Worst Birthday Ever (Thought it could have been worse)

Well, I’ve had a doozy of a few days. Doooozy. So, last Monday I ended up in the ED for 8 hours and discharged. Tuesday, I was feeling okay and went to have my first of three ultrasounds. Tuesday night, I spent the night being feverish and vomiting. Come Wednesday I ended up calling an ambulance around 10am. I was in so much pain. The paramedics were super nice, comforting and decided that yep, I should go to the hospital.

I was admitted and given more painkillers. In the ambulance, they couldn’t get a cannula in due to my dehydration, so administered fentanyl via my nose, which was weeeird. Once at the hospital, they got a cannula in and I had morphine for the first time. Whilst yeah, it did help with the pain, turns out I really don’t like morphine.

I was eventually hooked up to a fluid drip. Later, I had an ultrasound and I felt really bad for the technician. With the internal aspect I was in so much pain I was sobbing, it was excruciating. She was so very nice about it though. Around 4pm I was moved to short-term stay, so instead of ED, I was in a room with 3 other people. I found out close to 6 that they believed it was my appendix. I got to meet my surgeon and told that tomorrow I would have my appendix out. As it would be my birthday, the surgeon joked that he was giving me the gift of life. Que me freaking out a bit, I’d never had surgery before.

At midnight, I was taken to have a CT scan. So that’s how my birthday started. Happy 32nd birthday to me! Later on, I can’t remember what time now, like 2am, I was moved to a ward and had my own room. I then managed to get some sleep.

Happy Birthday to me!

Thursday, a doctor came in to talk to me. The CT scan showed my appendix looked fine. They believe it was, in fact, my lymph nodes causing all the problems. They were just waiting on the surgeons to decide what to do. To let me go home, or if they were going to go in, take out the appendix anyway and have a look around. Then the waiting game started.

I had a group of 3rd-year student doctors come in to ask me some questions. That was awkward. When the doctor asked if it was okay, I was expecting like 3 or 4, only to have 10 pile into the room! But hey, all for the sake of learning. I did manage to make them all laugh by telling them it was the weirdest birthday ever.

2pm, my surgeons came in. No surgery! They wanted me to eat some food and see how that went, as well as waiting for blood and urine results to come back, but if that all went well I could go home. Flash forward a few hours, 8:30pm  and I was released.

Not always fashionable! When you’re in so much pain you call an ambulance you really don’t care what you look like. I’m home now, it’s been a few days, and well, honestly, I’m still not sure how I am. I’m not in pain, but I certainly feel uncomfortable still.

So, that’s how I spent my 32nd birthday!