Day 1 (Nov 1st)
5:45am - I am awoken by the most excruciating pain in my lower right abdomen. It hurt so bad that it took almost 10 minutes just to rotate from my side to my back. I prayed that it would just go away, and managed to fall back asleep.
8:50am - I wake up once again and the pain is still there. I'm afraid to move, and really hoping it is just the worst ovarian cyst rupture I have ever had - anything but appendicitis!!
10:30am - Not quite as unbearably painful as earlier, but still hurts to move. Since I have nothing going on today, I decide to stay in bed... on my back... without moving.
1:15pm - The pain has been here for almost 8 hours and I start to freak out a little. I'm pretty certain at this point that it is, in fact, appendicitis.
1:17pm - I call my mom and express my concerns. She gives me a nurse advice number to call through insurance.
1:20pm - I call this number and they look up the policy... and inform me that it was terminated on 13 September.
1:22pm - I call my mom back and tell her what they told me and she gets mad at them and said that it was reinstated on the 14th and to call my dad.
1:25pm - I call my dad and tell him what's going on and he then realizes that he forgot to put me back on the plan and begins making the necessary calls.
1:25-2:30ish - I begin to increasingly freak out with the idea of a necessary surgery, no insurance, and $35,000+ to get my appendix removed (without insurance).
2:45 - I call Eric in tears and ask him to come home as soon as he can (he was at work).
3pm - Insanity ensues and I have 4 different people trying to call me at the same time. (my mom, my dad, Eric, and Eric's mom).
3:05pm - Eric is on his way home, and my dad calls to tell me that I am officially back on the insurance and it should be okay... but it won't show up until tomorrow... so hopefully it'll still be good for today.
3:10 - Eric calls our home teacher to come and give me a blessing.
Okay, enough with the time stamps. Our home teacher came over to help Eric give me a blessing and after the blessing he said "You know, you should talk to my wife - she's beaten appendicitis twice now!" "...Beaten it?" I asked. "Yeah, she used all sorts of crazy herbs and homeopathic stuff, but it worked!" Well this has definitely sparked my interest. He gave me his wife's phone number and as soon as he left, I called her. (Mind you, as soon as the blessing was finished, Eric and I had planned to go straight to the hospital.) I told her what was going on, she said remarks such as "Oh you poor thing!" and "That's awful!" and told me the first and more important thing is to not eat a thing. Luckily, since the thought of an impending surgery was on my mind, I had abstained from any and all foods all day anyway. Check. She also said to drink tons and tons of herbal tea - especially peppermint and the likes. Conveniently, I have a whole box of peppermint tea (herbal) in my cupboard, so I start on my journey of a tea-only diet.
About an hour later she comes over with three different combinations of herbs and a reusable tea bag to make the teas in, gives me about 10 pages worth of reading on the homeopathic solution to appendicitis and is on her way. I read the material, am fascinated by it, and then brace myself for the call to my mother where I will tell her that I am *not* going to the hospital yet. Surprisingly, she took it quite well. (yes, I know I am jumping between past and present tenses... deal with it. :) )
The next few days were awful, because I pretty much had LOTS of tea. The evening of Day 2 I finally had half an apple and it was the most glorious food I had ever tasted. The morning of Day 3 I have a very light soup, but still eat next to nothing the whole day. Day 4 I am starting to feel more like myself and actually eat a bit of solid food - some toast. By the evening of Day 4 I feel weak, but almost completely back to normal.
Eric's dad calls and invites us to the BYU basketball game that night and I am SO sick of being in the house and can finally move around again without Eric's help that I tell Eric I want to go. He is obviously concerned about this and it takes a bit of convincing that I really am up for going out, but he eventually gives in and his dad picks us up a few hours later.
The walk from the parking lot (the football parking lot across the street from the baseball stadium) to the Marriott Center was unexpected and a bit strenuous for me, but once we got to our seats, I was cautious, but fine. I even ran into a good friend and her fiance (whom I had not yet met) while we were there, so I was glad that I went.
I still ate VERY carefully the next several days to make sure I didn't aggravate it again, but I think it is officially gone!! Hurray! SO... if you ever think you have appendicitis but don't want to go to the hospital and have an appendectomy, call me and I'll walk you through it step-by-step! :D
