Appendicitis...

Well, it's been a rather eventful couple of days.  On Monday night my stomach began hurting.  I didn't think too much of it, but by Tuesday morning it was hurting more and more.  I called my friend who is a medical assistant to ask her what to do.  She came over and we went over my symptoms.  I didn't have other symptoms except that my stomach was hurting.  I did throw up, but it was just stomach acid since I hadn't eaten since the night before.  I tried to take some Alka Seltzer, but threw it up about 30 minutes after I drank it.  At first the pain started in the center of my stomach near my belly button, but then realized the pain was spreading.  The pain began to move to my right side.  I was in some serious pain, and no pain that I had ever felt.  It wasn't a sick kind of pain, or a muscle pain, it was just a hurt pain.  My friend Misty and her husband said that they would stay with the kids while Billy took me to the Insta-Care to get some bloodwork done to find out if I had a high white blood cell count.  On the way, we decided to go to the ER instead.  By the time we reached the hospital my pain was really intense.  I threw up as much as possible (which wasn't much) in the hospital parking lot then headed in.  I couldn't get comfortable.  I hurt bad!  The doctor came in and asked me some questions, said they'd take some blood tests, and that we'd go from there.  After being there for about an hour my pain seemed to subside some, which made me worry.  I didn't want anything wrong, but at the same time I was in the ER and didn't want to be just a wimp.  My bloodwork came back and my white blood cell count was high, so the doctor said I would need a catscan to see what was going on.  There was tons of waiting, as expected, but finally after about 3 hours or so the doctor came in and said that I had appendicitis and that I would need to have my appendix out that day.  The surgeon was in another surgery so it would be a few more hours until I'd be able to go in.  More waiting and then I went in the Operating Room and before I knew it I was out.  I woke up in recovery, but was really out of it.  I felt so tired and groggy.  Since my surgery wasn't until about 6:30pm or so I would have to stay overnight.   Billy was with me all day long and was such a great support.  I'm so happy he was able to be with me and that we have great friends that could watch our children to make that possible.  After I was settled and everything around 9pm Billy went home to be with the kids overnight.  He returned again in the morning around 9am after Chandler had gotten to school and Brielle and Stetson went to my sister-in-law's house.  I came home around 1pm today and am really tired and sore.  I feel so loved and blessed for all the support we've had.  I have to say that I'm in more pain than I expected.  I've had 3 C-Sections and this isn't as extreme as that, but it's definitely nothing to overlook.  Part of the worst pain is my shoulder and chest pains.  I guess during the surgery they put CO2 inside me to be able to operate and see what's going on.  The doctor says that the pains are from that CO2 gas that is still in my body.  He said it would take a few days for it to be gone.  My incisons of course hurt too.  I've been resting for the past few hours and look forward to some good rest tonight with no "vitals" interruptions.  I'm grateful that Billy is able to be here to take care of the kids for me.  I couldn't do it for sure.  We have great friends that are bringing us dinner for a couple days.  We've had so many people offer help.  We are truly blessed and I'm so grateful!  Hopefully I'll heal quickly and have a speedy recovery.  Thanks so much for the support!