Poor Brandon!!

So, Brandon got to feeling better during the week, so we didn't think anything was really wrong. Brandon came home the next weekend so that we could celebrate our anniversary (on the 18th). Happy 3 years!! It seems like so much longer than that! That is a good thing, not a bad thing! :) Brandon got off work early and so did I! We met each other in Brigham City and headed up to Logan to try to make it to the USU bookstore before they closed. We made it with 5 minutes to spare. Brandon just wasn't himself. I couldn't figure out why--he acted like he didn't feel good! We went and ate dinner at Ruby Tuesday (where we had our first date). We then went to check into our hotel. It is a little place up the canyon. We pulled in and it was a DIVE and nobody was there! WE decided to just go find another hotel to stay at in Logan. The only thing that Brandon wanted to do was lay down. All the hotels in Logan AND Brigham were booked for a girls softball tournament in Brigham. I said we should just go to one of our parents and we could do the anniversary thing another time. Brandon didn't want to, so we drove to Ogden and stayed in a hotel there. We were both beat and Brandon was in major pain. He hardly even slept through the night! I finally said "you have got to go to the doctor" because it was not normal for Brandon. I made an appt Saturday morning for Brandon to go see the doctor in the Brigham clinic. We thought it could be an ulcer, hernia (he lifted a huge kid onto the table at work), kidney stones, appendicitis (sp?) etc. He went in and the doctor did x-rays and said that he couldn't find anything wrong--none of the above! He said that it was probably just a bug/virus and to eat light to digest better. We continued on during the day and Brandon slept most of it and wasn't a very happy camper--still in a lot of pain! None of us could figure out what was wrong and I thought it was something that would just pass! His pain was all across his lower abdomen. I drove home because he was in so much pain that he couldn't drive. We came home and Brandon got in the tub and felt a lot better. That night (saturday night) he couldn't sleep at all. I woke up and he was not in bed and it freaked me out at first and confused me, but I got up and found him out laying on the couch. He said he could not find a comfortable position to lay in. I went to church for a bit and came and got him and we barely stayed long enough to take the sacrament then went home. We tried to sleep most the day, then went to our Goldsberry Fathers day celebration. Brandon stayed in one position on the couch and I could tell he was in so much pain!! I felt so bad, but I didn't know what to do because the doctor told us he didn't see anything! We came home, loaded with hot pads and stuff from my sis-in-law hoping that the heat would help. I finally decided that it was either insta-Care or the ER! We called and the insta-care was closed, so I came home to get my purse and Brandon wanted to see if he could lay down and get the pain to go away. I didn't know what to do and if it was worth going to the ER. I said a little prayer and almost instantly, felt the feeling that we needed to go to the ER! I told Brandon to get his shoes on.. we were going.. this time he didn't disagree. We got to the ER at 11:40. We waited close to 2 hours waiting. Brandon was just shaking. I was about ready to give up, but I knew that we had to get this checked. they finally took us in and the 1st doctor came in and Brandon told her the symptoms and she immediately pushed on his appendix and Brandon jumped. She was like "sorry man, but I think it is appendix! I hope you aren't planning on doing anything tomorrow!" I thought oh great! So the nurse comes in and drugs him up with morphine and made him drink barium so that things would show up better in the cat scan!At this time I remember that it is our anniversary!! The surgeon comes in and did the same thing and said " We will do a CAT scan, but i would be surprised if it wasn't your appendix! He explained the surgery to us and had us sign all the papers before so they could take him right in! They came in at about 4:45 am and took him to get a Cat scan. I was so glad I had slept a lot during the day, but still super tired by this time and the time just crept along! He came back and about 30 minutes later the doctor came in and said that his appendix had ruptured and looked like he had an abscess with it, so the surgery was a little more extreme. It was like 15 more minutes before they took him into surgery. I was sick to my stomach and so nervous! I went into the waiting room and just started to cry! Brandon said that right before they took him in--it was the worst pain he has ever felt. The anesthesiologist said "okay, just a few minutes" and Brandon said "NO, I NEED IT NOW!!" I sat in the waiting room and thought of all the worst things that could happen and was shaking cus I was so scared. I couldn't help but be just furious at the Brigham doctor because it had obviously ruptured when we had gone to see him! My mom and Brandon's mom are very mad about it too!! It could have killed him!! I hated every time the door would open from the surgery room! Finally, the doctor came out and said it went well and he was able to get everything out, but he could tell that Brandon had been sick for awhile and that he will be in the hospital at least a few days!! I asked if he could tell how long it had been ruptured and he said there is no way to tell, but it had been for awhile! He finally came out of surgery/recovery just a little past 8:00. He said.. "I am so glad that pain is gone". I felt so bad, especially because I didn't do anything about it! We spent the whole day together. Happy Anniversary!!! :) At least it will be a memorable one, and we got to spend it together, which we wouldn't have if he would have gone back to his internship!!



