For those of you who know what’s going on with me, I’m alive and
well.  I’m a little sore, but all around in good shape.  For
those of you who don’t know what’s going on with me, let me fill you in
on a lovely story…

I woke up Thursday afternoon with a really bad stomach ache.  I
went ahead and had a bowl of cereal and watched some TV, and the hurt
seemed to go away.  I then got up and started getting dressed and
packing (I had been visiting Cory since Monday night, and it was time
to go home), and my stomach started hurting
again.  I just felt really gassy and bloated, so I took some
medicine hoping that would help.  It helped a little bit, but not
much.  I headed home to Sullivan around 3ish and my stomach wasn’t
feeling much better.  It was ok on the drive home mainly because I
wasn’t moving a whole lot.  But, as soon as I got home and started
walking and moving around again, it started hurting really badly. 
I just had this really sharp pain in my right side.  For those of
you who know anything about anatomy or anything, your appendix is on
your right side right around the area in which I was hurting.  So,
I freak out a little bit thinking I have appendicitis and it’s going to
rupture and what not, but I calm myself down and tell myself that it’s
just a belly ache.  I’ve had this type of pain before, but all I
usually had to do was just lay down and it would go away in a few
hours.  I went to bed with it still hurting and decided that if it
still hurt in the morning I would go to the doctor.

So, morning came and I still felt like crap.  I didn’t get a lot
of sleep because my stomach hurt all throughout the night.  I got
up at 7:30 to ask mom what time the doctor’s office opened.  She
said 8:30, so I layed down for another hour.  8:40 came and I
called the doctor to see if they could sqeeze me in.  They said
they could take me at 9, so I had 15 minutes to get ready and get up to
the hospital.  I got there on time and saw my family doctor. 
He felt my belly and what not and he decided to go ahead and have me
get some blood work done, a urine test, and a CAT scan.  He said
that there were a few possibilities: I could have appendicitis, I could
have a cyst on my ovary, or I could have some other pelvic inflammatory
problem.  He guessed that I had about a 30% chance that it was
appendicitis, so that was comforting.  So, I went to the lab and
got all my lab work done, which wasn’t a lot of fun.  All of this
is coming from a girl who’s never broken a bone, never been seriously
sick, and hadn’t had her blood taken since she was ten.  So,
needless to say, I was a little nervous about the whole thing.  I
got some blood taken, which wasn’t so bad.  I then headed to
Radiology for the CAT scan.  They injected this dye stuff into me
(the nurse just called it a “contrast”) which just helped bring out all
my blood vessels and what not.  After the CAT scan, I was told the
doctor was going to look over the CAT scan and to go to the waiting
room and wait for him there.  So I waited for about 20 minutes or
so.  Then the nurse came out….with a wheelchair. 
She said that the doctor saw some things in the CAT scan and something
wasn’t right, and that my family doctor wanted to go ahead and admit me
into the hospital.  Great….

So, I get all checked in and what not.  Now mind you, I still have
no idea exactly what’s going on.  The nurse just told me that
something wasn’t right and that my doctor should be in to see me
shortly.  Well, shortly turned into about 2 1/2 hours! 
So, for the 2 1/2 hours that I didn’t know anything, I just sat there
and watched TV while nurses came in and out.  I had to get an IV
put in which was not fun at all.  I also had to give some more
blood, which also was not fun.  So, right now I’m just thinking
it’s my appendix.  I have no idea what else it could be.  I
was still really confused, though, because loss of appetite and nausea
are symptoms of appendicitis, and I didn’t have those.  I was
actually starving at the time because I had had nothing to eat since
about 9:30 Thursday night, and it was around 2 Friday afternoon. 
And I wasn’t nauseous at all.  But I didn’t know what else it
could be, so I just assumed it was appendicitis.  Some nurses
finally came in around 3:45 and told me that they had just talked to my
doctor and that Dr. Leuking (a surgeon) was in the building and could
take me in about 40 minutes.  They said that some things showed up
on my CAT scan that lead to appendicitis and that my appendix may have
already ruptured.  That scared me
to death!  If it had already ruptured, then my stomach was full of
infection.  They would be able to drain some of it, but I would
have to keep a drain in for a week to get all of the infection
out.  Needless to say, this would suck.  So, some surgical
nurses came in and started prepping me for surgery.  They said
that if my appendix hadn’t ruptured yet, they would be able to do
everything laparoscopic, which is when they make three small incisions
and are able to pretty much suck my appendix out so that they don’t
have to cut me open.  But, if the appendix had already ruptured,
they would have to cut me open, which would suck.  So, I have
about ten thousand thoughts going through my mind, all of which scare
me to death.  I just kept praying that my appendix hadn’t ruptured
yet and that they would haven’t to cut me open, and I didn’t have a
stomach full of infection.  So, after having my second mom (Dawn)
and my family pray over me, as well as my minister, Dale, who got there
just in time, I was taken back to surgery.  I actually ended up
waiting there for about 2 hours.  Dr. Lueking was in the middle of
another surgery, and they had some complications causing him to take a
little longer than they expected.  So, Lueking came and talked to
me for a minute.  He said that they weren’t 100% sure it was my
appendix.  He said my blood counts were good, and he gave a 30%
chance that my appendix was fine.  He said that either way, they
were going to go ahead and take the appendix out to keep me from having
future problems. 

