So Long Mr. Appendy!

What a week we've had! Unexpectedly, Michael ended up having to have his appendix removed on Wednesday this week! Totally caught both of us off guard! Here is the story...

A couple of weeks ago, he started having some really bad pains on his lower right side. It got so bad that one day he woke up and said it hurt to breathe. I took him to urgent care and since he didn't show tenderness when the dr pressed on his appendix area, they figured it was a kidney stone since he had some blood in his urine test. A few days later he finally started feeling better so we figured he must have passed the stone.

Well last weekend (on Sunday) his pain returned in the same area. Tuesday he went back to the doctor and the doctor thought maybe it was a gallstone instead. So he ordered an ultrasound on the gallbladder. Of course by this time, his symptoms are getting better and he isn't feeling much pain anymore. Well that came back normal, so he sent Michael for a CAT scan first thing Wed morning. Sure enough, it showed his appendix was enlarged and had fluid around it. The doctor wanted it removed asap because it's really bad if appendix's burst on their own because it spreads infection to all the abdomen. So Michael called me around 9:00am while I was at work and said "Um, I have to have my appendix out. Today." I completely gasped in my cubicle because that is not exactly what I was expecting.

So we went to the hospital and got all checked in. Michael felt pretty torn about having the surgery because he was feeling completely fine at this point. No pain at all. The doctors told him they have no statistics for people like him because most appendicitis symptoms happen in 24 hours with severe pain that let up. He talked with both the resident and the main surgeon to make sure he really needed the surgery, but after the surgeon said that 1 out of every 100 surgeons you would ask about this would say YES, then he was convinced. :)

The surgery lasted about 45 minutes and went great. I was a nervous wreck waiting for it to all be done. This was Michael's first surgery with general anesthesia! The recovery was the longest part, it was 2 hours after the surgery was finally over before I could see him. Ug! That evening Michael was having a lot of nausea and ended up getting sick when they made him get up to try to go to the bathroom. So he ended up having to spend the night. I camped out in the fold out cot on the side of the room. At 5am, they came in and made him eat, go to the bathroom, and then go for a walk around the hall. I knew he was getting back to normal when I heard him tell his Jamaican nurse how great of a roommate he had last night (referring to the empty bed and gown stacked in curtain number one. :)

We came home Thursday morning around 9 and I was able to work from home Thurs and Fri to help take care of Michael. He's doing a lot better each day. He's still very sore and getting up and down is a pretty big trick, but he's making progress!