LOTS has gone on! Okay...a LOT has gone on the past few days! Thursday I had an interview at the VA Hospital and Friday they called to say they would like to have me come in for a physical (this week) and that I needed to provide four more references. If my references were acceptable and I passed the physical, then I would have a start date of September 5th. Well, I didn't worry about the "if's"...OF COURSE I would pass the physical and OF COURSE there would be no problems with my references. So, I put a letter of resignation in my bosses' box that very day (she wasn't in the office that day) and I notified our staffing coordinator that my last day would be Aug. 25th (giving them two weeks notice, but letting me have two weekends off before starting my new job).

Friday afternoon, I started experiencing some abdominal soreness. I worked a thirteen and a half hour shift at the hospital Saturday...the soreness nagging at me all day. A little after 1 AM Sunday morning, I awoke with chattering teeth, freezing to death. My fever shot up to 102.5 and that nagging band of soreness that had been over my umblicus since Friday afternoon, shifted down to my right lower quadrant and became significantly sharper. I had been wondering "Could this be appendicitis?", even before the pain shifted to my RLQ...but after it shifted down there, I pretty much knew. Talk about BUMMED! Suddenly, I realized this could really throw a kink in my new job plans. Plus, I didn't want to call in sick to my old work place, having JUST put in my resignation...how suspicious would THAT look...and, though, I really thought this was appendicitis, I thought, "Well, I ALWAYS think worst case scenarios. What if I just THINK the pain moved to my RLQ because I know that is where it would be if it were appendicitis? Maybe I am somatasizing!"

I was awake all night...the pain wasn't excrutiating...it was just PERSISTANT. Had it been excruciating, I wouldn't have doubted my own judgment and would have just called in sick.... but, as it was, I thought I had appendicitis, but was worried that maybe I was just over-reacting. I had called work earlier in the night and had asked to be the first placed on stand-by, knowing that we had three nurses scheduled and would probably only need two. However, one of those nurses was an eight hour person, so it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that they would have me be on stand-by for the first eight hours, but that I would be called in for the last four hours. Had the pain been excrutiating, I would have high-tailed it into the hospital...but, as it was I kept thinking, "If I let Grant take me into the ER and this is just a virus, I am going to feel pretty stupid...and just walking through the ER doors will cost us $500 out of pocket because we haven't filled our annual deductible yet....all because I THINK I have appendicitis. I'll not only look silly, but it will cost us a LOT of money for me to look silly." So, while Grant INSISTED I go to the ER, I pulled rank on him...."You are the head of the house-hold, but I am the only one in this family who has some medical background." He shook his head in frustration and muttered something about me being the most stubborn person in the family. That was at 2:00am Sunday morning. At 5:00am, Chris, from the hospital, called to tell me I was on stand-by (so I wouldn't have to leave for work at 6:00am). At 7:00am, Grant insisted that he and the kids would stay home from church with me. At 9:00am, I decided we'd better go to the ER and get me checked out...but, first I wanted to take a shower and wash my hair. Then, when I found I couldn't get a comb through Rayna's hair (she must have gotten something liquid and sticky in it the day before while I had been at work), I asked Darcy to wash Rayna's hair for me and her own hair. After that, we headed out for an ER...a hospital we have never used before, but one I chose specifically BECAUSE it had a group of surgeons that I knew were good (from working with them at my present hospital back before they left our hospital...and recommended to me by the day house supervisor at my hospital, whom I had called to let know that I wouldn't be at the house near my phone--usual stand-by mode).

I was REALLY impressed by the efficiency of this ER. Wow! We presented ourselves at the front desk and, even though there were plenty of patients there, they had me seeing the triage nurse IMMEDIATELY and then whisked me back into one of the curtained rooms where my nurse took my vital signs and promptly sent me in to give them a urine specimen and directed me to get into a hospital gown when I returned. I hadn't even had time to tie the gown before the doctor was there ready to check me over. He was thorough and then left and the nurse came in and popped an IV in me (first try...quite slick!) and told me that they would be giving me an oral contrast to drink and then in one and half hours they would take me to CT to have a cat scan with both oral and IV contrast and that they should have the results with-in one and a half hours after that. I asked if I could pop out to the waiting room and let Grant know the planned time frame. I hated to think of him sitting there three hours with three restless kids. Grant wanted to STAY right there, and wouldn't take the kids home...but, he finally agreed that he would take them out to lunch and let them shop or something until 2:00pm which was the earliest we would know the results of the CT scan.

Well, they took me to CT a bit ahead of schedule and the radiologist read the films immediately, rather than taking the predicted hour and a half to get there and read them. Next thing I know, they are calling in my surgeon and the surgery team (it being Sunday, all had to be called in from home). The nurse told me my room number upstairs would be room 357 (a private room, too!). And it was only 12:30! I had sent Grant off and told him not to come back until 2:00. Oops! Silly me, I am used to all ER experiences being EXTREMELY slow and drawn out. I just didn't KNOW this hospital! (Turns out, my ER experience was very indicative of the whole hospital. They are just SO efficient, organized, and FRIENDLY.)

The ER nurse was trying to recruit me to apply at their hospital when she found out I had just resigned at my old hospital and now wondered if the VA would offer me the job or not...since I obviously would not be there Monday (today) to pass my pre-employment physical!

I called my hospital at 1:00 to let them know that I was headed to surgery, so there wasn't much way I could be available if they needed me to come in at 3:00! They said, not to worry...they had already figured that was probably the case and had it covered!

I went to surgery about 1:20 (Grant, bless his heart, came back earlier than he was suppose to have...true to his nature! So, he was there to see me off...as were both of his parents. I had called their house thinking Grant might call them and they could pass the message onto him to come back early. They were at church...so, I didn't get to talk to them...just left a message.) I was in my room at 4:30...without my appendics!

At 7:15, I laughed and commented to Grant that, as of that moment, I was officially off 'stand-by' for my own hospital. It just struck me funny that I was still, technically, on stand-by the whole time I had been under anesthesia!

I was released from the hospital tonight around 5:30 pm. I'll wait until later to write more...I'm sleepy now. (I do have to admit something, though...As they were wheeling me into the CT scan, I was mentally calculating just how much money that CT was probably costing, and thinking, "This pain really isn't very bad...I am going to feel so foolish if this is just a virus." So, when the doctor said there was absolutely no doubt looking at the CT, that this WAS appendicitis, I just felt like high-fiving the guy! My heart was singing, "Whoopee! I don't look stupid for coming in and I haven't wasted a lot of money needlessly! YES!!!!" Ironic! Celebrating that I DID have appendicitis...just because I was so worried that I was being foolish for thinking I might have it. Go figure! I was RELIEVED to hear that appendics needed to come out ASAP. How silly, THAT is!  ¶ 8/14/2006 07:28:00 PM