Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Emergency Surgery and Parking Lot Breakdowns

A few weeks ago, my wonderful Handsome Husband had to have an emergency abdominal surgery to remove his appendix.

Everything went a-okay, and lucky the dude is making a stellar recovery in no-time!

Here's how it went down:

6pm Tuesday night: HH starts complaining of stomach pressure and pain.
We sort of assume it's gas, and he takes some gas relief meds, and tries to get some sleep.
Throughout the night he gets awful sleep, poor guy was tossing and turning every ten minutes.
7am Wednesday morning: HH is still in pain, and decides to take the day off work to get some rest.

11am Wednesday: On my way back to my clinic after a meeting, I call my Hubster who is still complaining of pain.  Worried, I have him call his doctor and get in to see her.  (HH has been seeing the same physician since he was born and always gets in to see her right away when he needs to.)

2:30pm Wednesday afternoon: Handsome Hubs calls me, tells me his doc is pretty sure its appendicitis, and that he is going straight to the ER at our local hospital (steps from my work, as in we share the parking lot).

By 5:00pm Wednesday we had been told it definitely was appendicitis (after a CT to confirm), and we were taken up to Pre-Op around 5:30pm.

At 6:00pm I gave HH some good luck in surgery kisses, and by 6:45pm the surgeon was coming out to tell me all went well.

In those 45 minutes, I freaked a little.  Up until then everything happened so fast that I didn't really have time to worry.  Not that worrying was really necessary as an appendectomy is a very routine surgery with a very small risk of complication.  However, there is still that risk.  And those 45 minutes gave me lots of time to think about them.

There was also the fact that there were about five families in the waiting room, and I was the last to get my good news.  Once four families got theirs, I started wondering about odds and if there was any way I could possibly get good news after all of them had.

I started to think what would happen if something went wrong, if somehow I lost my sweet HH suddenly.  Surely, everyone knows life is not guaranteed and that you can lose the people you love any day, but being confronted with it like that, having to wait to hear whether your loved one is waking up from surgery, is a bit different.

But thank God, he was fine.  I saw him after surgery, spent a few hours with him post-surgery, and then headed home per his instructions (I seriously considered breaking hospital rules and sleeping in a chair bedside with him, but he insisted I head home).

And then I got into my car.
And then I lost my shit.

I cried an ugly cry like no other.
I sobbed at my steering wheel like I haven't in a long time.
And why?

(I'll be honest and say that I think this breakdown was highly influenced by 2 things other than the below: 1. PMS, and 2. A book I had just finished at the time, Two Kisses for Maddy, in which a spouse becomes a very young widow suddenly - Book Club Friday post to come!)
I cried because I realized I could lose this man at any moment,
and that terrifies me.

My life would never be the same without my husband in it - he is my main source of laughter, encouragement, love, intimacy. 
He brings such joy in to my life, that I can't imagine my life anything but dark without him in it.

My husband is my best friend, and I don't mean that to insult my other amazing female best friends.  I mean it to do nothing but praise a man who puts up with me every second of every day.  He deserves an award for his patience and caring with someone who is not always the same towards him.
He is truly and unequivocally the love of my life.


So I cried because even though on that day he was fine, I could lose him (and any of my loved ones, for that matter) at a moment's notice, and how effing scary is that?

After a sufficient crying sesh (sometimes you just feel so much better post cry, don't you?!), I pulled myself together and got myself home, as we do. 

And since then, I've been attached to his hip.
Okay, not really - but for a good 72 hours I practically was.

10 comments:

lil desiqua said...

Awww! Well I'm glad it was an easy surgery, at least for him! Medical issues scare the crap outta me- and you're right, you just never know what could happen. But I'm happy that all is well!

Breanna said...

Oh my gosh! I'm sure that was definitely a scary time for both of you. I'm so glad that he is okay...and I know what you mean about worrying you'll lose him!

I worry when my husband drives somewhere and I'm not with him...it probably is a little obsessive, but I just can't imagine my life without my husband either!

How lucky are we to have a love so strong? :)

Glad everything turned out okay!

Ashley said...

Wow, soo glad he went in and got it checked! It is crazy how easily it is to jump to the worst case scenario. It makes you apprecaite what you have now.

I am glad he is recovering well and quickly!

Janie said...

My mom got her appendix taken out last month - I got a text from my brother at about 10 pm and he said my mom was about to get emergency surgery, mind you they are in a different state and she is over 50. It's really hard even if it is a very common thing to happen and the docs do the surgery all the time. It's very scary! So many things can go wrong. I'm glad your hubby is okay and hope he is healing up really quickly!

Ashley V. said...

So glad he is doing well! I worry about things like that all the time too. You never know what life with throw at you and you will never be prepared....we just have to try live each day as if it's our last and love everyone around us, right? Love ya!

Neely said...

So glad he is OK friend! How scary!!

Eschelle Westwood Mumfection said...

oh wowee!! I went threw something like this recently with my "hubby" he ended up having a super rare colon infection. Could be a determining factor to colon cancer if his pain returns but they managed to treat it with just antibiotics for the time being. What he has is only seen in men 50+ usually and his particular side is INCREDIBLY rare for Caucasian men apparently.

Glad to here that the surgery went well and he is healing up!! Sometimes a good cry is what you need to do when you have no time to react at the moment. I can completely get that hun (((HUGS)))

Tricia said...

I totally would have lost my shit too. I get nervous sometimes when I think about my husband commuting an hour to and an hour from work every day on back roads with stupid drivers. So surprise surgery? Um yeah.
And that book that you are partially laying blame on? It obviously does not sound "pleasant' per se, but sounds like a good read, so please do share soon!

Amber said...

So glad everything went okay! I had stomach/abdominal issues and it turns out to be massive kidney stones, but they thought it was my appendix at first.
And this is such a sweet post with the sweet words about your HH. Hope he is feeling better!

Shell said...

This had to be so scary!

I tend to be okay during a situation and then flip out after it's all over.

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