Or, perhaps not the agony of being a woman

So after a day of living through the pain of those dratted menstrual cramps, I was relieved when my two friends came over to my house bearing food.  My attempt to eat chicken soup earlier in the day had me dry heaving in front of a toilet, so I’d sworn off food till my plain white rice arrived (courtesy of Kitty and Fandri).  The bright side was the rice didn’t make me nauseous; the bad side was I could only fit a few mouthfuls into my tummy before it had enough.  Anyways, it was nice to have company over to stroke my back and sort of try to alleviate my pain.  It was especially nice (or fortunate) they were over as I ended up hyperventilating in front of them to the point that I was having pins and needles down my entire body and could barely move my fingers.  Of course, at that point in time, we didn’t know it was hyperventilation (2 CS ppl + 1 accountant = medical failure) as I was half sobbing & half gasping for air.  Anyways, Kitty’s mom showed up to pick her up and between the three of them, quickly decided it was time for me to visit the Emergency Room.

Let me just say, “emergency room” is a bit of a misnomer.  It should be more appropriately titled as “the only place that has doctors 24/7 so you’ll get looked at.. eventually.”  The place was not run on first come first serve basis; instead it ran on what they deemed was most urgent.  Well, some girl who had menstrual cramps higher up than normal wasn’t deemed particularly urgent so I got to wait about 3 hours till I was called in.  (I felt so bad as Tammy (Kitty’s mom) and Kitty were both there waiting with me!)  The doctor (after more waiting) decided to run a blood test, a CT Scan, and a pelvic examination.  First up was the blood extraction then came the CT Scan.  I never actually got the pelvic examination (a good thing, I hear) as the CT scan came up with something wrong with my appendix.  A surgeon was summoned and after 6 presses to my stomach (nope, nope, nope, eh not really, ouch, OUUCCHHH), determined it was indeed appendicitis and off to the Operating Room I went, Tammy in tow as moral support.  (Kitty had already been driven home to sleep; Tammy was nice enough to return and keep me company/keep my mother informed of what was going on.)

I don’t remember much after this point in time, mainly because I was ‘put under’ for the operation.  Next thing I knew, I was awake at around 7 am with a really sore throat.  (Apparently it’s a side effect of them shoving an oxygen tube down my throat.  Oh well, between dying of not enough air or a sore throat, I’ll live with the latter.)  I then got sent to the recovery room and Tammy headed home for some well deserved rest.  (She’d been here and awake the entire time while I was in the operation.)  Anyways, nothing more of interesting to report here, besides the fact I was getting a lot of flashbacks of the UPenn Hospital.  One of my roommates last year also had a stint with the ER/Hospital, though her ailment was a bad case of the cooties and she stayed for about a week.  I was itching to leave in less than a day (got dispatched at 9-10 pm; about 24 hours after I entered the ER and 14ish hours? After my operation).  I have to admit: I’m horridly Asian.  I wasn’t sure how much the ER, operation, and covalence was going to cost with my insurance so I was ready to leave asap.  I wasn’t having any problems (for once! Good news!) and my mommy was specially flying home to take care of me, so I figured the sooner out, the better.  Save some money and leave myself to my mother’s tender loving care.  My neighbors are taking me in for the night as my mommy will arrive at noon tomorrow and both my mom and I would have felt awful leaning on Tammy and Kitty even more.

The only nice part of this debacle (one of my favorite words) was receiving so much care and love from my friends.  Fandri came to visit me at the hospital even though he was leaving that night for his vay kay; he even brought me flowers!  Kitty came back to spend the afternoon with me, her mom making the extra drive from her house to the hospital (~40 mins drive) so I could have company.  (Tammy went back home to sleep some more then came back, again, to pick up Kitty and take me home when I was discharged.)  Now my neighbors are opening their house to me to let me stay here so I’m not alone tonight in case something happens.  So this paragraph is specially dedicated to all my friends who have helped me these past 24-36 hours of insanity.

This incident is an odd mix of fortune and misfortune that I’m still trying to appreciate.  The misfortune is that I had appendicitis, which sucked.  The fortunes are more numerous.  First, I was luck my friends decided to buy out dinner and bring it over to my house; they could have easily just gone out to eat like we planned and never came by.  The second fortune is that I ended up hyperventilating and no one recognized it was hyperventilation.  It was the side effects of the hyperventilation that convinced us to go to the Emergency Room.  I know if it was not for 1 and/or 2, I would have stayed at home in my misery, never considering seeking medical treatment until maybe tomorrow or the day after.  The timing is especially important because apparently they operated just in time.  If they’d waited a bit longer, my appendix may have burst and then I’d have an even bigger problem on my hand.  Of course, knowing this, it makes the fact I had to wait three hours more aggravating, but I can’t really blame them.  I only thought I had menstrual cramps and it only hurt in the middle of my tummy originally.  Appendicitis is a pain on the right side of your tummy area, so they had no idea it was appendicitis till the CT scan came out (and my right side started to hurt more than my middle or left).

So while I definitely consider having appendicitis as a misfortune and, perhaps, the grand finale to this practically shitty summer (house broken into; subsequent paranoia attack about house may be vulnerable again; appendicitis), I also recognize that I was very fortunate that at least the appendicitis episode turned out the way it did.  So where does this leave the conclusion of this post?  That God watches over all of us and takes care of us?  Sorry God, but no.  I’d considering taking care of me as not ever having appendicitis.  I think my “moral of the post” will be that even in the bad situations, there are still good things that make the situation a touch better.  It could be worse; it definitely could have, so I’m appreciative of all the minor lucky breaks I did get.

Thank you to everyone that helped me these past 24-36 hours via this Appendicitis Debacle.  I really appreciated your support and help.

With Love, Tiffany.