No Longer a Surge-Virg

In October I got really sick with what I thought was just a cold. Turns out it was "walking pneumonia". So I got sick at the beginning of the month and was still sick by the end of it even though I saw the doctor, got put on antibiotics, etc. At one point during all of this I coughed so hard that I gave myself an umbilical hernia. The only way to fix the hernia was to have surgery...and since I'm a very active person I figured sooner was better than later to get it taken care of. So I had my surgery last Friday, November 16th. It was pretty scary as it was the first and only surgery I've had in all 27 years of my life. In reality, it was a very simple procedure and only took about 45 minutes to perform. I had to show up at 8am to get checked in and get the IV's started. The next thing I knew I was in the surgery room moving from my bed to the table...then I got "happy medicine"...and I was knocked out until about 11am. I don't remember any thing...didn't even make it to a countdown before I passed out! When I woke up my first reaction was to itch my nose, which was incredibly dry from the oxygen they were pumping into me. My friend Steph helped me out that day by driving me and picking up my prescriptions (she also babied me by getting me cinnamon coated graham crackers, apple juice and mashed potatoes from KFC - all my comfort foods). I love her! After the anesthesia finally wore off I was in some pretty good pain but thankfully had some Percoset to get me thru the next few days...among other things that made me feel better. :-)

I'm an idiot though...I have this stupid, crazy social life and had planned on going to dinner and a movie the very next night with my friends CP, Michelle and her fiance Chris. I planned it all before I knew when I was having surgery so it wasn't intentional...and I couldn't ditch because CP drove down from Montrose and the tickets to the movie (Warren Miller) were already bought. So I sucked it up, took a couple of pills and tried to make the best of it. We had dinner at PF Changs and I was able to make it through that with relatively little pain (thanks the pain meds and the ice pack I had in my shirt the whole time). By the time we made it to the movie my ice pack was no longer cold and I had to ditch it in the car. That was a sad moment as it made me feel so much better than when I didn't have it! So I had to sit thru a 2-hour movie in the crappiest seats ever with my belly button lacerated from surgery. I ended up unbuttoning my pants so that I had room to chill semi-comfortably. I was VERY SORE after the movie and could barely walk back to the car. CP had to help me walk down the street (so grateful for that)! I feel bad cause I'm usually more fun and I know he was looking forward to a wild night on the town. I owe him a raincheck!!

Sunday I kept myself in a Percoset coma...it was fantastic!! Turns out I'm allergic to Percoset (it made me itch uncontrollably) so they switched me to Vicodin the next day...yeah Vicodin!!