His incision is about 6 inches vertical below his belly button. They had to cut it that way and bigger to get the abscess.


He had antibiotics and morphine pumping through his body like crazy. He was not himself at all.



It really worried me for a bit, but I just wanted to spend every second by his side!! I took Monday and Tuesday off. Then I figured that I needed to work a little if he was going to stay in the hospital longer. I was so stressed and could barely focus to work! All I could do was think about Brandon!! I called him and he said he was in a lot of pain and it made me feel so bad that I started to cry. That is when you know you truly love someone--is when you would gladly take their pain from them!
I came home and slept at night, but still didn't sleep very well. I would go back in the mornings and take walks with him. For the first day he had to just sip water, then he moved on to broth and jello. He wanted to die. It was heaven when he could eat normal food the next day if you can call hospital food normal food! :)


I thought he would be able to come home on wed morning, but nope.. white blood count just a little too high, so I was all excited to have him home on Thursday morning, Nope.. still to high! I was so frusterated. I called my mom and just started crying. Brandon was so not himself and I was so worried he wouldn't be normal again and stressed with him being there and work and I couldn't help but think of the hospital bills. Of course I want him to be okay, but still! We don't have that kind of money right now!
I spent the night with Brandon on Thursday night, cus Brandon said he got lonely at night. I felt so bad! Those hospital chairs SUCK to sleep in!
On Friday I went to work and traded my phone shifts because I thought for sure he would be coming home. I kept calling him and the doctor (sub doctor--the other one was on vacation by now) had not come in to check on him! It was like 3:00 and he had not come yet! I lost it and started getting so mad! I could barely make it through the end of work. He was ready to come home.. he finally felt better and was doing everything that he was supposed to. He was sick of being there and so was I. I wanted him to be home and be comfortable and in his own place. and I tried not to think of the bills, but I couldn't help it. Everyone was very surprised that he was still there. My sister in law told me to just be forceful and tell them "we want info". I was not going to pay for another day just because the dr was too busy to come see him and without any reason or explanation why we were still there. I went in after work and asked the nurse (very nicely) why the doctor hadn't come and what the heck we were waiting for to go home. I told her how frusterated I was. She said she would go call the doctor. She came back and said he wasn't answering, but would keep trying.By this time, Brandon's IV was falling out and I said "okay.. this is a sign.. we need to go home!" Nothing for awhile and a new nurse came in and I asked again.. she said she would call again and within 15 minutes she came back and said we were okay to go. It was 9:00 on Friday night! I was so excited!!!
We came home and Brandon said the last thing he wanted to do was get in a bed and he wanted a rocking chair to sit in. Tai had said we could come get theirs. Joe (her husband) is gone for the guard and Brandon of course couldn't lift, so me and Tai carried a reciner up 3 flights of stairs for Brandon! :) He finally had a good night sleep (kind of). We slept till 11:30 the next day because we were both so beat! :)
He kept throwing up and couldn't keep anything down! Poor kid! I felt so bad! My mom and Dad went and bought him some pedialyte and soda crackers. He wanted an ice cream and a jamba juice. He finally was able to eat it. Then the next day, he felt great! the incision is still a bit iffy, which is understandable, but the pain is gone and he feels great! Just a little slow! :)
I am just so glad that he is feeling so much better and he is starting to become himself again!! Hooray!! He says now he will know what my labor pains and being pregnant feels like? Hmmm, I don't know about that! :)
He will probably take the rest of this week off too to recover and then go back to his internship which extends it another 2 weeks. Oh well, I have got to have him home! We go see the doctor tomorrow and he will probably get his staples and stitches out. Everyone has been so great to help!!
What an unexpected experience, but I am so glad that everything worked out and that we have good insurance to cover it all!! (the surgery is covered through ER and we only have to pay 10 % of the stay). I learned that we need these experiences in our lives so that we can grow stronger and closer to our spouse and learn that our lives are not going to go on without any trials!

This is the almost back to normal Brandon! :)