So, they finally wheeled me into the surgery room around 5ish.  I
tell you what, surgery is a weird thing.  Being knocked out is the
weirdest feeling ever.  I could actually feel myself losing
consciousness.  It was just weird…anyway…About 30-40 minutes
later, I woke up in the recovery room.  I just remember asking the
nurses a lot of questions about what happened.  I also asked them
to put me back to sleep because I hurt so much.  The nurses took
me to the room I was in earlier, and I was greeted by tons of friendly
faces.  I don’t really remember a lot.  I just remember
seeing people.  It was so nice to see all these people who took
time out of there schedules to come see me and make sure I was
ok.  I really have some great friends!  (And to the one very
special person who couldn’t be there with me, it’s ok Baby.  You
were there in my heart the entire time, holding my hand and taking care
of me.  “Miles may separate us, but somewhere our souls are always
holding hands.” I love you with all of my heart and I can’t wait to see
you!) It didn’t take long after being back
in my room and getting some Demerol into my system and I was out. 
I slept off and on till about 12.  That was about the first time I
was really awake.

So, it wasn’t my appendix at all.  I had a cyst on my right ovary
that had wrapped itself around my fallopian tube.  So they took
the cyst out, which ended up being between a golf ball and tennis ball
in size, and also went ahead and took my appendix out.  That way
if I have this pain again, I’ll know it’s my ovary and not my
appendix.  Everything’s ok, though.  I still have both
ovaries and both tubes and the doctor said I shouldn’t have any
problems having babies (which Cory and I are very thankful for). 
The weird thing is that this exact same thing happend to my mom after
my brother Dusty was born.  Same ovary and everything.  The
only difference is that they caught hers too late and the tumor had
actually killed her right ovary and fallopian tube.  So I’m
thankful we caught it when we did.  I’m also soooo thankful that
it wasn’t my appendix and that it hadn’t ruptured.  I truly thank
God for that. 

I slept off and on last night.  The nurses came in about every
half hour to hour to check my vitals and what not.  I was able to
eat breakfast today (finally…food!) and keep it down.  I was
also able to take a little walk around the hospital and did fine. 
The surgeon came to see me and said everything looked good and that I
should get to go home soon.  Another doctor came to see me and he
said everything looked fine.  As long as I could keep food down
and could walk around, I could go home.  So I was released around
11:30.  I’ve just been vegging ever since.  I got some
chicken strips from DQ which tasted soooo good!  I took some
Vicodin and fell asleep for a few hours.  All around, I’m feeling
ok.  I’m just really sore from the incisions.  I’m actually
kinda surprised by how good I feel, so that’s good.

I just think back about he last 36 hours or so, and it’s just
crazy!!  I had no idea going into the doctor at 9 that I would be
having surgery later on that day!  It’s also weird because I was
poked and prodded and what not more yesterday in a few hours than my
entire life!  I mean, I’ve never had any kind of major thing wrong
with me.  It’s just weird.  But, Mom said I’m doing really
good with the painkillers and stuff.  She doesn’t handle
painkillers well, and she’s allergic to most of them, so I was kinda
worried about taking them because I had no idea how I would react to
them.  But, I’m doing just fine which is good.

To any of you who knew about all of this yesterday, I thank you for
your thoughts and prayers.  They mean the world to me. 
Please continue praying for me.  Pray that I recover fully and
easily and that I don’t have any further problems.  Now, I just
get to sit around and be lazy for a few days, which I don’t have much
of a problem with!