“I went to the ER with what I thought was food poisoning.”
I have always suffered with bloat and indigestion problems. But this was different. On Good Friday this year, I didn’t have much of an appetite. I didn’t have breakfast and by 2pm, I decided it was time to get something to eat. I stopped at Wendy’s to pick up a meal. Yes, I know, I shouldn’t have had meat on Good Friday, forgive me Lord for I have sinned, many times.
Soon after eating, I felt bloated and yucky. I immediately thought, oh no, this is food poisoning. I went to bed that night feeling yucky and I swore I’d never eat Wendy’s again. The next day I woke up early at about 4am, trying to go to the bathroom. I still felt, bad. I can’t explain it, I just didn’t feel good. My sister thought it was gas, so we tried yoga. Then she brought me some gas-x. I didn’t feel right, but I didn’t want to whine. I had that general malaise, all over. However, I started to feel so bad, I started crying. It was a dull but achy stomach ache like I’ve never had before.
24 hours after the pain started, I asked my sister to take me to the ER. Not once, did I suspect, it would be acute appendicitis. I was nervous about going to the hospital, so I was relieved when I was taken care of by great nurses and doctors. I’ve been to the ER before and wasn’t always so lucky to have such good staff attend to me. After they did a CAT Scan with dye, the doctor came to tell me I had to have surgery that night. I was shocked! My eyes must have bulged out of my face and I asked the doctor, are you sure?! I thought it was a mistake, maybe it was my cyst on my ovary that had caused a lot of pain a few weeks before. “Oh it’s your appendix alright, don’t worry the doctor has done thousands of these”… wow, this was really happening!
I freaked out big time. Luckily, by then, my husband was there. But, I immediately thought of death, and loss and was sobbing, so frightened. I had never had surgery before. Other than the first time I gave birth, where I had an epidural, I never had anesthesia where I was fully out. He called my parents, who were there in 20 minutes. His mom sent me a prayer for surgery and that really eased my mind. My parents came with an aunt and uncle that were visiting and they all comforted me as well. I’m a huggeeee believer in prayers so I texted a few friends asking for prayers and I posted an updated status on Facebook asking for the same.
Before I could process all of this even further, they wheeled me up to surgery. It looked like an abandoned hospital wing. In prep there were a bunch of little triage areas but I was the only one there. I was so grateful my husband and mom were there. Two nurses and an anesthesiologist were there. They asked me questions but my nerves never eased up. My heart was racing. They said they were going to give me something to calm me down. I kept having flashbacks to Grey’s Anatomy and thought, I’m going to feel this surgery. I’m going to feel them intubate me, I’m going to feel them cut me, oh sweet baby Jesus, help me! I told them this was my first surgery. The anesthesiologist asked me if I had any questions and I said, just don’t give me too much anesthesia because I’ve never been under before. That is all I remember before surgery folks! Yes siree, then I was waking up! Hallelujah, I didn’t feel a thing and waking up wasn’t as bad as I expected! I made it through, thank you Jesus!
You may think I am exaggerating but I tell you the truth, I was so happy it was over and that I didn’t feel a thing. I had a laparoscopic appendectomy with three incisions. Two small, one medium. I am lucky that my husband spent the night with me and helped me when I needed to get up and go potty. I was given clear liquids and was released within 24 hours and made it home on Easter. Once home, I couldn’t get up and out of bed alone. I was dizzy and nauseous and realized it was the Tramadol that was causing these side effects. I decided to switch to Advil. When I was released, the doctor warned me that people who have abdominal surgery, sometimes get Pneumonia. They told me to make sure I took deep breaths but little did I know my recovery would have some bumps in the road.
The first few days were okay but I couldn’t get comfortable, I couldn’t stay in bed all day and I couldn’t sit, I felt blah. By Tuesday, I felt like I had to cough a lot and it hurt my incisions to do so. I was scared to cough too hard. Wednesday I told my husband, my chest felt weird, I could tell I had some type of build up in my lungs. I thought, oh boy, this is the pneumonia the doctor warned about. I asked him to take me to the urgent care. That was a J O K E! The doctor there was careless and I felt helpless. Here I am, 3 days post surgery, telling the doctor that I don’t feel right, and she’s like, well I don’t want to send you for an X-ray and I see you’re going to see your regular doctor on Friday, why don’t you just wait until then. AND she wrote down that I had my gallbladder removed instead of my Appendix, EVEN THOUGH they and the ER and the doctors are all under the same umbrella! Couldn’t she see in the system what I had done And did she NOT hear me when I told her I had my appendix removed. I swear she probably didn’t even know what an appendix was, how are they doctors?????
