My First Surgery
Mood:
a-ok
Now Playing: Judge Judy on DVR
Topic: Life
I haven't been online for the past week because I've been in the hospital.
I was sick from last Friday-Sunday, vomiting nonstop, when I finally gave in to leaving the house...
I couldn't lie down (if I did I couldn't breathe) and I had the worst stomache ache in the world.
As I had suspected two days earlier when touching the right side of my stomache and it felt like a rock, my appendix ruptured.
The first hospital I had been taken to, did little more than diagnose me several x-rays and a terrifying catscan (because it was then impossible for me to lie flat on my back without being incapable of breathing, also making one of the X-Rays very difficult)
For the Catdcan, I couldn't keep the Gastroview fluid, which was like powdery metamucil, down.
I vomited the first cup into one of those pink tubs (they wanted me to drink a cup every two hours, 3 cups total, then get the catscan, and I didn't have the time or the stomache for it. Luckily they did the catscan without the fluid in the end)
They had almost stuck a catheder in me because of the fact I said that I hadn't urinated in a few days, but I convinced them to let me try the bathroom one more time.
The doctor (who at that hospital was a rude balding man) was upset at the "lack of evidence" so to speak, even though he mentioned nothing beforehand about me needing to take a cup or other similar device.
Apparently, I was too old for them to operate on me at the first hospital (what they told me) which I am glad now (was pissed then) since the second hospital was larger and nicer.
The only redeeming factor at the first hospital was an older lady whom I didn't see (was in the curtain room and they were closed) that the doctors claim comes to the hospital sometimes twice a day, who described one of the nurses by saying "I think she's got a turd up her a-yus".
It was absolutely hilarious.
It was the first time I had been stuck with an IV (I had received several syringe-based shots as a kid, of which I remember crying my eyes out) and it surprisingly didn't hurt, except when an inexperienced and rather rude nurse with unusual eyes attempted it on the top of my right hand, which caused blood (that she didn't even think to wipe off) to spurt onto my middle finger, catching in the nail.
When the blood came back from a blood test they did, they found that my white blood cell count was extremely high (lowered incredibly after surgery) and that I had very low potassium.
I almost choked on the potassium pill that they gave me, because I didn't have much water in the cup they had given me, and spilled some of it. The huge pill was melting in my mouth and tasted horrible.
They then took me to another hospital, my first ambulance ride (took 4 hours for the ambulance to arrive, and for the room to be prepared) too bad the ambulance was so rickety that I would've been better transferred by being laid across the floor of a school bus.
I was absolutely dying of thirst, and didn't get anything to drink since that's not allowed in surgery. They couldn't find a lozenge, despite telling me they had some, for a long period of time. During the time before the lozenge, they stuck a weird stick with a pink swab that had a stale strawberry taste to it around inside of my mouth to help provide the nonexistant moisture.
By the time they finally sent me to surgery, I was frightened. The nurses were scrubbing the nail polish off of me (apparently that's a no-no in surgery) and they sent me down there.
When they laid me flat, just as I had when the last hospital gave me a catscan, I sat up and screamed "I can't breathe!"My face was met with a yellow mask, emitting a sweet-smelling odor.
From there, I remember waking up, stomache cut in three different places, now with a particular type of bandage covering each, back in room 525.
I remained in the hospital for the whole week, since the rupture caused some form of bacterial growth inside my stomache.
I almost died, my reluctance to leave the house to even go to the hospital could've actually killed me.
I still have to take these antibiotics for the next 5 days.
The surgery was Lyproscopic (less invasive thanks to the use of a camera) so the incisions are small and in three different locations, among them my bellybutton.
The gaseous pains are so bad that when I need to use the bathroom, it feels like someone is squeezing my left lung.
Because of the fact that I had to avoid gaseous fluids in the hospital (soft drinks and the use of a straw were supposed to be avoided) I lived off of flavored water there, and when I got home I was exhausted and weak, regretting coming home, because of the lack of caffeine in my body at the time. One can of Vault, a popular energy beverage, was equal to spinach for Popeye, perked me right up.
My mother's job was nice enough to allow her time off for the week that I was in the hospital, and give me a signed card as well.
It was my first visit to the hospital since becoming a legal adult, so it was unusual for me signing myself in and answering questions about organ donation, etc. for myself rather than everything being directed at my mother like when I was a kid.
They had a TV, but the remote had two buttons-one for TV, one for nurse, the TV button progressing one channel with each press, therefore you couldn't input a channel number specifically.
I didn't miss the new ER, South Park, and Conviction while in the hospital (yes, it felt weird watching ER in the hospital) I was VERY disappointed with South Park, and my anger about that can be read about in my (BiMetroWiccan is my name on that site) review of the episode at TV.com
Peace and Love,
Sapphire Angel Sands
loud
sharp
.
on fire
hug me
not sure
celebratory