hmmm...surgery for you today

Fielding woke up on Cinco de Mayo with a stomach ache about 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. And me, being the sympathetic wife I am, asked what was wrong. He said his stomach was hurting really bad on the right hand side. I told him I thought that was the appendicitis side and asked him if there was anything I could do for him. I told him that if he was still hurting in the morning we would go in to the doctor's office. Until then, I had to get back to sleep because I had work that day. 6 o'clock rolls around and I wake up to the sound of dry heaving. (never a good sound. I'm always afraid I'll have something gross to clean up.) I holler out of the room and ask if Fielding is okay. He says he is, but that his stomach is still hurting and he wants to go see the doctor. So I get out of bed, get dressed, call the doctor's office (they don't open until 7.), and finish preparing the stuff I'm supposed to take to my work party. Call the doctor's office again and set up an appointment. Call my boss to let him know I'll be in late, and drop off the party stuff.
Once we're at the hospital, they run Fielding through all of the basic check-in. Our doctor comes in and the first words out of her mouth are 'oh, it's never a good sign when they're hunched over like that'. She checks his back from any pain. None there. She then picked up his foot and hit the heel of it with her hand. Well that certainly got a reaction. Who would have thought hitting the bottom of the foot would be a medical technique. Next thing I know they're calling an ambulance, putting an iv in him for fluids, and telling him he gets to go into emergency surgery.
Seriously!?! Not exactly what I had planned for the day and not really something I was too keen on dealing with. (I'm not a fan of hospitals or needles. They freak me out.) I can't tell you how ... I can't think of the word, but it's definitely not something I'll ever forget. Not to mention my doctor's advice, if you're going to follow the ambulance don't get freaked out if they flip the lights and sirens. (No problem. I didn't plan on following that closely anyhow. That wouldn't help my mentality.)
The next tasks were letting work know I wouldn't be in for a couple of days, finding out what I needed to do for insurance stuff, notifying his parent's, and not freaking out.
You'd think that when you go in for emergency surgery it would happen really quickly, but since Fielding wasn't too bad there was a lot of waiting and clearance that happened before he went in for surgery. Two hours to confirm the diagnosis with a doctor and a surgeon, another hour in pre op., and another hour or two in actual surgery and recovery.
Luckily, everything went really well and there were no additional problems. There were a few things I learned though. My husband doesn't like the initial feel of morphine. He isn't crazy weird like most people on drugs, but he does talk a lot. He also makes the funniest smiling face when told to smile post op. (He blames it on how dry his lips were.) The great part was how awesome University Hospital was. They did a great job and took care of a lot of the basic so I didn't have to. (I have to give Fielding's parents kudos for sitting there from about 11 in the morning until about 4 in the afternoon.) Oh, I also learned I don't like waiting around in a hospital. There are definitely a million other things I could fill the time with.
So far Fielding is recovery really well. He was up the night of the surgery and has been getting better since. He has now been cleared to mow the lawn so hopefully the city will leave us alone. Outside of that he still has to wait another 4-6 weeks before he's considered fully recovered.

Hooray for insurance and fast recoveries! I guess that will teach me to think my life is boring.