April is Over!

The month of April hasn't been the kindest month to me. In fact, I would list this as the worst month in my life.

My outpatient surgery went well. My friend, Sammie took me and we got there around 8:00AM. They were running late on my surgery, so I didn't get in until about 10:00AM. I was first brought to a room to have my vital signs checked. I only remember the first number, but my blood pressure was 142 over something, which is a tad on the high side. The nurse left the room and pulled a curtain to separate Sammie and I as I changed into my hospital gown. I looked at the table and noticed a surgery hat sitting there too. I said to Sammie, "Oh look, they gave me a hat! Oh wait, they gave me two hats!" Sammie said, "maybe they gave me one too!" There was a moment of silence as I was trying to figure out how to put the hat on my head. It took me a second to realize they were slippers for my feet. I yelled out, "ooooh! They're shoes!" I put the slippers on and walked around the curtain to stand with Sammie until the nurse came back in. When she did, she told me I had my slippers on wrong and fixed them for me.

As I was being wheeled down to the OR waiting room, the nurse walked away for a minute and told Sammie and I that we could do all our, "hugsies, lovsies and kissies now." Sammie and I couldn't stop laughing as she walked away. Later on some friends told Sammie she should have started making out with me to freak the nurse out.. Sammie said my blood pressure was already too high, she didn't want me to have a heart attack. Sammie wished me luck and I was off to the OR waiting room.

When I got down there, an anethesia nurse was waiting for me. She started my IV, which hurt because for some reason she put it into the side of my arm instead of where my arm bent. It caused a nasty bruise that I still have to this date. A few minutes later the staff that would be operating on me came to introduce themselves. The anesthesia doctor came over and after asking me questions for a little bit noticed I kept having anxiety attacks. He told the nurse to put some calming medicine into my IV that they usually don't give until we are about to go into the OR. I sat there pretty calm for what seemed like an eternity and they wheeled me in. I was asleep within a few minutes.

After I woke up, I was in the recovery room. I was taken into a private room to finish recovering. The nurses came in and asked what I would like to drink. They gave me a cup of apple juice and some water. Sammie says she came in a few minutes later, but I was still groggy. I don't really remember her coming in. After I was able to get up, the nurses told me I needed to urinate into a urinal for them before I could leave. I was escorted to the bathroom by a nurse, but when I went to pee I realized there was blood in my urine, so I couldn't go with my anxiety. I told the nurses this and they agreed to just release me.

Sammie took me home and my friend Danielle came over to take care of me the rest of the night. Danielle's mom brought us chinese food, and we hung out the rest of the night. We hadn't seen each other in quite a while so we took the time to catch up.

I spent the next few days relaxing in bed and lounging around the house. I had a ureter stint put in during my surgery and this time it had a string hanging out of my penis so that the doctor could just yank on the string to get it out in a few days. It was highly uncomfortable and painful at times to urinate. When it finally came out that following Monday, I was relieved.

Monday, my ureter stint was removed. A nurse yanked it out and it felt like a needle was being pushed out. It stung for a few hours afterwards and it hurt to urinate for a little bit, but other than that I was very relieved to have all the procedures done. I still have some discomfort in my left side where the surgeries were done, but as the days go on, the pain is less and less.

I returned to school and work on Tuesday, after about 16 days of being off of both. It was nice to finally have some real interactions with people. It took me a few days to adjust, but I finally did.

This past Friday night, I got an email from a friend back home with some devastating news. A good friend of mine, Jason recently died at the age of 25. His cause of death is unknown at this time, but it is suspected he may have committed suicide. Since I met him in eighth grade, he has had fascinations with committing suicide. I drove up for his funeral on Tuesday. It was an emotional day for me, but I'm glad I was able to attend considering the amount of work I had recently missed. I had spoken with Jason just a month and a half or so before, but I got concerned when I hadn't heard from him recently.

The funeral was emotionally draining. It was hard to look at all the pictures of his life, all his interests sitting on a table and the casket in the middle of the room. I was slightly happy to see it was a closed casket. Had it been opened, I think it would have been a lot more difficult for me to keep my composure. One nice thing about the funeral was that I was able to see some friends I hadn't seen since high school, in nearly 7 years. I was able to catch up with them and their lives. I was the only one living out of town. I had dessert with a few friends after the funeral, which was nice. After dessert I headed back to Springfield.

April was a trying month for me and I am just glad it is finally over. I just hope and pray that May will be an easier month and I can go back to thinking optimistically about this year as I did on New Years!

My Little Hell

Well, life has been very difficult as of late, and I am very happy to be sitting here able to type this today.

Last Sunday morning I started having excruciating pains in my abdomen. The pains were making me fall to the floor, they were so intense. I could hardly walk without the pain coming. Luckily the pain would only last a few seconds before disappearing. In the same amount of time it was there and go away, it would come back. I didn't think a whole lot about it, but when I woke up the next day and the pain was still there when I tried to sit up or walk, I started to get concerned. I called into work because there was absolutely no way I was able to work. As Sunday progressed, I started becoming nauseous and getting a temperature. Within three hours, my temperature had skyrocketed from 99 to over 101. I called a nurse helpline and they told me I needed to go to the emergency room. I texted my friend Sammie and told her I needed a ride. She rushed to get me and took me to St. Johns Hospital.

