“A few months ago, I came home from work on a Friday with plans to meet up with friends that evening, and the pain came out of nowhere. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to cancel my plans because I was curled up in a ball on my bed in the fetal position trying to find an angle to position my body that would give me a moment of reprieve. Nothing worked.
“This sounds ridiculous, but around midnight, my roommate came home and I was lying in my robe on the linoleum kitchen floor to keep cool, because I was sweating with pain, and still I refused his offer to take me to the hospital. Finally, by about 2 A.M., I drove myself to the hospital. I didn't want to wake my roommate to take me or call an ambulance, and I couldn't bear to wait any longer than necessary.
“I was 18 and going on college trips, deciding which school I wanted to go to. While visiting one of the schools, I came down with a [high] fever and started to feel lightheaded. Later in the night, I started to feel a sharp pain coming from what seemed like my lower stomach. At first it would come in waves, then at some point the pain intensified and didn't leave.
“I've had appendicitis four times. Yep, four times. The first time was when I was 26 years old. The back story as to why I've had appendicitis four times is because the first time, my appendix wasn't completely removed. Only a portion was removed, unbeknownst to me until two years later. I had an appendectomy in 2016 in New York City, where my appendix was thought to be completely removed. I had a second appendectomy in Boston in the spring of 2018.
“Two weeks before my big move-in day for my first year at university, I started to feel excruciating pains in my stomach. I thought they were just cramps. This was particularly interesting because I typically don’t experience cramps when I’m menstruating. So for the next two weeks, I continued to feel debilitating pain without thinking anything of it. This just goes to show you what women go through every month.
“They decided the best route was to give me heavy antibiotics. I was in the hospital for four days, and they released me with two more weeks of antibiotics. About six weeks after the original hospital stint, I went back in to have the abscess and remains of the appendix removed. There was a good bit of scar tissue that had formed from the burst that also had to be removed.”
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