Sicko, part 47

I went in to the hospital with Brent on Tuesday evening thinking they would poke around a little more, tell me it was just infection and send me home with more antibiotics, but somewhere around 2 in the morning the doc decided my appendix was even more suspicious and it should probably come out. I had had 3 CT scans by now and they still couldn't find my appendix, but the general area where my appendix should have been was inflamed and kind of bad looking.

So I got transferred to UVRMC down in Provo. Brent took me (they offered an ambulance, but since this non-insurance bill is already going to kill us we opted out), got me settled and went home to sleep since he was exhausted. I sort of slept in a haze of pain and morphine, but the morphine wasn't making it much better. The nurses kept promising the doctor was on his way to come and see me, but by 4:45 I was in serious pain again. 5:30 am and I was writhing and on more morphine.

I zoned out (if I concentrate really hard and don't move I can ignore most pain for a short period of time or at least tolerate it) till 6 when they started taking me down to the OR. The doc finally came and talked to me for about a minute there before I went under.

I felt fine when I came out of anesthesia (that anesthesiologist was awesome!) and didn't even feel the effects of the breathing tube they'd had down my throat (I get claustrophobic even thinking about it).

The doc came and saw me again for about a minute. Apparently my appendix was healthy, but I had 2 ovarian cysts. The one on the right had ruptured (reminds me of that Simpson's episode where the appendix is taken out and thrown away where it explodes just out of reach and everyone cheers), which was probably the cause of most of my pain. The doc cleaned it up and removed the one on the other side too. They don't usually operate for cysts since they don't cause any harm besides pain, but since he was there...

He did mention that it's rare for a CT scan to miss ovarian cysts. My innards must be really confusing if they missed my ovaries and my appendix with three separate CT scans - two with contrast (those are painful, by the way).

I was back in my room by 8 am and feeling so much better I was amazed. The doc stopped by about 2:30 and said I could go home when I felt ready (I left about 5:45). He gave me a prescription for 4 days of antibiotics and some more percacet. Anybody need drugs? I feel like a freakin' pharmacy!

My belly is sore but in a totally acceptable way. It's amazing how much we use those muscles to move around. Felix woke me up about an hour ago (I went to bed at 9) - I have no idea when Brent brought him in to our room. He has croup and is miserably congested and wheezy. He climbed on my face and fell back asleep. Cute for him but not so fun for me.

In summary, it's been a sucky fall. It's going to be expensive but I finally see the light (I just hope it's not another train!).