We got there about 10:00PM. When I got there, my blood pressure was extremely high and my temperature was over 102. The hospital ran some blood tests and had me do a CAT Scan. The CAT Scan was probably the worst part of the entire ordeal, although I nearly passed out when they were drawing blood and starting my IV. Before I could go into the CAT Scan, I had to drink a dye that would allow the technicians to be able to see into my stomach and intestine. While waiting to be moved to the CAT Scan room, I become highly nauseous and ended up throwing up some of it. When I was in the CAT Scan room, they had to inject me with an enema so that they could look into my rectum and bladder. The pain was so bad it was very similar in intensity to the original pains that were causing me to be concerned. I was returned to my ER room.

I texted my friend Sammie who had been in the waiting room by herself since we got there 3 1/2 hours before that she could come back and wait with me if she wanted to. We sat there for a few hours, when a nurse who hadn't introduced herself told me I had to pee right then and there or she was going to do a catheter. I told her if she'd give me some water I'd be able to pee. She said I had to pee because they thought I had a kidney infection from my stone. I said, "stone?! What stone?!" She said, "Oops, the doctor hasn't come in to tell you yet?" I told her no. A little while later the doctor finally came in. She told me I had a 7mm kidney stone and my white blood cell count was extremely high so she felt I was probably fighting a kidney infection as well. With the information provided, she told me I should be admitted. I refused at first, but the doctor told me I was in a very bad condition and not being admitted put me at a very high risk for either losing my kidney or becoming septic. She said if I didn't start treatment immediately, I could become septic at any moment... most definitely within 5 days. Sammie talked some sense into me and I agreed to be admitted. Sammie went back to my apartment and gathered some clothes and other things for me. I was finally taken to a room 7 hours later at 5AM.

On Monday morning, a doctor came in to talk to me about my condition. He said I had a kidney infection, a urinary tract infection and a 7mm kidney stone that would require surgery to remove. He couldn't remove my kidney stone until I had my other infections cleared up. The kidney stone was blocking urine from getting out of my kidney and into my bladder, which was causing the infection. Later in the morning I was taken into surgery to have a stint put in between my kidney and my bladder to drain the urine trapped in my kidney. After my surgery, I started having continuous pain and discomfort in my abdomen. Dinner was nice because after two days of not eating or drinking anything I was finally able to eat. It was a turkey dinner, so I enjoyed every last bit of it. Monday night, I was woken up at about three in the morning because I had a fever and had to do some exercises to try and reduce the temperature.. I'm not sure if the exercises worked or not, but within a little bit of time I was back asleep.

Dr. Johnson came to see me Tuesday morning to let me know I would probably be released on Wednesday. He said because I was still having a fever and he was still waiting on my blood work to come back from when I was in the ER. Of course for lunch we had one of my most hated meals; meatloaf. I just kind of picked at my food and the same went for dinner. They served pork, which I do not like either.

Wednesday morning I was released around 11 in the morning or so. I was told I would go home with some pain medication and antibiotics. Sammie came to get me and took me home. I was told by the doctor to take it easy for the next week and after my surgery I could start doing whatever I felt comfortable doing. He told me I would have surgery to remove my kidney stone on Wednesday the 15th. My plan is to hopefully be able to go back to school and work on Monday the 20th.

Since I got home, I have still been having a lot of problems with pain. The pain medication doesn't seem to work very well for me. I tried to call the doctor's office, but they called me back when I took a nap. I've started taking walks in my apartment complex to regain my strength. It's amazing how such a small surgery can take so much out of you. I can't get very far right now before the pain becomes too much. I walked to the other side of the apartment building across from mine today and had to sit down for a little bit. I know next Wednesday I will have to start again from square one.

One of the sad things about the timing of my hospital visit is that I was supposed to have a date with the guy I mentioned in my last post. We were going to have coffee at noon on Sunday. I texted him early that morning letting him know I couldn't come. Luckily he believed me. I kept him informed of what was going on. He said he is willing to wait for me, even though I told him it would be at least a few weeks. Maybe I've found myself a winner for once! I guess time will tell.

Although I'm not looking forward to the surgery and I am very happy the worst is behind me as I hate staying in a hospital, I will be very happy when I won't have abdominal pain anymore. Pain in my abdomen has actually been something that has been bothering me for over a year. I'm sure it has been the kidney stone and I never thought about it. At least now I should know what a kidney stone feels like if I do get one in the future, which is bound to happen again. I've changed my diet a bit to avoid them in the future. I haven't touched cola since last Saturday and I haven't had any caffeine (beyond chocolate) since Tuesday. I also bought healthier chips and more fruits for snacks. Hopefully it will work.

Today is Easter and a couple of my friends are supposed to come over for dinner and to watch a movie. My grandma sent me a box full of candy and clothes. She sent me some chocolate covered pretzels from Sarris candy, which is by far my favorite place to get candy and is one of my favorite candies. She also sent me chocolate covered popcorn which is mighty good, and jelly bellies. I also got two shirts from American Eagle. My parents sent me a package too, but I haven't received it yet. I think they are sending me these more as a get well soon thing rather than Easter presents. I usually get a chocolate orange from my parents and that is it. Either way I am grateful for it all and I am looking forward to my friends coming over.

Welp, I think I am going to wrap this up and I will inform everyone how my next surgery went when it is done.