"A" is for "Appendicitis"

This week has proved to be more of an adventure for me than I had planned! Now, I have a few new scars and am minus my appendix. I was up in Memphis for the weekend, and loved seeing friends and former students of mine. I was able to visit Redeemer for some missions events they were doing, and on Monday, I went to ECS to speak to Mrs. Coleman's 10th grade Bible classes, which were the students I taught when I was at ECS.

As I was leaving Memphis (at 4:45 to be exact- I remember checking the time to see when I'd make it home), my stomach started hurting. I figured it was the pizza I'd eaten earlier, and wasn't looking forward to driving home with a stomach ache. I made it home, still not feeling well, and went to bed as soon as I could. I woke up a few times in the night with the same stomach ache, and tried all I could to remedy it- I ate a bit thinking maybe I was hungry, then later took Pepto-bismol, then later drank hot tea, etc. etc. Nothing seemed to help at all, and the next morning, I was still stuck with the stomach ache. I then called a doctor friend of mine, who after asking a few questions said "you know, I don't like the answers you're giving me. I think you have appendicitis." I thought, "no way, I don't feel that sick" because I've always heard about how painful appendicitis is. But upon his insistence and the insistence of my sister Rachel (an RN), I went with Rachel to MEA to see what was going on. The doctor there was wonderful, and after ruling out everything we could, she said my symptoms were consistent with appendicitis and ordered a CT scan. So, we then headed to River Oaks where I got a CT scan which confirmed I had appendicitis.

I'll spare you any more details, but I spent the night in the hospital, had surgery this morning, and came home tonight with a few new scars, no appendix, and all of this nice hospital "jewelry" (that's what Rachel called it.)

Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes, prayers, phone calls, and gifts! The Lord was really gracious in that it was caught early, so I did not experience much pain, and I'm back home and hoping for a smooth, quick recovery. My family was awesome, especially Rachel and my mother who were at the hospital with me nearly the whole time and made sure I had everything I needed. A giant thank you is due to my sister Sarah, who was on the phone with my insurance company while Rachel and I were at the doctor, to make sure that we had all the details of my coverage and the hospitals I could have surgery at. Also, I have to give kudos to the River Oaks staff. The doctors, nurses, and support staff were all wonderful, very friendly, and made this as pleasant as possible!