I HAD MY APPENDIX OUT!!!

I wanted to share my hospital experience with you all. So this is the reason i do not have any updated posts since Easter. This post is a long one but if you are interested stay with me :)

So you all know i was in wales staying with my family over the easter weekend.
Easter Monday morning i woke up and i was in a lot of pain, i had pelvic pain which throughout the day continued to rise up my stomach to just under my chest. The pain was quite intense and it hurt to touch, even to breathe. We left wales around 3pm and the journey home was quite painful. when i arrived home i decided to go to the walk in center. The nurse who saw me said that it was either my ovaries ( I have PCOS - Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), or my Appendix. She reffered me to the Royal Liverpool Hospital. By this point i was worried as i honestly thought it may have been really bad trapped wind or something and i did not want to make such a fuss in case it was, as that would have been really embaressing, but the pain was not nice. When i stood up it felt like my insides where being forced down, almost like what i would imagine a prolapse to feel like. 

Darren was with me for all of this thank goodness. When we arrived at A+E they told me to go through to the surgical assessment ward. When we finally located it a member of staff asked where we where going, we told him and he said there where no beds, This baffled me because i had a refferal and two members of staff told me to go there. I queried what i was to do but he just repeated 'There are no beds!'. He was horrible and had no people skills at all. We had to go back to A+E to be told to go somewhere else, a lovely doctor saw that we where lost and directed us. We waited in this ward for a total of 2 hours. 

Within this time we saw all sorts. A poor lady was having a fit which was scary. An old man was sat in front of me and darren and he had THEEE LONGEST TOE NAILS EVERRR!!! anyone that knows me will know that my thoughts of men with horrible long crusty toe nails makes me sick! its vile. Then there was a woman who came to hospital in an ambulance with a sore arm and complaining of feeling funny. The nurse who was speaking to her asked how long she had felt the way she did for and the lady replied a few days, the nurse then asked her if she had been to the doctors or a walk in center and the lady said she hadn't. The nurse looked confused and asked why not and the lady said she just didn't want to go, she was then asked if she had taken any medication to help with the pain. Ofcourse she had not, why? because she didn't want to take medication. WHAT A WASTE OF AN AMBULANCE!!! the nurse felt the same as me clearly as long story short, she was sent home. 

Early hours of the morning one of the surgical doctors came to see me and told me that my blood test showed inflamation of what he thought was the appendix but they still where unsure and told me they would have to keep me in. My poor Darren had to leave me as i was going onto a ward.

I got onto the ward around 1.40am and i was told i would be nill by mouth from 2am, when i asked why the nurse said for my operation in the morning. I was not told this, so by this point i thought she is either presuming i will have one or she knew something and i did not. 

The next morning when the doctors came to see me (oh my god there was like 12 of them, i didn't know who to look at haha) i was told they where going to put me to sleep and put a camera into my belly button and see what the problem is and if its my appendix they will remove them there and then by making two more cuts and doing it key hole. I really did not have the time to be nervous or scared as i was the first patient in surgery that day and they wanted me down there asap! I had a quick handwash whilst telling Darren on loudspeaker what was happening so he could tell my family, and then back on the ward to put on these dreadful knickers...

i know! are these even knickers? i thought someone had left a dishcloth on my hospital night dress and stockings!!

turns out they are actually really comfortable!!
 

and throw on my theatre gown and stockings. The stockings where the hardest. 

I was not scared to go down to theatre, i was rather looking forward to the sleep ha, as i had not slept properly at all. I had two hours if that, i had a saline drip in my arm which hurt so much but also meant i needed to take the drip with me to the loo which was a mission as i had to unplug it and get it out of the ward without waking people with its beeping, then there where people who where crying and bed alarms going off. So sleep was very difficult. 

The team that would be in theatre with me where lovely and it was a positive experience. I was not scared at all (which i still am shocked about but so proud of myself for).
I was relieved when i woke up in the recovery ward. I was told the operation would take between  30-45 mins but i was in for nearly 2 hours!! After that it was a painful and slow recovery time. 
The hardest bit of the recovery is getting out of bed to go to the toilet or to sit up. I was made to get up by one of the health care assistants so she could make my bed and i cried and cried and later on my dressings where soaked in blood. But the morphine was great haha. 

I had a terrible experience with one of the night doctors. I wanted tramadol to help with the pain and the nurse said she will ask the doctor. I was in bed and it was really late, past 11pm. I was comfortable, watching a film on my tablet and falling asleep. The doctor said he needed to feel my stomach (all the nurses and doctors so far have lifted my night dress up so they can see where the dressings are). This doctor did not care to see where my dressings where and put both hands on my stomach and pressed my stitches so hard i yelped and said to him hes really hurting me but he ignored me and kept pressing hard. I burst out crying when he left and i could not stop, the nurses ran into me and i sobbed and told them what he did and she was shocked and said she did not know why he did it and got me a double dose of morphine for the pain and logged a complaint against him. I cried down the phone to darren and my dad i was so upset. My dad was fuming. 

That was the worst of my experiences. The hospital food was quite nice to be honest. The seaghulls know when its dinner time and they come and sit on the ledges outside the windows and look in. Its so funny.

This next photo i took was when i was eating my dinner one evening and i looked to my right and the seaghull was looking in at me.

 

the magic is when i zoomed in.. Darren and i nearly wet ourselves laughing when i showed him the photo. ready?..

*wiping the tears from my eyes!!*

This was my view for a week.

I came into hospital monday 7th april at 10.10pm and left sat 11th april. 

my doggies where so excited to see me :) i missed them so much!!!

My stomach is so big here. During the surgery they fill you up with air to inflate your stomach and it takes a while to go down. My stomach is still big now :( but no where near this photo.

and i could finally cut my wrist band off!!

Darrens mum and her partner came round to see me when i got home and bought me these gorgeous flowers, off them and darrens nan and uncle. I was made up and they are still going strong. They are beautiful and the roses in them are amazing. Such a lovely family.

 
 I am still in a lot of discomfort and knowing your limits is hard. I keep reaching up for things which i shouldn't but you can't help but get back into your routine and when you have your own place it needs cleaning. But im glad im home and finally done this long post.

Thank you for visiting me and taking the time to be a part of my journey to recovery. I will keep you all updated with my progress :) Take care xxx