how did they know??

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when it rains it pours

dec 18/19 - had my appendix taken out
jan 30 - mom is at the hospital with suspected appendicitis
jan 31 - grandma (mom's mom) will have some tests to see if she has cancer in 3 different areas.

my sister is thinking about asking a dr to take out her appendix. :) she doesn't need that flaring up as she prepares for her wedding.

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my extended holiday break, part 2

waking up from general anesthesia can be a strange, and sometimes scary feeling for some people. this feeling can be equated to being extremely intoxicated, and trying to stay awake, when you really want to stay asleep.
  --from http://www.justbreastimplants.com/surgery/general_anesthesia.htm

this is a good description of what it's like to wake up from surgery. i hear voices and monitors beeping, but can't respond at all. nurses are constantly prodding (checking vitals, changing iv's, etc) and trying to wake me up. i just want them to let me sleep! finally i'm able to respond, but still can't open my eyes...not because the outside world is too bright or that i don't want to, just that i can't force my body to do it. after awhile, my eyes will open, but i still only want to be left alone to sleep. of course, they never let me do that. i've had a few surgeries during the night and those are the most miserable because after coming out of anesthesia, they won't stop bothering you while all you want to do is sleep!

normally i throw up a few times after waking up, but my stomach is usually back to normal within a few hours. this time, i threw up for over 36 hours. the first few times my taste buds hadn't woken up, but my incisions sure didn't like it! mom said the barium (for the CT scan) smelled absolutely terrible, but the rest was just liquids mixed with a few crackers, so it wasn't chunky or anything. tuesday morning, i was feeling pretty good, so i ate the whole meal they brought for me...only to have it all come back up a few minutes later. this was the only reason they wouldn't release me, so it was extremely frustrating (not to mention painful). i had made a few laps around the ward, taken showers, even hopped up quickly when i heard the hospital's helicopter landing and taking off about 200 feet from my window. but i couldn't keep anything down...

my experience with the iv line was also different than for my other surgeries. this was the first time they didn't have to prick me repeatedly to get it in. they got it on the first try both times they tried! it's been a few years since my last surgery, but i don't remember my hand hurting as much as this time. i jumped every time they began a new bag of drugs because it stung so much. i felt it all going in as well. (side note: before they start a new bag after the other one has been empty for awhile, they push a small amount of salt water through the line to flush things out. immediately when this starts going in, i tasted salt. it's the weirdest thing!) for a few days afterwards, my hand was sensitive every time someone bumped it. 1.5 weeks after surgery, i noticed the vein used for the iv was hard and was still really sensitive. the next day my hand and forearm started swelling. the vein was so sensitive that i could trace it all the way up my upper arm. apparently this isn't too abnormal after an iv has been in a few days. even now the swelling is gone, but the vein is still hard after 4.5 weeks. kinda strange.

tuesday afternoon i kept my first meal down and was ready to go home! after a few hiccups in the paperwork, they finally let me go a few hours later. my sister and i went to my place to pick up a few things and then she delivered me to mom's where i stayed for two long weeks. other than a few christmas gatherings, i watched tv, read, did a puzzle, talked on the phone a bit, and slept. it was nice to do nothing the first few days, but it soon became extremely boring. i actually wanted to get back to work!

my restrictions upon leaving the hospital were that i couldn't drive while on pain medication, couldn't lift over 20 lbs for 4 weeks, and couldn't diet to loose weight for 6 weeks (which was really difficult with the christmas holidays ;P). this last one was a new one to me. maybe this is a normal restriction after a surgery these days...i don't know...

i have 3 slits as scars -- one just below my right ribs, one in my belly button (this is where the scope went in), and one just below my underwear line. they are all looking great -- like they've been there a few years

it took me long enough to blog about it, but now you all know about my latest surgery experience. o, and if anyone wants to see pics of my appendix (and a few other organs), let me know!

my extended holiday break, part 1

it all started with a hungry feeling on friday evening. it was still there saturday night, but i still didn't think much of it. when i woke up on sunday, it had moved to the right side and was a bit more intense (but still not much worse than a hungry feeling). i thought that was kinda weird, so i looked up appendicitis on webmd. the only symptom i had was the "pain" (other typical symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, lack of energy, nausea, constipation, and back pain). i was worried enough to call a few people to see what they thought and also called the dr on call. he wasn't worried at all and suggested i come in the next morning to have it checked out. a few hours later, i had a slight fever and called mrs c to get her expert motherly opinion on whether i should make a visit to the ER. she convinced me to go in. i relented, knowing that i would have trouble sleeping that night if i didn't get it checked out.

i arrived at the ER around 6.45p on sunday. they tested my urine and blood and everything came up inconclusive (one indication of appendicitis is a high white count -- normal is something like 4000-11000 and mine was 13000). after a bunch of waiting they decided to do a CT scan. i'm allergic to the dye, so they gave me 2 bottles of barium to drink. some people say this tastes like liquid chalk. i would describe it as having the consistency of pepto bismal with minimal taste. the CT showed that my appendix was barely swollen. after a few hours of waiting, we finally knew something conclusive! the surgeon still didn't know if he would take it out that night or wait until the next morning. at around 11.10, he decided to get it over with that night.

for some reason, the ER makes patients walked around to do the different tests (even when i was really wobbly after having a concussion), but they put ya in a wheelchair to go to the OR area. either way, the anesthesiologist asked all me of his normal questions, they replaced my IV needle (the student who did the first one didn't do it quite right), and then i was finally wheeled into the OR. my other surgeries have all been on areas above my shoulders, so they have always buried me in blankets with my arms tucked in. for this one, they put my arms out on little wheeled tables and wrapped really warm towels around them. that was a wonderful feeling in the cold OR! they put the mask on me, changed my IV meds, and i was under at 11.30p.

to be continued...

life happens 10 yards at a time. --NFL/ESPN commercial

i don't think i've ever watch so much football as i have during the last few weeks. i think i've only missed parts of a few of the bowl games. i loved all the close games and the many come-from-behind wins. usually i only care about the huskers, but this year i decided to root for the entire big 12. the huskers did wonderfully! 20th-ranked michigan was disappointed to be going to the alamo bowl and that they were playing lowly nebraska. guess we showed them...

the big 12 did really well also! of the 8 teams that played in bowls, texas is currently beating usc in the national championship game, 5 of the games were decided by a touchdown or less (we won 3 of them), kansas kicked houston 42-13, and colorado lost by 9. of the close games, and 3 came down to the last play! nebraska came back from 11 points down and mizzou from 21 down. unranked oklahoma defeated #6 oregon (who was also disappointed in who they were playing). iowa state came really close to beating #14 tcu. yep, i'd say we were successful. and that's not even counting texas's win over usc in a few hours! :)

and how about the orange bowl game last night? wow was that cool. 3 OT's. great defense. two amazing coaches in joe paterno and bobby bowden. and the good guys came out on top...or at least the bad guys didn't. :) (i'm not too fond of florida state because of bad experiences vs the huskers in bowl games.)

more on the appendix (or lack thereof) at another time...