"And now, this important message from your appendix..."
It was a ordinary Tuesday. An hour of homework before going to work.
Around 8:30a I began feeling an odd bloating sensation in my lower abdomen stretching from one side to the other. I felt a dull pain on my right side. Knowing that it wasn't caused by any food or gas (since this was prior to breakfast, ruling out stomach flu or food poisoning, which it resembled somewhat) I decided to go to work - maybe this would all go away.
The feeling persisted, and by 4pm, I was definitely feeling uncomfortable. Everytime I inhaled deeply, I felt a sharp pain on my right side. All along, I had suspected appendicitis. I even did a quick Google search. I had most of the symptoms, though I didn't have nausea or loss of appetite.
I left work at 7p, and called Frank to tell him I wanted to go to the Emergency Room at Queen's Medical Center. He also suspected that morning (scientists "suspect" a lot) that I might have a bout of appendicitis, and most of you know that if that is indeed the diagnosis, you have to have surgery.
I went home, prepared an overnight bag, and we drove over to Queen's. This hospital absolutely ROCKS! I had two previous surgeries (hip replacements) and had a good experience each time.
Within 15 minutes, Frank and I were seated in an intake office, and a friendly nurse/medical student (I couldn't tell which) began to interview me. She did something that Frank and I laughed about later on. She asked me what I thought it was, and I told her. She then asked, "Does it hurt over here?" pointing to my left side. I corrected her and pointed to my right. What caught our attention is the fact that she purposely pointed to the wrong side to see if I was perhaps a hypochondriac looking for some attention..."Oh YES, nurse, it hurts ever so much RIGHT HERE owwwwwww" (pointing to the side where appendicitis DOESN'T occur).
Okay, I passed the first test. She then got me in one of those hospital gowns, and I was assigned a gurney and a great nurse named Florian. He was smart, hip, and totally friendly to us both and very attentive to me. We chatted about hospitals. He was born in the Philippines and grew up on the mainland. He started working in inner-city hospitals on the East Coast, and told us that Queen's and West Coast hospitals often are further along in top-notch medical equipment than East Coast hospitals. That was certainly news to me!
It was about 10:30p by then. I was scheduled for a CT scan at midnight, and had to drink some dye first. I was really thirsty. I purposely didn't eat anything after 4PM, because a little voice inside said "Don't!"
Lucky for that, because all of the medical folks were very glad I didn't eat anything - it made the impending surgery all the more easy.
I was a little bummed out that this all happened on the Eve of All Hallows - it's a special day for me as I remember my Beloved Dead. But an unusual thought occurred to me (possibly influenced by the medication I was on) - what if my parents beyond the veil decided to have a little fun with me - to remind me to live life, love life, because it could all be over in a second? The reason I ask this is ap'parent' (yuk, yuk yuk!) at the end of this entry.
However, the nurses at Queens - delightful people all - were all dressed in costume - a lady pirate, a beautiful nurse in a Blow-Pop Costume (remember Blow-Pop Suckers?) and even a guy in a deviled egg outfit amused me the entire day. I even sneaked some Halloween candy I found in a basket in the hallway during one of my sojourns with my IV pole.
So I had the CT scan at midnight, and sure enough, my appendix was ready for removal. They scheduled the surgery for 3am - this was Halloween morning - and Frank was there for me every step of the way until they wheeled me into the OR. I told Frank to "Go home!" as I knew he had a busy day the next day. Poor guy. This isn't the first time he's been at the hospital for me.
So here I am, on some nice morphine, about 7 hours after delivering the largest appendix my doctors, Kenric Muruyama and J. Howell Brown, had seen.
So large, in fact, that they measured it and took pictures of it! I hope that my appendage made the rounds of the residents and medical students - after all, if it can help them understand this very mysterious organ, so much the better.
For the curious, but not for the squeamish, I offer a photo of my appendix:
Yes, it does look like "the dog's breakfast" or "something the cat dragged home." Oddly, when I was talking to my sister about this experience (she had her appendix removed at age 12), she remarked "You know Mom and Dad had emergency appendectomies in the late teens, didn't you?" I hadn't remembered that.
When I talked to my brother later in the week, he told me he had some gastro-intestinal problems about six years ago, and when they "went in" to fix that, they also took his appendix - our family history dictated that to be a wise preventative move to save hassles later in case his blew.
Out of the six people in my immediate family, five of us have now had our appendixes (appendices?) removed.
Strange, huh?
