Appendicitis

August 30, 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

Wednesday evening, I ate dinner and immediately thought, damn, that did not sit well with me. I went on to teach yoga that night and then struggled to sleep when I got home. The abdominal pain was nuts and kept me up through the morning.

When I got to work the next day, things had not improved, so I got in to see the doctor that afternoon. She ordered a STAT CT scan and blood work… but I had to pick up the kids from school and the babysitter and take Har to soccer practice and John was out of town for work, and shit had to get done, you know?

Luckily my pal was working the front desk when I managed to sneak in to Kaiser for blood work in between pick-ups and practice. He told me that the radiology department stayed open until 9pm and if I could find a sitter before then, he’d get me in. I arranged for a babysitter to come over after practice and I ran off for a ‘quick’ CT scan.

Upon arrival, was told I’d have to drink the contrast stuff, forgetting that you have to wait 2 hours from drink to scan so I anxiously waited in the lobby with a quickly dying phone and no charger. Once the scan was completed, I had to wait for the doctor to review the report- at this point, I realized I have never wished for gas so badly in my life. But I wasn’t so lucky to just “need to rip one”. The CT showed the beginning signs of appendicitis and was told to go to the ER immediately.

Grateful for super rad in-laws, Big Har started his middle-of-the-night trek from San Diego to OC and relieved the babysitter as I settled into my hospital room. I was given pain meds and waited for the surgeon to finish up the peeps in front of me. Sometime in the morning- no clue what time it was but the sun was up- I was instantly pumped to have been waiting because they had changed over to the day shift and in walked in an OG member of the Rad Lady Posse- my breast surgeon Dr. Formichella.

I was wheeled into surgery somewhere around 9:30am, Britney Spears (obvi) blasting- we all decided on ‘Oops I Did It Again’ with all of my previous surgeries having just been discussed- and then I was OUT.

Next thing I knew, I was waking up shivering and hysterically sobbing. I kept apologizing, why? No clue. The nurse was great, gave me something to calm me down and was super comforting. She also kept reminding me to breathe, which I really appreciated because, you know, breathing is pretty important.

Eventually, I was wheeled back to my room and passed the F out. I even found out later that Big Har and the kids came to visit and I had ZERO clue. Later that evening, I was discharged and don’t remember much about being home.

Today, I’m still in pain from the surgery- it hurts to walk, talk, sit, move, yell (the kids don’t mind that last one) But thankful it was a laparoscopic procedure vs cutting me open. Fun fact: my hysterectomy was also laparoscopic and was performed two years ago today.

So, cheers to an unplanned week of ‘vacation’ where I can’t do shit. {oh man, with all these pain meds in me, I hope I can actually take a shit 😜} Though there’s always something be grateful for- at least I will have more time to work on my Affirmation Deck Kickstarter launch on the 3rd!

Thanks for all of the kind words and support!

XoXo

Just Because You Can

May 10, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

There’s this saying- ‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’- which I usually reserve for the dickwads going 65 in the carpool lane. Turns out, it’s another line I spout out that I should listen to myself.

I am finally recovered from my sinus surgery, which took much longer than anticipated. I think I said it before, I just ended up being one of the few who did not tolerate it well. While I should have been taking it easy and listening to my body, I was pushing myself to do my normal tasks and then some… because I could. I was exhausting myself during the day, unable to sleep at night, and overall- a real “peach” to be around. {insert eye roll and face palm}

Once I started to take it easy, I started to feel better. Go figure. And now that the swelling has gone away, I am really happy that I did it. Being able to breathe through my nose is pretty exciting. So is having the ability to hear out of BOTH ears. This gal gives the final results two thumbs up.

In other medical news, I had a CT scan on Monday of my pelvis, abdomen, and chest to follow up on a hemangioma on my liver which was found about 6 months ago. I didn’t tell anyone about the scan because, honestly, I didn’t want to think about it. And sometimes avoidance is my coping skill of choice. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The results came in yesterday afternoon and my scan showed no evidence of disease. And my liver only shows a small fatty spot. HELLS.. TO.. THE.. YEAH!

My brain is now free to prepare for my final weekend of Be Well Yoga for Cancer Recovery Teacher Training, to finalize a couple of upcoming workshops I’m holding, and to hopefully get re-inspired with a project I had been working on pre-surgery.

What are some things you are working on? Or would like to begin? I feel a vision board party should be in order soon. Yeah? You in?

Fun fact: Growing up, my mom’s license plate was BizzyBZ 🐝

Post Surgery Shiiiiit

March 29, 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

My little victories were short lived.

I woke up Monday morning with a severe migraine. Thankfully, my mother-in-law was at the house watching the kids and keeping them busy so I could rest. I slept until 3pm and when I got up, the migraine was still kickin’.

Along with the migraine, my nose had been bothering me. It was extremely swollen on the inside and I lost my sense of smell and taste again. Though I did enjoy them while they lasted.

I went to bed that evening fully expecting the migraine to be gone when I woke up but it definitely was not. So I ended up at the doctor’s office because, by Tuesday morning, I was dizzy and short of breath- still with the headache and sinus pressure. If I didn’t move, my head was fine. But any standing, sitting, or quick turning of the head made me lose vision and feel sick. They gave me some fluids because I was dehydrated and a hip/ butt shot of something to help with the headache and inflammation.

I left the office feeling better and went to work thinking we took care of the problem and that I just needed to increase my water intake. Wednesday came around and I thought I had a rebound headache from the I injection but then woke up Thursday with the full blown shit show- severe headache, pain in the face and sinuses, swelling. I went to work but quickly left and went to urgent care where I was given fluids and a pain med again. Same deal as Tuesday.

Apparently I have been holding in a lot of emotions- I mean, I rarely cry so not too surprising I guess- and I just lost it in urgent care. I could not stop crying. The one benefit of looking like a crazy lady was that the nurse put me in a room super fast. While I was sobbing, the nurse called the Head and Neck Department and got me in for an appointment later that day.

At the Head and Neck dept, I had a couple of docs taking a look into my super swollen nose. Short story- I had an extensive surgery and should have taken more time off to heal. My swelling looks to be a bit more severe than someone else in this situation and all of this is most likely causing these awful headaches. The docs then performed the adult equivalent of the baby Nose Frida- if you don’t have kids, they suctioned a ton of mucus, blood, and left over dissolvable packing out my nose. (Text me if you want to see a picture 😜) And I was prescribed steroids.

I now realize that I need to take some serious time to heal so that I can be a functioning part of my home and society. So I will not be teaching yoga for the next couple of weeks and am not extending myself further than I know is ok for me right now.

Throughout all of this, it has been hard to find the positive. I feel like complete shit and would prefer to sleep until this is all over and I feel good again. But that’s not possible. So in order to not be a complete dick, I will practice what I preach.

The positives I have experienced this last week: At least my teeth still do not hurt like they did before surgery. I have a husband who takes on way more than his share to keep our home functioning smoothly. A mother-in-law who provides so much help and support with our two crazy kids. Employers who truly care about my health and well-being and who do not get upset when I need time off to recover and instead, they help me along the way to take the load off. And family and friends who listen to me bitch about feeling like shit and look at my nose suctioning pictures without complaint.

Fingers crossed that my next post has good news to report. 🤞🏻