Appendix Explosion: Part One

Hello everyone! I'm back, and lighter than ever thanks to the removal of a useless internal organ. First, thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers and e-mails. I admit it's pretty hard to keep morale up when the doctor tells you, "One more day," every single day for two weeks.

Anyway, since my surgery/hospitalization story is a long and winding one, I'm going to post it in a few different parts. This post will be the initial surgery and the story of how I got to the hospital. After that, I'll write everything I put in my journal while I was in the hospital. I kept a running diary of sorts.

So onto the main story. Enjoy!

Where we last left off in my medical drama, I had visited a digestive clinic, gotten the enteritis diagnosis and gotten some medicine. The pain subsided some and I felt like I was on my way to recovery.

Well, after the pain sort of went away, it came rushing back in a big way.

So I went to the clinic again on Thursday and Friday for more ultrasound work. Again, they found nothing. they suspected my appendix was to blame, but the ultrasound showed nothing to be out of sorts.

The doctor, unable to find the cause, recommended I get a CT scan and x-rays. Well, I had to wait through the weekend for that. On Sunday, I actually had enough strength to go shopping for a bit. But by Sunday evening, my energy had waned and I was in severe pain again.

On the morning of Monday. May 25, we went to the scan clinic and got the work done. We found something I did not expect at all. The doctors there found a mass. He called it a cystic calcified mass. He didn't know what it was and said it probably wasn't cancer. But he recommended surgery immediately to get it removed.

Sunny and Mr. No then took me to InHa University Hospital, just a few kilometers from my house, to see a specialist. He took x-rays as well. It was at that time that some light was shone on the issue.

It turns out my appendix had already ruptured and was to blame for my severe pain. But why didn't it show up on the ultrasound? That's where it gets interesting.

I just happen to be a unique individual whose appendix was out of place. The doctor described it as hiding behind my stomach. It was because of that placement that my illness was misdiagnosed in the first place.

But that also saved my life. Most times, when an appendix ruptures, people require immediate emergency surgery. However, due to the fact that my appendix was nestled behind my stomach, the ruptured poisons couldn't spread, thereby saving my life. However, it also may be why the mass grew there.

Because of all this, the doctor still had grim news. He expected a full sternum to groin scar and 2-3 months of hospital recovery.

The surgery took place the morning of Tuesday, May 26. Because of the uniqueness off my situation, there were apparently 20-some odd doctors observing, and the surgery took close to 3 hours.

The doctor worked his magic, fortunately, and got the mass and appendix out with only about a three-inch scar on my lower right abdomen. He said he found a lot of stones in the appendix, which he said was pretty uncommon. A doctor friend of the family said these "stones" can develop from partially digested food getting trapped in the appendix.

Well, the surgery was a success. On Wednesday, the doctor came in and said I'd be out in two days. On Thursday, the countdown was one day. But then we hit a snag.

I had a rubber drainage ball attached to my body with a tube inserted into the surgery area. Apparently, whatever comes out, would tell the doctors how the healing was going. On Friday, they weren't happy with it and said there was an infection in there.

They even took away my eating privileges for the day. I had already gone Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with no food OR water. Thursday was a relief to get something in my system. But Friday it was snatched away.

Fortunately, I got mt food and water back again on Saturday.

I had a lot of friends come visit the first week. That list includes Vicky, all the teachers, Vicky's friends and cousin and even Vicky's parents. Except for Vicky's parents, it was nice to have those visitors because I got to speak some English.

Except for the head surgeon, the doctors and nurses spoke VERY little English. All my communicating in the hospital was done in Korean. I guess all my studying paid off.

Little did I know at that point that I still had more than a week left to go. Like I said, the doctor continually came in and said, "One more day."

I have a lot of notes and observations. So keep checking back over the next couple days for updates and the running diary I kept.

It's good to to be home. Thank you, everyone.
-Aaron