I went home with the cough and chest pain. That night, I could barely sleep with the coughing. It was horrible, I felt miserable. I stayed in bed all day. Thank God for my mom, my sister and my husband who helped me with everything from taking the kids to school, making me food, picking them up, etc.
On Friday, the day I had the appointment with my doctor, I actually saw the PA. She was very nice and talkative but she too dismissed my symptoms. She didn’t test for flu, she didn’t test for bronchitis, or pneumonia. She prescribed a cough med, and told me to take Sudafed, Claritin, Advil for fever, Mucinex and the cough med! Come again?!
I went home that night, depressed that none of these doctors cared enough to figure out what was wrong with me. They didn’t take into consideration that I had surgery less than a week ago. I was boiling in fever that night, I could barely get out of bed and my entire body was shaking. I was scared. My husband did cold compresses. I knew something was wrong.
So what did I do? I think I saved my own damn life, that’s what I did! In our latin american countries, certain antibiotics are sold over the counter. During our visit to Ecuador last year, we bought a pack. I decided to take it, because I could feel there was an infection brewing somewhere inside of me. I had green mucous, I had wheezing, I had the nonstop fever. I lit my candles, did some hardcore praying and en el nombre de Dios, pa dentro with the medicine! I truly believe, had I not taken that OTC antibiotic we picked up in Ecuador, I’d still be a hot mess! Lo and behold a few days later, my husband got sick, miserably sick. I sent him to a different urgent care, not the one I had gone to. They actually tested him for the Flu and guess what, he had it! So what does that tell you?! That I had the damn flu and no one did a damn thing about it. He obviously caught it from me, poor thing! Luckily, they gave my husband tamiflu and after a few days of high fever and sever coughing and chest pain, he was back to normal.
I wish that was the end of it, but it wasn’t. My daughter got sick and after the flu, I started experiencing severe cramps again. But I knew they were from my Cyst again. Back to, woah is me, and what the freak is happening mentality. I was so upset, so sad, I felt punished. The obgyn had told me to begin taking birth control to see if it would help with my heavy periods and painful cramping which turned out to be a cyst on one of my ovaries. I’ve always had cramping, but this, this was insane! This was a stabbing, slow torture pain. Let me tell you, this mercury retrograde kicked my azz around like a soccer ball. Thank God it’s over!
I had my first surgery, three days later started with the flu, the coughing slowed the healing of my incisions. Then when I thought I was getting better, the stabbing cramps came back as if on cue, for their turn to kick my azz. I was miserable.
I felt alone and tired and scared. I missed my friends and family in NJ. But thank God for texts, whatsapp and other means of staying in touch with friends and family far but near to my heart. One told me to eat garlic, another told me to have chicken soup, one said to drink a lot of tea. These are the times, you wish your closest friends and family could come and visit but being so far from everyone is felt the most during these times of need.
I don’t know what I would have done without my husband, mom and sis. Finally after almost two weeks, I followed up with the surgeon who said my incisions looked fine and released me to go back to work. I still felt sore. I tried to clean for the first time, that weekend before going back to work and my incisions were still achy. I still had to rest. While I was happy to be getting back to my normal routine, I could have used another week off. The kids were happy when they saw me walking around more often, they commented, that I looked better than I had in a while. They noticed. Almost three weeks after surgery, I still have some surgical glue covering up my incisions. They told me not to peel them, let them fall off on their own, so I’m patiently waiting.
What I learned from this experience is this:
- Prayers are still very powerful for me and I truly believe people praying for you works.
- Listen to your body, don’t ignore what it is trying to tell you. Advocate for yourself.
- Connections don’t only have to be in person. Texts and voicemails still mean a lot and show you people care.
- When someone is sick, offer your help, even if they don’t need anything, it means the world to them.
- It’s okay to take it easy, to move slow. I’ve heard a lot this past year, that you have to make the most of your time. While that is true, it’s also okay to not do jack! Recuperate at your own pace.
