Everything seemed to be passing by incredibly fast, adults don't joke around when they say high school goes by quickly. I still haven't absorbed the fact that I am a graduate and will no longer be attending high school. Life has a strange way of laying things out, one day I'm in my graduation cap and gown and soon after, I'm in a patient's gown in the same hospital I was born in.
It's like getting hit by a bus, (even though I've never been hit by a vehicle, thank God.) It's sudden, quick, there is hardly any time to react. Being the first in my family to undergo surgery, you can only expect me to have horrible thoughts on the situation. I'm the type of girl who worries over the little things, and this obviously was not little. The reason for surgery, appendicitis.
Before surgery, before graduation, I had a slight pain in my stomach. It didn't seem to be anything serious, I thought it was food poisoning thanks to Wood Ranch, a restaurant where I stuffed my face with bread and an endless amount of barbecue sauce... but it wasn't food poisoning. I brushed it off, went home, told nobody about my pain and fell asleep. The next day was graduation day, I woke up with no pain and so I thought it had gone away, one of those temporary things but boy was I wrong. Graduation went great, I didn't fall and break my face, which was my biggest concern after I heard they had waxed the floors. I received my diploma, took countless amounts of pictures and went home. Everything was running smoothly until AFTER graduation when the next morning I did the most ridiculous thing a person in pain would do... I went to Disney California Adventure Park for the opening of the famous Cars Land.
My sisters and I have annual passes and so attending this day was a must. While waiting in line I literally felt the pain increasing, oh and did I mention that this was a three and a half hour long line? During those hours I realized it wasn't a regular stomach ache, it was something much more serious. Once I got home after that LONG day at Disney California Adventure, I went straight to my mom and told her how I had been feeling for the last couple of days. The following morning, she took me to the hospital where I spent a week after surgery.
After several exams, a doctor came to visit me to notify me that I needed surgery because I had an inflamed appendix. My mom was sitting next to me and she never left my side during the entire process. I remember my dad and three sisters coming to visit me before they took me to surgery. The look on their faces is something I will never forget. It's truly a scary experience, I get teary eyed just thinking about it.
After seeing my family, I was put in a gurney (one of those mobile hospital beds) and taken into a hall where all surgery took place. I remember laying in that narrow bed and staring at my reflection in the mirrors attached to the ceiling. "Here I go", I kept repeating to myself. The nurse who was moving the gurney was a young male, a quiet one. He took me to my destination and without saying a word, patted my leg, and walked away. I really grew to like him even though we never exchanged words, but that pat in the leg was good enough. A silent "good luck" which was exactly what I needed. Honestly, the rest I don't remember. I was put into a room with weird looking lights above the surgery table. Once on the table, a man came and placed something over my face, "You'll fall right to sleep", he said and he was right. I woke up to the lovely faces of my family hours later.
The week after was made up of eating jello (which wasn't very appetizing), to being exposed to morphine, to walking up and down the same hallway, to getting visitors that cared about me. This experience is very fresh in my mind. I can still hear the noises that filled the nurse station, I can still feel the texture of my gown, still smell the hospital food brought to me. One of my favorite memories takes place when I was walking down the hallway. The doctors told me I had to get on my feet in order to exercise and gain better posture. Halfway down the hallway I came across a room where an old woman who had had surgery was in the arms of her love. The joy that instantly appeared in her face when the doctor said she could leave the hospital that day was simply amazing. However, this moment quickly ended when I encountered a dark room where a man was sleeping in his bed, his room was empty. No flowers, no visitors, no presence. Seeing him alone made me realize I'm grateful to have my family. For without them, I wouldn't have been able to get through this surgery. So thanks Mom, Dad, Amy, Eslee and Lindsey, for never leaving my side.
- Samantha
