My appendix and crying wolf…

This is a hard one to write because I’m not sure I can be objective. Not that one should be objective in blogging/ journaling…but I was VERY sick and 12…

My stomach hurt ALL day. At points I was doubled over but life went on and it was written off. I was anxious in general.

The next day we were leaving on some weird trip that combined my dad’s work and skiing. I didn’t want to ski..none of us did really. I was anxious. We never really traveled as kids so that’s a new thing. If you want kids to travel well, you need to make it normal and routine. Just like if you want kids to socialize, you can’t keep them on a short leash all the time….

Back to me…or my stomach. I’d stared my period a year before or more…and it was that time but this was more. Even that young, girls know the difference between period cramps and other stuff.

Maybe I was getting the stomach flu? Lots of theories that wrote it off. I was dragged to last minute shopping. Sometimes feeling nearly doubled over in paid. It’ll pass. Maybe it’s gas (yeah, my dad could never imagine it was anything serious. Anything bad!).

That night I woke up in the middle of the night and felt like I’d been run over by a semi. I couldn’t really move well. I needed some water. The parents finally came in. I knew something was wrong. Worse. BAD!!

My dad still insisted that my mom call the doctor (no, he didn’t do it….mom and kids were STAFF…ugh). Mom calls the doctor and finally gets through. The doc says to take me to the ER because it sounds like my appendix.

Duh! It had already RUPTURED. Maybe I have a high pain tolerance? Maybe I was crying wolf? Good thing the doctor said to take me in or I’d have been dead by morning…

Once I was in the hospital, my dad made a big production of staying there during the day. My mom got the night shift. What a jerk. He’d dismissed all my pain and illness as something else until it actually ruptured. Instead of a few days in the hospital, it was over a week and a worse recovery.

Things happen, but sometimes power goes to parent’s head. Dad had a God complex at times…if he didn’t think it was a problem, it wasn’t. He’d will it to be his way. Sorry, my appendix refused to obey. Yay appendix!

But also, I was already plump then. Like the puberty layer of filling out girls get. My sister got it too and it went away, like most normal girls. Why can't i be normal? 

Add to that all the stuff people brought when they know a preteen had major surgery and is in the hospital. Yeah, suddenly all sorts of gifts including junk food, candy and homemade cookies. Well meant but not helpful..

Plus, no recess or lifting things once home for a few weeks at least.. I had stitches and was healing internally. I had to go to the doc to get the stitches removed...seems like soooo long ago. lol

Apparently it only takes a few weeks to make or break a habit. That definitely broke any active habits I had and let me get lazier… No, I’m not blaming my weight decades later on this…but rambling about this might help make it make sense. I mean, major surgery after a ruptured appendix…my body took a hit. Maybe my metabolism did too. Because before puberty, I never had weight problem. 

Thanks for nothing, appendix!