Coffee Talk Tuesday #11

Happy Coffee Talk Tuesday! Welcome to the weekly chat where I spill my guts and try not to spill my coffee. That would be very sad.

If we were having coffee this week, I’d tell you that I should be home with my morning cup of coffee after this weekend’s events. More on that later. However, I’m at the office this morning and again tomorrow afternoon because we’re having office ‘boot camp.’ Not only do I have to present/provide updates, it’s also one of the few times our whole office will be together for rules and regs for the year. I PUSHED myself (it’s all me, I’m stubborn and need to work) hard to be here today.

If we were having coffee this week, I’d tell you that, unexpectedly, I found myself in the care of surgeons at the Anne Arundel Medical Center on Saturday night. On Friday afternoon, my stomach/lower stomach started to hurt. It was a pretty constant pain. But, guys, I workout EVERY day, teach 10-11 classes a week, and run. I’m always sore, something is almost always in some kind of pain (never horrible, just there).

So, I co-taught my Friday class, then the next morning, got up with similar, a little worse, pain and taught another Zumba class. After Zumba, I helped my student worker move her belongings from apartments to her on-campus residence hall. By the end of all that activity, I was in a ton of pain. I showered, tried to busy myself with tasks like laundry and tidying up, but constantly had to stop, with this INTENSE pain in my lower right side.

When Johnny got home from church, I knew we had to go somewhere. We started at the Kent Island Urgent Care and after the doctor saw me, she recommended we high-tail it to AAMC across the Bay Bridge for a CT scan and consultation with their on-call doctor.

I was almost immediately admitted. After a few hours of tests, scans, and waiting for the IV to drip, I had a consultation with a surgeon and he recommended laparoscopic surgery for the condition I developed: appendicitis.

Let me pause here and say how WONDERFUL AAMC is – super professional, everyone was helpful and nice and patient. I am SO glad we went there. I asked tons of questions about recovery, how you ‘get’ appendicitis (spoilers – it’s just luck!), and about the actual procedure.

The procedure took about 40 minutes in the OR (more time with prep and recovery) and I stayed the night to be monitored. I had to (sorry) use the bathroom, walk, and eat before they would let me leave. Most of that was accomplished early the next morning (surgery was at 8:45 the night prior), but I had to hang tight since it was Sunday and things worked a little slower. We left around 1:00 p.m. to head home.

As a planner, this has been SUPER hard on me (my husband will attest – I sat up in my hospital bed to craft email updates on my laptop to fitness class students and my colleagues). My mind is great, no pain meds other than OTC stuff, but my body needs to heal and that’s hard for me to digest.

I can’t teach, can’t workout (the two main things I LOVE and have to do every day) I am still working my main job from home (again, stubbornness and a need to keep projects moving) trying to do some house tasks (don’t tell Johnny) and keeping my cat from climbing on me. She’s having a rough couple of days, y’all. She doesn’t get why I’m not picking her up, letting her lay on my belly/chest, etc. It’s pretty rough in CatTown.

Last week, I made some breakthroughs with my headstand practice, and this week I’m like perfecting the squat-low-do-not-bend-forward technique. Y’all know I’m a complete BADASS and push hard to complete things. (When the nurses asked me to walk a lap around the surgical recovery ward the morning after surgery, I did 6. Because reasons).

I fully expect to be on my feet as soon as possible. I think my yogi training has prepared me for this recovery – deep, controlled breathing and meditation. I’m also convinced that my new appendix-less abdomen will give me yogi superpowers when I’m ready. That’s a thing.

If we were having coffee this week, I’d tell you that I have the absolute BEST husband in the world. I picked a good one! He’s perfect in crisis situations and calm and attentive. He’s also amazing at anticipating my needs. I’m so grateful for him (AND his sweet parents who drove all the way to Annapolis after being on the lower shore all day to see me and then made soup and food and brought flowers and cupcakes with SPRINKLES).

That’s really all that’s happening in my world this week.