About 3 weeks after having Ephraim, I started to feel after cramps while nursing. They were always little and only while nursing. This was Wed, the 15th or Thurs, the 16th. Then over the weekend, they started to get worse and would happen everytime I shifted weird or stood up. By Sun, the 19th my anniversary, they were almost constant but not like uber painful. I spent Mon, the 20th and Tues, the 21st visiting my in laws and the pain started to get more and more constant and sharp. Also it had moved to, mostly, my right side. My MIL said something along the lines of it being apenditis but at this point I still thought it was after cramps. So I called my OB on Tues morning and they said it was normal after cramps as long as they didn't get any worse than my period cramps had been. Now, my period cramps were always really painful which is part of the reason I went on birth control this time last year. So, I didn't think this pain was that awful yet so Tues night I took some pain killers and went to bed. According to Ryan, I was tossing and turning all night and groaning like I was in pain in my sleep.

When I woke up Wed morning in extreme pain that shot through my right side. I spent a good chunk of the morning laying in bed in pain. Finally, I called my mother who told me to call the doctor. Me, being me, I couldn't stand the idea of going to my OB and it being nothing then making me look foolish so I was looking for other options. Ryan sat on the bed for 40 mins trying to talk me into seeing someone. Around, 2pm he convinced me to go to the urgent care center in Coxsackie. We packed up the baby and headed there. The woman there felt my abdomen and said she wanted me to go to Albany Med for a CT scan. Apparently, until proven otherwise, right lower abdomen pain is apenditis. So we packed up again and went to Albany Med. We sat in our own personal waiting room called a quiet room (they didn't want the baby around really sick people and I agreed) for about 1 1/2 hours. Most of that time, I was laying on the couch thingy trying to block out the pain. Around 4:30pm, they took us into the ER and started examining me. They put in an IV since I hadn't eaten since 1pm and if I had to go into surgrey they didn't want to do it then. I was annoyed but understood. I was more annoyed that the nurse doing it had no clue what he was doing. I ended up with a good sized bruise. They gave me morphine for the pain. Around 5pm they made me drink the nasty liquid dye they needed for my CT scan. Blech! Around 6:30pm they sent me down to radiology for an ultrasound. They thought maybe they could see my apendix with an ultrasound first. When I got to radiology, the tech came out and said that the ER had just called. They had a 4 year old boy who could poss have apenditis also and asked if he could get his scan before me. I thought "Well, if it was my kid, how angry would I be at the shmuck who said no?" So I said sure. I spent the next hour sitting on my gurney in the hall texting my mom and sister and trying not to cry as this poor little boy screamed and cried. I could hear his mother crying as she had to hold him down. I felt so bad.

Anyway, around 7:30pm they did the ultrasound and found that yes, I did have apenditis though they couldn't tell me that in radiology. They waited until I got back up to the ER. Right about 9pm my doctor came in and told me that they wanted to get a CT scan also because there was an absyss around my apendix on the ultrasound and they wanted to make sure it hadn't burst. It turned out to just be a layer of fat that my body had grown around my apendix during the pregnancy. So about 10:30pm I got my CT scan finally and they came back to tell me that yes, I did need surgery. I held it together pretty well while they told me. When Ryan came in from the quiet room him, my in laws, and my mother had the baby in, I totally broke down. That's when I began to cry. It wasn't the thought of going under the knife or even the thought of pain that made me cry. It was purely the thought of my little boy being without me for a few days and then not being able to hold him for long periods of time or care for him after.
They waited until around 12am or 1am to come in to have me sign consent papers and gave me a gown to put on. I asked for them to send Ryan in to help me get into it because there was no way I was gonna let the 2 male nurses (1 gay and 1 looking at me funny) to touch me or see me naked. Ryan came and helped me stand up to change. I promptly threw up. I went into the OR around 3:30am and they had to wait for Ryan to come get my jewelry which I had forgotten to take off. Around 4am I was knocked out and by 5:30am out of surgery and waking up. Ryan was there when I woke up though I was still very dopey.

I went back to sleep and woke up in my hospital room Thurs morning. My roommate and I got along well and I spent all of Thurs throwing up the all clear diet they had me on which consisted of apple juice and chicken broth. My mother, Will, and Ryan came to visit. Ryan was there when I fell asleep again. When I woke up on Fri morning, I was feeling good enough to eat regular breakfast and lunch. By dinner time, my FIL and Ryan had come to get me and I was laying in bed in the living room at my in laws. I've spent the last week here and when I can care for Ephraim alone during the day without tiring enough for a nap, we'll move back home.