On Wednesday I decided to hang the Hanukkah lights outside, which has me precariously standing on a tall ladder while the kids play out front.
But this was also when the pain started to get really annoying. MJ insisted I make a doctor appointment. In the course of booking the appointment, the questionnaire had me get more specific about the pain. That’s when I began feeling around and realized it was in my lower right abdomen. Uh oh. You know what’s in your lower right abdomen? Your appendix!
On Thursday morning I took one rather important call at work that wrapped up shortly after 10AM (“let’s make this quick, I don’t feel well” I told our VP during the call, hah!) and then I drove myself over to the local hospital Urgent Care. Upon reviewing my symptoms, they walked me straight over to the ER for a more comprehensive evaluation.
The ER is rather chaotic there right now because they’re doing renovations, but the upside is that the temporary ER waiting room is in their beautifully well-lit main lobby, giving me a good spot to wait in, in spite of the circumstances. They are clearly crushed for space though, I spent 5 hours in that lobby, being shuttled to blood work, a CT scan, and a basic evaluation by an ER doctor (“does this hurt? how about when I push here?”). Around 3:30 I finally had my diagnosis: the CT confirmed my appendix was inflamed, the recommendation was surgery to get it removed.
This began the second phase of my hospital visit, five hours on gurney in an ER hallway! While there, I texted a woman I know who had just started a job at the hospital, and she stopped by for a visit and to make sure I was being treated well (yep!). Still, at this point I was extra grateful that I had the presence of mind to bring a couple books with me to the ER, since the battery life on my phone was waning and it had been a long day of waiting. I got more reading done that I have in a while! While I was in that hallway, MJ was able to come by after work and his own physical therapy (aren’t we a pair!) to visit and bring me my tablet, a charger, and an external battery. Unfortunately, he had to get home to the kids so I was solo again. A trauma surgeon came by during my wait to explain that I’d have a surgery in the morning and they’d admit me overnight while I waited. He also broke the bad news that I couldn’t eat until after the surgery, which was a real bummer because I hadn’t eaten since breakfast!
I finally got a room at the hospital around 9:30PM, which is good, because I had begun feeling nauseous my abdominal discomfort had finally gone from annoying to actual pain. By midnight I accepted their offer for pain medicine so I could get a little sleep. And “a little” sleep is all I got, with interruptions throughout the night. It was also a nice room, the hospital has undergone several renovations and my experiences there have always been positive.
The next morning was a lot of waiting. I met with the trauma surgeon who would be doing my surgery and she warned me of all the possible outcomes. I also asked about recovery because 1) Aaron had is birthday party the next day! and 2) we were planning on flying across the country 12 days post op. I don’t think she was entirely thrilled with any of this news recovery-wise, but told me that she would discharge me as early as she could on Saturday, and the flight should be OK if I’m careful. It was a Friday, so our au pair was on her usual schedule and MJ took the day off from work so he could be with me at the hospital for the surgery. Around 10:30 I was brought up to pre-op where they re-did my IV and asked a thousand questions before general anesthesia and the laparoscopic appendectomy!
Surgery sucks, even in the best case, which this was. Everything went well, but it still hurt a lot. Still, when offered to be discharged that evening instead of the next morning I took them up on the offer. While it might have been nice to get intravenous pain medication for another chunk of time, going home where I could actually get some rest in my own bed was probably best for my recovery, and would make Saturday less chaotic if I was already home.
Recovery. The first three days were really hard. We had Aaron’s little birthday party on Saturday afternoon, which thankfully was just having his current and former au pairs over to visit to do cake and presents. One of the things they tell you is that laying around isn’t a good way to recover because they pump your abdomen full of gas during the procedure and it needs to work its way out, and movement is important for that. So getting up and about for his party was a good thing, but I did have to lie down again after.
Since it was abdominal surgery and they cut into my muscles, changing positions was the hardest thing, with getting out of bed being the worst. I’d say it was on day 4 that things started looking up, with the pain not making me yelp and see stars anymore. Unfortunately, they only gave me enough pain medication for 2 days and I went without all day Monday because they didn’t call anything in until Tuesday. And on Tuesday I had to ask my neighbor for a ride to the pharmacy because I wasn’t in any condition to drive yet. She then brought over home made chicken soup for me, I’m really grateful to have such kind neighbors here.
I also have great support at work, with my boss sending flowers and assuring me that I should take whatever time I need.
We also lucked out with childcare. We had an existing babysitter who was in our rotation who was able to come by in the evenings, and recommended another woman who ended up being really great with the boys for the evenings our existing babysitter wasn’t available. They were able to do all the cooking and cleanup and playing with the boys that I couldn’t do, or had to rest during.
Speaking of whom, it’s been a little tricky explaining it all to the boys. I think the concept that we have internal organs is rather new, and the idea that they can go wrong and you need to be cut open is a bit unsettling, especially since it all happened so suddenly. So in a fit of retail therapy and desire to explain it to them, I bought a toy appendix to replace the one that was removed.
On Friday, one week post-op, I went out on my first adventure, to see my doctor! She was pleased with my recovery, and noted that everything was progressing normally and that I was healing nicely. MJ and I went out to lunch after as my first meal out since the surgery. Feeling very motivated, we also made a stop to check on our family car at the dealership to get some warranty repairs done. I ended up driving it home because it was as ready as it was going to be, and we needed it back before out trip to Philadelphia. It was definitely too much, but I was grateful that my recovery was going so well. That’s the day we also stopped with the evening babysitters, it was time to get back to normal!
But it wasn’t normal. Indeed, the long tail of recovery from an appendectomy truly does seem to extend 4-6 weeks. That first weekend with no babysitter was definitely a challenge. Since I couldn’t lift the kids, we put a step ladder next to the changing table so they could climb up themselves, which has worked out well. I probably pushed too hard though, I didn’t feel great after the weekend.
I returned to work part-time on Monday, but found that I had to lie down after a couple hours. And then 12 days post-op we had that flight to Philadelphia for the holidays as planned. I was cleared by my doctor to do it, but we really relied on our au pair a lot to help us with luggage, and MJ gave his good shoulder quite the workout too. Still, the flight and all the related walking and unpacking took a lot out of me, and I was quite tender for the next few days.
I’d say I turned a corner around Christmas, where there was still pain so I had to be careful, but it wasn’t constantly top of mind or taking as many breaks. Last night I found I could mostly sleep on my sides again without pain, which had been a real challenge as a side sleeper.
I’m approaching the four week mark, and I’m just hoping the recovery continues to chug along on schedule. Fingers crossed for an easy journey back to California on Saturday, this time we won’t have our au pair to help us out.
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