Ind-Appendix Day

Once during college, I was super sick. I had a terrible stomach ache all of the time. I wasn’t hungry, I wasn’t full. I told my mom (a nurse) about my problem. Like most nurses treat their own families, she told me “you’re fine,” and of course I believed her.

After a week, things weren’t getting any better. I had a busy day at school with a Fluid Mechanics exam and some kind of oral presentation for my writing class, “Technical Communications for Engineers and Scientists.” At the end of the day I walked back to my apartment and slept for a few hours. I asked Ryan to come and stay in my apartment that night because I was feeling so bad. The next morning, I knew something was really, really wrong. I called my mom and dad at 5am and asked them to take me to the hospital.

I was examined in the ER by a great set of doctors and nurses, I was told I had appendicitis, and I would have surgery at noon. The doctors expected my recovery to take two days, then I would be back at class. After my morphine drip, I didn’t see why I needed surgery at all and I was ready to walk right out of there in my hospital gown. I went to surgery anyway. The OR called my parents during the surgery to inform them that my appendix had BURST a week prior to my arrival at the hospital and my body was full of infection. Wow! In case you don’t know (I didn’t), a person could die within an hour of having a burst appendix, so it was amazing that I was alive a week later!

I stayed in the hospital for 8 days, lost twenty pounds, and recovered slowly.   I was a special case and was visited by a room FULL of medical students every morning looking at my chart and asking me “didn’t it hurt?”  My awesome family (Mom, Dad, and Nicki)and friends (Ryan, Erin Paull, and Kristin McNeil) visited me all of the time. When I went home, my sister and my boyfriend (now husband) had no problem picking on a sick girl as they constantly made fun of my thin frame and the fact that I had no butt. Not like I had a butt anyway, but after this, I had to buy new pants. Thankfully, the Carnegie Mellon staff was super awesome and I was able to continue my classes for the semester after a 2.5 week absence.

Here are some photos from Spring Break at the end of March 2003 when Ryan and I went to Florida on a cruise. I was still very weak and often sleepy, but I had a great time.  Here you can see my giant head and super skinny arms.

Ryan and I parasailing.    Sorry ladies, he’s all mine.

This is one of my favorite photos ever.  I took it on the cruise as our ship left the dock.  I was on the deck, watching, and I saw it.  I ran back to my room to get my camera(film SLR), hoping that the sun and the people would behave and stay exactly as they were.   Thankfully everyone cooperated and the image was the centerpiece of my 2004 photography show at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  I include it here because it made me want to understand lighting and fueled my passion for what I do today.

SO today, February 26, 2010, I celebrate 7 years since my emergency appendectomy and I’m still alive. I call in “Ind-Appendix Day.” Yay for being alive!