That which Rolls

Here’s the longer version of the appendix story… now that I can sit up AND stay awake for more that 2 hours at a time. This is a looong story.

All weekend I felt some weird goings on in my stomach and I was guessing… maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that, maybe it’s the 2lbs of tofu and cabbage I ate at the Korean restaurant. It was worse on Monday… walking was really unpleasant and the unpleasantness was something different from other unpleasantnesses I had experienced so far… so I made an appointment with the PA for Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning I was feeling a bit better so when the Dr.s office called and said my PA was sick, did I want to reschedule with a different PA… I almost canceled the appointment. But since the feeling I had had was so unfamiliar I decided I should probably go in just to be safe. I had looked it up on the internet & read scary things about how it could be my gall bladder or kidney stones…

I was sitting in the waiting room and there was an old lady in there & she had fallen asleep while she was waiting… the receptionist came out and poked at her and woke her up, just to make sure she was ok. I’ve learned that they don’t like you to sleep in dr. offices or hospitals. Every time you’re asleep they need to check to make sure you’re not dead. They might leave you alone if you’re a loud snorer.

The PA checked me out and asked me lots of questions and poked me in the stomach. My reaction concerned her. She said she wanted me to get a CT scan to rule out appendicitis and a bunch of blood work to rule out gall bladder problems, and ectopic pregnancy… and not leave the hospital… just in case… and not eat anything… “just in case they had to do something.” At this point I really wasn’t worried. I didn’t feel that bad & figured they’d just send me home with some pills.

The CT scan people didn’t want to give me a CT scan. They were busy. They wanted me to come back tomorrow. They told the PA that they wouldn’t give me the scan until they got all the other blood work back to rule out all the other things. So I went and got my bloodwork, then I got my book. I decided I would call Brian to let him know that there was a small chance I would be stuck in the hospital all day… I dicovered my phone had no charge. I’ve begun to develop a superstition that when my phone is not charged something will go wrong. So while I waited around for my bloodwork results I sat in the car and ran it and charged my phone. I called Brian and I called my boss to tell her I was going to be stuck at the hospital longer than I thought but “I’d be in tomorrow.”

At this point I was glad I brought my library book but feeling stupid for leaving the Nintendo DS and my Ipod headphones at home.
All my bloodwork stuff came back negative so I had to head down to radiology. I sat in radiology until about 1:30 when they brought me a cup of pink stuff to drink. I was pretty hungry and thirsty at that point so the pink stuff didn’t seem all that bad. It was kind of like some bad diet kool aid drink. At least I didn’t have to drink the milkshake like stuff. There were some people in there that were really resisting drinking the stuff. It made me glad I am not a nurse.

I finally got my CT scan at 3. There are all these big signs on the wall that say “we cannot discuss your results with you.” I should have known something was up when the technician guy came over and asked me if I was going to wait for my results upstairs in the Dr.s office or if I’d like to sit down there and wait and my Dr. would call me. But I was oblivious. I went back up to the Dr. waiting room and hung out… at this point I thought I was out of there & had for some reason put my book & my sketchbook back in my car.

I was waiting and waiting. It was about 4 when Brian called me to see what was up. I told him I was still waiting. About 10 minutes later the PA motioned me over to the window and said I had an inflamed appendix and I needed to call someone who could drive me to another hospital because they were having trouble getting in touch with the surgeon at Geneva… or there was no surgeon at Geneva… or something.

At this point I was kind of feeling like… wait… surgeon… what do you mean surgeon? wait… I’m feeling much better now.

“Oh and I know you’ve been walking around the hospital all day but from now on you’re sitting in this wheelchair.”
I called Brian to come get me and was trying to give him directions but the PA came over and told me to tell him to meet me at the emergency room instead… so she’s giving me directions to give to him… Turn at Mason street and just drive up to the ramp… don’t park.

Then someone wheels me down to emergency where they were going to check me in in case they could find a surgeon. At the ER the check in lady said they didn’t have a surgeon and they should take me back to wherever they found me. So then I was wheeled back to the doctors office… I called Brian and told him to meet me back there instead.

Then the PA came out with an envelope with my bloodwork and she wheeled me back to radiology… to get the disk with the CT scans on them. She said we would just park there until they gave us the disk and then she asked if Brian was in geneva yet. She was going to drive me to Clifton to get surgury there… but Brian was already in Geneva… so I had to call him again to tell him to meet me at the ER entrance.

They had me parked in front of radiology… I could see the ER door. I saw brian pull up and he couldn’t see me… and then he pulled away. The PA came out with the CT stuff and we went out the ER door, Brian came back and then we drove over to Clifton.