Believe it or not I feel blessed!

So Sunday night about 11pm I started to have this sharp pain on my right side. When I started throwing up I knew I was in trouble. I called the urgent care center Monday morning as soon as they opened and upon describing my symptoms - they insisted I head straight to the ER. And so my trip to John Muir Medical Center this week.

After a few ultrasounds, some bloodwork, and a CT scan I had a visit from a very nice Greek surgeon who insisted my appendix was to come out that very night. After a few tearful calls with my mom (believe it or not - she was the one crying - and none too happy with me that I didn't call her sooner since by the time I did talk to her it was too late for her to get on a plane and be with me for surgery) I called Amanda to come sit with me until surgery - and Michelle called her mom to drive down from Sacramento. Amanda and I had great fun sitting in pre-op for nearly 4 hours as we watched patient after patient come in and get to go into surgery before me. Of course the good part of that was that it allowed time for Margurite (Michelle's mom) to make it down from Sacramento. My mom was very pleased I at least had A mom with me.

After a short hour in surgery I emerged appendix free. I had a not so lovely 36 hour stay at John Muir after emerging from surgery. I really don't understand why they have to wake you up so much. Considering the pain I was in I would much rather have slept. And the way my neighbor was snoring I'd think they could figure out a way to let you sleep a little longer once you're actually able to FALL asleep.

Tuesday consisted of lots of sleep and lots of phone calls from those near and dear to me. To those of you who called - I aplogize for being so out of it - but I'm sure you understand! Tuesday morning when I saw the dr he indicated I MIGHT get to go home Tuesday night, so Amanda, Bev, Jen, Ann and Tony all came by to visit and maybe give me a ride home. Alas, my dr decided that with me flying to Chicago on Saturday he wanted to keep me in the hospital one more night.

Wednesday morning I was up and at 'em trying to get through my list of things the dr said I must do before leaving the hospital. I won't go into the gory details on what that entails - but I was on a mission to get out of that hospital as soon as possible.

At 10:30 I saw my dr and he gave me the good news....homeward bound was I! A call to Amanda for a ride home and I was busy getting my IV removed, post op instructions, and getting dressed. We left the hospital then and headed home to drop off my flowers before hitting the drug store to pick up my pain meds and some food. Then it was time for me to crash - and if I thought I was in love with my bed before it's nothing compared to how good it felt to be in my bed again last night!!! Amanda - thanks SO much for chauffering me around yesterday and getting me settled at home.

Thanks to Amanda and Ann for making the trip to pick up my car at John Muir last night. One less thing for me to worry about now. Thanks to Beverly for picking up mom tonight at Oakland. Yes, mom who is so upset she hasn't been with me all week is flying in tonight to help me get ready to go home on Saturday. She was really freaked out about me traveling on my own Saturday and when she talked to my stepmom to tell her what was going on, Cynthia offered her a plane ticket to come and get me.

After about 10 hours of sleep last night I spent today catching up on voicemails, important emails, christmas cards, and tv. With a nap or two of course. I'm still pretty sore, but being home has me feeling SO much better!

Again, thanks to all of you who sent your well wishes. Its terrible times like these when I feel extra special to have met each and every one of you!