Well that was a weird and slightly scary start to 2010. In 48 hours I had stomach pains, rushed to hospital, got my appendix removed and then home again. It seemed such a whirlwind and dream I thought I’d write about it.

Firstly you should understand my phobia about hospitals. Of course everyone hates having to go to hospital but I also dread visiting people there, visiting friends in maternity ward even. I always feel that when I get through the door I’m going to be grabbed and strapped to a bed – and the further in I go the less likely I’ll get out again. I was 30 when my Mum mentioned that maybe it was because I’d had my stomach pumped when I was 2 years old!!  Doh!! You think!!  Apparently they thought I’d swallowed a bottle of junior aspirin – I do remember I liked the taste. So finally I understood my phobia – it did help a little bit. Could have done with knowing sooner though!!

Another phobia of mine is attention or fuss being made of me. I prefer to be the quiet one in the corner so to speak and just hide away.

So on Tuesday night I started getting pains in my tummy, I felt bloated and honestly thought it was probably trapped wind as I’d be drinking diet coke all day.  I couldn’t get comfortable sitting so I went to bed and still couldn’t get rid of the pain. At midnight I started throwing up violently and that carried on every half hour all through the night. In between the bouts of sickness I had such bad stomach pains I couldn’t sleep.  I wasn’t sure if I should call an ambulance and as I live in the middle of nowhere I didn’t think it could find me or even get along the icy roads. Plus I didn’t want the fuss. I sent a text to my landlord neighbour at about 3am knowing he’d see it when he switched his phone on when he got up early.

I knew it was so bad that I would have to go to hospital. I’d looked up appendicitis and my symptoms matched exactly. That really scared me but the pain was so bad I just wanted it to be sorted. (Later my sister-in-law said they knew I must be really bad if I was opting to go to hospital)  By 6am I couldn’t wait any longer and I phoned the neighbours house dreading the fact I was waking everyone up. They were brilliant though and got me to Mercy Hospital in Cork by 8am. Luckily there wasn’t a queue for A&E so I went straight in and the nurse told me off for not calling an ambulance…oops.

The triage nurse said it was appendicitis and the attending doctor said it was too. I was put on a morphine drip for the pain and a surgeon came and also said it was appendicitis but had to wait for the consultant before they could operate. It was about 10am now and I had to wait until 11am when the consultant came round. He asked me a few questions then talked over my head to his ‘followers’ and said it was gastroenteritis and more tests had to be done and he swanned out – thanks mate!! Now this was a bit of déjà vu for me as when I was 13 I had meningitis but a doctor misdiagnosed it as gastroenteritis at first so I ended up going into a coma and nearly dying.

I had to wait until 4pm for an ultra sound – I actually had to have two because the first wasn’t conclusive. Neither was the second but the original surgeon came back and said he thought it was appendicitis so he’d do a keyhole to check and if it was he’d whip the appendix out. Finally!!  This was 6pm. I’d spent 10 hours on a trolley being prodded in the appendix many times by doctors asking if it hurt – I think the stifled scream each time gave them the answer!! At one point I was on a trolley in the corridor as the A&E was overflowing – and I wasn’t the only one.

So finally up to theatre and strangely enough I wasn’t scared at all. I just wanted them to get the alien out of me and get me out of A&E.  A couple of hours later it was all done and I was put on a ward of four. Just in time for a sleepless night. When my drip alarm wasn’t going off, my neighbours was. Then there was the nurse who seemed to wait until I was sleeping to wake me and take blood pressure etc. At 7am lights on and its all go. The surgeon came to see me about 8am and said I may be able to go home that afternoon….thank god. However then the consultant came round at 11am and said I had to stay until Friday. He didn’t even check my chart or me!! I felt like asking if he even knew I didn’t have gastroenteritis after all!!

Thankfully I’d brought my laptop so I could get onto Twitter and Facebook and chat to friends plus keep up with what was going on at Whatswhat of course :)  I really did feel ok and was dreading another night of non sleep. Thankfully the nice surgeon came again at 5pm and read my chart, checked my tummy and said I was ok to go home.  And so my neighbour picked me up at 8pm and I was home by 9 – exactly 48 hours after I first started feeling the first pains.

I had a great nights sleep last night and feeling much better today, bit tender where the keyholes are but I’m taking it easy.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my friends on Twitter and Facebook who have been amazing and shown such care for me it’s been lovely.  Thanks to Trish and Ali who came to visit – Trish actually got to see my appendix today as she works in the labs – spooky. My friends who sent texts – Sian, Catherine, Melanie, Tracy, Elaine and Gillian and most importantly Grainne who kept in contact all the time and let my twitter friends know how I was doing. Then there is Tony who rang the ward to check I was ok, all the way from America – that was truly wonderful and I’m very thankful to him. Of course I was in constant touch with my brilliant business partner Barbara and my family in Wales and they were all great support. My best mate Lynne in Wales phoned through to check too – the nurses said I must be very popular – and it meant a lot to me when I was feeling like that to know how many people cared.

Of course I’d like to thank the nurses and doctors at Mercy who treated me – they are all wonderful and work so hard.

Finally I couldn’t wish for a better landlord and his family. JJ and Siobhan Fitzgerald who will probably never read this but they have been wonderful, taking me to the hospital and staying with me for a while, picking me up and getting my prescription and anything else I need. And of course looking after my cats and dogs while I was away. They are brilliant and my heartfelt thanks goes to them and fate who brought me to live here.

So that’s my start to 2010. At least all the bad stuff is out of the way now and only good will be headed my way – that’s me being very positive by the way