Photos: I Had an Emergency Appendectomy Last Week In Billings

You may have noticed last week I went MIA for a few days on 103.7 The Hawk, and my articles were sporadic until the weekend. Well, it turns out, on Monday Evening I was experiencing sharp pain in one specific spot on my stomach... and you already guessed it. My Appendix had enough, and it was making it known to me.

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The Play-By-Play

Here's a nice timeline of events for you... showing how my Monday Evening went.

• 5:20 PM I called a family friend to ask about it, and see if he ever had this pain... which he hadn't. However, his wife started yelling in the background to get my rear end over to the clinic and get checked out.
• 5:30 PM I'm all checked in at the Walk-In Clinic on 27th Street, waiting to be seen.

• 6:30 PM I'm finally seen by a doctor, who draws my blood to check the white cell count.

• 7:10 PM The white cell count came back elevated, and they told me it was time to visit the ER.
• 7:20 PM I'm checked in at St. Vincent ER, waiting to be seen.

• 8 PM I've got a room, in the gown (I hate those things) and a nurse has informed me I get to experience Fentanyl. After joking with them about it being seized a lot by our Attorney General, and to watch out as he may try to take it from them, they give me a nice dosage.

• 8:05 PM I'm now more talkative than usual and feel zero pain. Would describe the feeling as "bubbly" and "warm".
• 9:30 PM They've taken me to the scanner and checked out my insides. Turns out, my Appendix IS blocked, and I caught it early. Only had been blocked for around 12 hours, but that meant it was time to say goodbye to it.

• 11:15 PM The nurses come in, disconnect me from the monitoring equipment, and begin wheeling me to the surgery room.

• 11:30 PM I took photos of the nurses in the surgery room, right before being put under. Hi Nick! Hope you enjoyed your tickets from Michael and Nikki.

• 11:31 PM My last memory was telling the doctor to not take too many selfies on my phone.

• 12:30 AM Tuesday: I'm awake! And, being me, the first thing I ask is if I can see the Appendix. Happily, they accommodated me and I snapped a photo. (Fun fact: I asked our TSM Corporate Guidelines Team if this would be something I could share. We're able to, however... I don't want Facebook to get angry at us. So, here's the PG version.)

• 1:15 AM I'm back in the room, hooked up to everything once again, and am informed I can order food for the morning on the fancy TV screen (After I watch an ungodly long video about St. Vincent. Not exactly what I wanted to do after a surgery)

• 2:15 AM I can't sleep. The bed keeps moving waking me up, and I'm hungry. I asked the nurse for some food (as I hadn't eaten all the day before) and they bring me a lunchbox with a sandwich, chips, a fruit cup, and pudding. Plus, I got a Shasta Lemon Lime. That'll do.

• 2:30 AM I noticed the patch for monitoring in the ER was on me still... in a particularly hairy area... and it was somewhat falling off. *Deep Breaths* And RIP. I still remember that pain. I'll spare you the photo of that one.
• 2:45 AM Now that the video is done on the TV, I am able to order breakfast... which takes time to figure out how to do. But, after 5 minutes of fiddling, I was able to order my burrito. Can't wait till 7 AM. I also discovered how to get YouTube on the TV... which made life better.

• 5 AM I message a photo of my lunchbox to the Morning Mix crew, who then laughs and decided to use it as content for the morning... and plan on calling me after 6 AM. This allowed me to get more TikTok watching in.

• 6 AM A new nurse arrives, and I ask when I'll be headed home... as I am not getting much rest here. I'm told it'll be later in the morning, and the doctor should be in by 8 AM. If you follow the Mix on Instagram, you may have already seen the photo below.

• 6:30 AM The Morning Mix called, and we chatted for a few about my experience.

• 7:15 AM Breakfast Arrived! Really wish they offered salsa...

• 8 AM I ask if the doctor is arriving soon, and am told they won't be in till around 10. I ask if I can get discharged early, as I need rest, and it simply isn't happening here.
• 8:45 AM I am discharged with basic instructions to care for myself.
• 9-ish AM I show up to work in the same clothes as yesterday, to grab one thing, and say hello. You can imagine... I did not get the nicest replies. Everyone cares too much for me, and I appreciate it. And yes... I did go home and passed out on the bed.

What a wild time, right? A bit long-winded, but to someone who has never experienced it, this may help soothe their fears in the future!

How has healing gone?

It's alright. Far easier to handle than last summer, when I crashed my stupid electric scooter at 20mph and dislocated my elbow. At least there isn't any PT to go with this...

Have you ever had an appendectomy? How was your experience? Let us know on App Chat or Facebook.