What is going on?!?!?

You know, I never thought I'd be this kind of person, but usually before a road trip I insist on deep cleaning my house and van so that when I get home at least the house looks nice before I haul all the dirty clothes and newly messy van items back in the house.  Well, with this last road trip...I just didn't have time and didn't get ANYTHING done before we left.  There was still laundry to do, a few dishes *gasp!, my floors were unsightly and the van...let's not start on that.  I justified that I would get it all done as SOON as I got back the next week.  (bwhahaha....yep, that's fate's evil laughter you hear in the background)

We had a wonderful road trip (which you probably already read about below) and were home Wednesday night around 7 pm.  The house looked just like I left it, with a few additions since Israel had been home since Sunday night.  Oh... I could have started the laundry and clean up that night.  It was certainly early enough, but again, I justified that I had the rest of our spring break to get it done.  No problem.  I'd laze around and take care of it in the morning.

SURPRISE!  Thursday morning I woke up sick.  really sick.  So sick that I had Israel take Lilly to her well-baby check up and do everything else I was scheduled to do.  I basically couldn't leave the house.  Ick and ugh.  Well, everyone gets sick sometimes, so I'll get everything done tomorrow.  (you see how this procrastination business isn't really working in my favor?  yeah...)

Friday I woke up queasy and uncomfortable, then it really began.  I literally started losing it, all of it, anything that went in came out.  It was the most miserable, uncomfortable day ever.  I had stomach pain like I have never felt before in my life.  It was like it was being gripped in a vice and I had piercing pain right on top of the stomach.  This went on all. day. long.  Later in the evening, I pressed around on my abdomen and found that it really hurt a lot on my right side.  Finally, Israel said let's go.  I'm taking you to the ER.  (He had a flight out to Midland, TX in the morning so he wanted to be sure everything was okay before he took off)  After blood tests and a CT scan, they realized that I had appendicitis and prepped me for surgery at 1am.  Can I take a moment to express appreciation to my friend, Valerie, for being willing to drop everything in a moment to come stay with my 3 kids at bedtime and then help haul them over to her house at 2 am while I was in surgery?  It's not like she doesn't already have 4 busy kids of her own at home!  Amazing!  THANK YOU!!

That morning I notified my family and received these just a few hours later.  It was so nice to be thought of!  Thank you!

It's amazing to me how everything worked out.  Israel's job was great when he let them know what was happening they rearranged all his travel plans so that he could be home this week to help care for me and the family.  I don't even want to think about what might have happened if I'd waited to go to the ER and he'd taken off to Midland...

This week our family has been blessed by thoughtful neighbors, friends and visiting teachers who brought meals so Israel wouldn't have to stress out, offered rides to preschool for Emma, offered play dates, etc. etc.  I had another pain episode on Wednesday that lasted about 4 hours (same stomach pain, but not at the surgical site).  Actually, it hurt worse than it did on the previous Friday.  I'm starting to think something else is going on, gallbladder? I don't know, but I can't describe it any other way than that it felt like I was in transitional labor, except in my stomach and upper back instead of where, you actually have labor pains.  Bless Sister Carter, she came in a moment to stay with the girls as I headed back to the ER.  Wouldn't you know, as we're driving over suddenly it doesn't hurt anymore.  I'm uncomfortable but not in pain.  It was the strangest thing EVER!   Being the extremely cheap person I am I refused to go to the ER if I wasn't in immediate pain so we drove home and I've been nauseated and queasy since, but not in pain.  so weird.

Yesterday, I went into the surgeon to see what he had to say about Wednesday.  They wanted to rule out anything surgery related (ie: abscess, infection, blockage, etc) and did another serious of blood tests and CT scan (seriously the worst is the barium sulfide smoothie they make you drink (990 mL in an HOUR, while incredible nauseous) to tell me what I already suspected.  Nothing but a cyst on my ovary, and it's not all that big, so not a big deal.  The pain was in my STOMACH, not lower, but hey I'm not a doctor...  So now, basically, I don't know what the problem is, but I'm going to wait until it flairs up again to do anything about it because well, I have a HUGE hospital bill to pay for.  I think I'm afraid they'll tell me there's something else that needs to be taken care of right now and I just don't want to do it.  Have I mentioned that I have a Half Marathon that I've been training for in 2 weeks?!?!?

Okay, all said and done, I'm so grateful that I'm not in immediate pain, I have wonderful friends around me, I had Israel home to help out and that relatively speaking, this all played out pretty smoothly.  Hoping for a smoother week and a successful run. :)