be wrong.  Moments later, I'm back in my room when the surgeon came in telling me that the scan showed I was having appendicitis and that I could be prepped for surgery in 30 minutes. My heart start racing and I couldn't help the tears. I've never had this happen so quickly, especially surgery. We started discussing any other options I had with the surgeon, but it became more and more clear that I shouldn't wait for something worse to happen. Luckily he was a Chicago Black Hawks fan too, so I knew I'd be in good hands. 


In reality, I did a horrible job at mentally preparing because the moment I hopped off from my bed and shuffled my way into the completely blank white room with nothing but a table for me to lay on, I immediately started balling. I painfully hauled myself onto the table to look up at the giant florescent bulbs beating down on my frail body. I felt like I was being tested on for some sort of zombie virus (I've watched Resident Evil way too many times) The Doctors were very kind and reassured that everything would be okay. I calmed down a bit more after a few minutes and started cracking a few jokes. Soon enough I was drifting off to sleep...

Slowly coming back to life, I practically forgot where I was. I woke up in a different kind of pain, but at least the worst was over. I was put back into my room with my Dad, Grandmother and my friend greeting me with a sweet card and tiny notebook. (She knows me too well) I relaxed as much as I could even though I still felt post-surgery pain. My friend went back to her own ways checking my vitals and checking with my nurses on my progress. I had to "pass a few tests" before I was able to go home, like no trouble eating and a few other...bodily functions. I ended up being able to leave the same night! Total time in the hospital was about 11 hours so I'd say I managed my time quite well!

Recovery time has been going well too. A little painful to move but I feel pretty lucky to have people that care to check in on me, come visit me, or even bring my breakfast. I'm really happy that I have people like that in my life :) 

Here's onto more adventures... hopefully not including hospitals!!!


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