on hospitals and appendixes

Last Thursday, I took a very unexpected trip....to the hospital. Definitely not on my schedule for a Thursday afternoon. 

I woke up around 1AM on Thursday with horrible stomach pains. I tried to ignore them and go back to bed, but it wasn't working. I ended up going downstairs to my parents' room because I was in so much pain. When I woke up, the pain wasn't any better, but I had actually experienced similar pains in December and was told to just take Advil for it, so I figured that taking Advil would work like it had a few months ago. The Advil didn't help at all and by 5 in the afternoon, the pain was so intense that it was hard to stand up or walk, so my mom and I headed to the ER.

They did an ultrasound (which was seriously painful and basically consisted of pressing the ultrasound thingy as hard as humanly possible onto the location of my pain) and took some blood samples before coming to the conclusion that I had appendicitis. Totally not what I was expecting. Thankfully, my appendix hadn't ruptured and it wasn't anything too serious, but it was extremely inflamed and possible on its way to rupturing, so it needed to be removed. 

(I recorded the adventure in pictures with my mom's iphone. It's actually really funny to see them again and remember all the moments.)

 Waiting in the ER. No fun. 

 Oh, that attractive gown. Not going to lie, it was really comfy. 

Basically how I felt in a picture. 

The hospital we were at, however, couldn't perform surgeries on anyone under 16, so I had to be transferred to a children's hospital via ambulance. I was super nervous for the actual surgery, but actually a little bit excited for the ambulance ride, since I had never been in an ambulance. They strapped me into the stretcher, hooked me up to some fluids and pain meds, and wheeled me into the ambulance. The lights were off obviously, since it wasn't an emergency, but it was still exciting and I can now cross it off nonexistent bucket list. I texted my sister the whole time and it was also my mom's first time in an ambulance, so they both kept me smiling during the ride. 

 Ha! My mom snapped this one of me in the ambulance, showing off my heated blankets. 

My view from the ambulance. Good times. 

We got to the children's hospital around midnight and my dad drove up to the hospital to meet my mom and I, which was funny since Thursday was actually my parents' anniversary. They had to run a few more tests and confirm things with the surgery and at that point, it was 2AM. The pain meds they were giving me weren't really helping the main, but I think they may have had an effect on my mental state. I have absolutely no idea how I was awake. Ha, I was exhausted but the morphine + my nerves kept me awake. Awake and crazy. 

 The children's hospital was so much cheerier. Everything was bright green and happy looking. 

 My bracelets. Can you tell I was bored? 

 My mom was with me the whole time, putting up with my pain and joking along with me, even at 3AM. I love her so much. 

 I'm actually embarassed to post this picture and the next, but they are too real and ridiculous not to. I think I was flexing my IV muscle? 

Uhhh. Yeah. I almost didn't post this, but it was just too ridiculous not too. I'll just blame the pain meds and say that I am most definitely not like this all the time....ahem. 

They decided to wait till the morning to do the surgery, so I was wheeled up to a room to stay for the night. It was my first overnight hospital stay, so that was another new experience. Although, having people come in every hour to check on you is not exactly convenient. I was taken into the operating room the next morning and not going to lie, I was super nervous. Before I went in though, I had read all of the messages and prayers people were sending me via Facebook and it really gave me a sense of peace going into it. 

After they took me into the room, they covered me in tons of blankets, (Which was one of the highlights of my stay. The hospitals had these amazing blanket warmers and they just kept piling blankets on me...I seriously wanted one of those blanket warmer contraptions.) and the second they gave me the anesthesia, I was out. 

Right after surgery. I swear, I spent half the time I was there taking pictures of myself. 

I woke up and was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. It was the strangest feeling to wake up wondering, "what in the world just happened to me?" I felt like that right after I got home, too. Everything that went on in those 24 hours was so fast and crazy that it was almost hard to believe that it had all happened. 

They wheeled be back up to my room to sleep for a while and when I woke up, it was weird because I was expecting the pain in my stomach to go away at least a little bit after the surgery, and it did, but it was replaced with a different pain. They made 3 incisions on my stomach, one in my belly button and two below it, so my stomach was really, really sore. They had also filled me stomach up with air to make more room to remove my appendix, so I felt super "puffy," too. 

Since my surgery was in the morning, they gave me a list of things to do in order to get out of the hospital that night, instead of having to stay another night. I was pretty determined to get out of there. Hospitals get boring...fast. Basically, if I could keep fluids/food down, walk around, and tolerate the pain, I'd be good to leave. So for the rest of the day, I ate, drank, slept, watched game shows on TV (hello Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader), walked around, and took pictures of myself with my mom's phone. 

 My view from the bed. 

I was apparently fascinated with the little light up thingy that they put on my finger to moniter my heart. 

 The sign on my door. Isn't it cute? 

My green dino bandaid. Super cool. 

Around 6PM on Friday, the doctor came in to check on me and decided that I was good to go home. We checked out and ended our crazy adventure to the hospital. And the next day, I may or may not have been crazy enough to go to my brother's basketball game and see The Vow with my sister. 

So much happened in that 24 hours and the past few days I've been really sore and exhausted, but I'm feeling way better. The first few days were a little rough and I was extremely sore, but most of the soreness has gone away and I've just been catching up on sleep. 

The love that everyone showed me was so, so amazing. Thank you to prayed and sent me gifts! I got balloons, adorable handmade cards, cookies, cupcakes, and I was so grateful. But I was most especially grateful for all the prayers! I felt so covered with peace at the hospital. 

And that is the recap of my Thursday/Friday. 

:)

xoxo,

delaney

p.s I'm so frustrated with blogger right now. All the spacing is going crazy, so I apologize if everything is showing up weird. My pictures automatically add extra spaces in between them, even though it doesn't show up that way on the editor. Anyone know how to fix this?