Saturday was a normal day (or so I thought). Dan and I woke up, we ran errands, he got ready for work and I got ready for a girls day with my mom and nana. Dan had to be at work at one and our girls day movie started at 12:30. My mom and nana picked me up from my I in-laws house and we ate lunch and watched our movie like normal. We saw The Butler, which was good, long, but good. Half way through the movie I started to feel a sharp pain starting in my lower stomach reaching to my chest. I thought it was the hot dog I ate for lunch and tried to brush it off. By the end of the movie I was feeling VERY uncomfortable. I felt nauseous with sharp pain spreading to my back (near my gallbladder). We were going to go shopping after the movie but I told my mom to take me home and call me later to see how I was feeling. I was hoping to feel better later so I could at least get back together with my mom and nana for dinner. As soon I as walked in the door, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. Great. I was hoping I would finally feel some relief, but boy was I wrong. Oh so wrong. I cleaned up and laid down on the couch to try and sleep all this ickyness off. Apparently that wasn't going to happen. The pain got worse and now my entire back was aching. I tried putting a heating pad on my back to relieve the ache, but no good. I was crying and moaning in agony (you should have seen the look on poor Corporal's face), luckily no one was home to hear me. I decided I should call Dan and get some help. He told me to call my parents while he talked to another manager. My mom was still close in the area shopping so I gave her a call and she was at the house in no time. The car ride to the hospital was only about ten minutes but felt like a gagillion. My nana helped me crawl into the ER while my mom parked the car. We checked into the ER only for them to tell us to take a seat. The place was PACKED. By this time I was crying my eyes out and screaming here and there (not my proudest nor ladylike moment). Kevin was a trooper and came to support me (He hates hospitals). My mom asked how long of a wait it was going to be and the nurse replied, "about an hour and fifteen minutes", I wanted to DIE. My mom about lost it. She called St. Mark's hospital and they told her there was no wait. So back in the car we went. The ride to St. Mark's wasn't as bad as I was expecting. We arrived and checked in. The guy at the desk was a moron for lack of a rated R name. He took one look at me and mumbled something I cant remember and shoved a clipboard in my face and told me to go have a seat and fill it out. I wanted to tell him to shove that little clipboard of his somewhere else. So I sat and filled out the paperwork, trying to remember all these numbers and dates. We sat and waited and waited and waited. Apparently three people came in right before us. Likely story. Finally I was called to the desk to answer some more questions, only to find out they couldn't find me in the system, along with all three people in front of me. So after a total of 25 minutes I was finally given a room. What a start to girls day, right? So its 5:30 PM by now. The nurse came in and immediately started an IV with morphine and finally the world was a little bit of a better place. The doctor came in and thought it was my gall bladder since there is a history of gall bladder issues in my mom's family. Well, the ultra sound showed no signs of a sad gall bladder, but still the pain urged on. When I got back from the ultra sound, my mom said "Haley, you look yellow" and that was the doctor's next idea....my appendix. Up to CAT Scan I went. About 30 minutes after my CAT Scan, the doctor came in with some news. It was my appendix, it hadn't burst yet but they wanted it out ASAP anyways. I was FREAKING out to say the least, the morphine may not have let it show, but believe me I was. Dan was still at work and I needed him more than ever. The time was now 9:30 and I knew he would be leaving at any time. I called him and told him that I would be heading into surgery soon and I needed a few things from home. I have such an amazing man, let me just say, he never showed one moment of weakness when I was around. My mom was working on calling my sister to tell her what was going on and I tried calling my Dad, who happened to be hours away with no cell service what so ever. So at about 9:45 the doctor wheeled me into the prep/recovery area and that's where Dan met me. When I saw him, I about lost it. I was so scared and him being there made me feel like I could take on the world. Words cant quite describe the feeling. The doctor explained what would take place and for such a small procedure (only lasting a total of 30 minutes) it seemed pretty hard core. First they laid me on a table with my arms spread open, then pumped my tummy full of air and then tilted the table. Don't worry, I was asleep before any of this happened. In fact, the last thing I remember is seeing the oxygen mask over my face, and the rest was history. I can remember waking up in recovery but not really being able to keep my eyes open for more than a second. Before I knew it, I was in a room surrounded by my family (minus my dad, he was camping). The first thing I remember saying is "where is my Daniel?". I can remember him being right by my side. It was pretty dang late, about midnight if I can remember correctly. Everyone had gone home and it was just me and Dan. The first night was pretty rough. My IV was in the right arm (genius, right? Hello! I'm right handed people!!) so I couldn't do much at all when it came to moving. My tummy was pretty tender and on top of that nurses were coming in left and right. I was exhausted to say the least. At about 5:30 AM a nurse came in to take my blood. The night before when I was going crazy in pain, my white blood cell count was at 20, turns out its supposed to be at 10. So now it was down to 16, not perfect, but still it was something. The doctor was just about to let me go home when he looked over and saw the puke bucket on the end of my bed. He asked my if I had been throwing up and I told him I was dry heaving hours earlier and he said "you are definitely staying here another day!". BUMMER! I wanted nothing more than to kick him and walk right out the door. So Sunday was spent laying in bed and watching TV. My mom and Nana and Kevin came to visit as well as my In-laws. They helped my get up and take a walk, but that was short lived as I got super tired, super fast. I went back to my bed and took a nap. Later that day My friend Tara and her cute little family came to see me. It was so nice to have everyone visit. I was a little nervous for my Dad to turn on his phone and listen to all the voicemails. I knew he would be scared. Monday morning meant another blood test and I prayed all night long that my white blood cell count would be back to normal. God was on my side, I was given the green light to go home! HOORAY! Let me tell you, I was getting real sick of meals that consisted of broth (chicken or beef), jello and juice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I got home my Dad called and was a little panicked and I assured him everything was okay, and he and Liz visited my at my in-laws once they got home. I called my boss and let her know that I would be taking Tuesday off to recover a little more. So in a HUGE nutshell, that is how my not so normal Saturday went.
Here is the one and only embarrassing picture my mom took of me in the emergency room.
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