As many of you know (some of you may not) I had an unfortunate incident happen while here in South Africa. When I was feeling sick a week ago it was more serious than I thought. Tuesday morning I woke up with a sharp pain in my stomach and was feeling very sick. I decided to go back to the doctor, which I had gone to the previous week, and figure out what was wrong with me. I arrived at the clinic and after talking to the doctor, for only about 10 minutes, he had a suspicion that i may have an appendicitis. He immediately called a surgeon at one of the hospitals downtown and told him of my symptoms and that I would be on my way to see him. I arrived at the surgeon's office pretty quickly and was promptly brought into his room. He was very calm and sweet, and quite young I may add. I told him how I was feeling and how the antibiotics I was given the week before only seemed to make it worse once I finished them. He pushed on my right side and there it was, a sharp pain. He looked at me and said, "Honey, I'm sorry but we have to operate now." I didn't really have much of a say in the matter so I quickly got a hold of my mom and boyfriend. I told them the bad news and of course my family was shocked since it came out of no where. After a brief conversation with the two of them I was admitted into the hospital which luckily was a pretty simple process once the travel insurance was sorted out. On a side note, the hospital I was staying in (Cape Town Medi Clinic) was absolutely first class, and beautiful. It was extremely fancy and I was told by the nurses that many of the presidents and celebrities stay at the that hospital. As a matter of fact, Nelson Mandela is at the same chain hospital in Pretoria. Pretty cool!. Anyway, I was in the room for less than 30 minutes when they came to retrieve me. On the outside I appeared pretty calm, but in all honesty I broke down on our way to the operating room. I was so afraid and knowing that I was waking up to no one was the worst of all. I just prayed a lot and told myself that everything would be better in an hour or so. After a long talk with my anesthesiologist, they brought me into the operating room and put me on a tiny table in the middle of a massive room. There were about 7 people in the room which made me feel a little more afraid because I knew it was serious. The nurse grabbed my hand and said, "Alright Alexandra, we are giving you a sedative to calm you down, than the anesthesia. Think of something beautiful, and something that makes you happy." I thought of home.
When I started to awake, I thought I was in heaven. This was most definitely the anesthesia talking. The lights were so bright and I couldn't really see anything. I could only hear people saying, "Hi Alexandra! Hello Honey! Everything is okay now." I felt so relieved but I was in a lot of pain. They brought me up to my room, and not even an hour later three of my roommates (Allison, Jenny, and Boyd) came to visit me. I must say that I'm extremely proud of myself for not crying once while in the hospital. I had to stay at the hospital until Thursday afternoon so they could keep an eye on me. The surgeon came and visited me the morning after my surgery and he explained his findings. Supposedly (in his words), my appendix looked fine on the outside, but the inside was completely destroyed and my lymphnoids were "obliterated". He told me I had about two more days before it would have burst. I thanked God that I went to the doctor when I did because I would be still be in the hospital. For the next two days after the surgery I laid in bed and slept. My roommates would come visit me every night which was extremely comforting. The nurses were all extremely nice and really catered to me. Oh and the food! Of course it was delicious as well. I mean really, Cape Town just amazes me with food. If their hospitals have good food, then you know the food everywhere else is just a million times better.
I tried very hard to gain some strength back and the same day as my surgery was walking to the bathroom. I did have an extremely difficult comeback though from the surgery. I was in extreme pain constantly, but I knew that in a few days time it would be so much better. Thursday I left the hospital and as I was leaving all of the nurses were saying goodbye and hugging me. They told me I was one of their favorite patients, which I'm sure they probably say to everyone. The drive home was quite difficult. You see, Cape Town has a lot of speed bumps, and every one that we hit was like a jab in the stomach. I went home and rested for a while and then bathed myself for the first time since the surgery. I made the horrible mistake of going out to eat that night. I ended up having to leave the restaurant in a taxi because I was in to much pain to sit upright and eat that much. I came home and got a little emotional, so my guy roommates came in my room and sat with me for a few hours. We all just talked for a long time and they did everything they could to make me feel better and happier. Friday I stayed in bed all day and slept. I knew that on Saturday, I wanted to take a leap of faith and go on a walk somewhere for the day, so I had to gain some strength.
Although it was a horrible thing that happened, it ended up being a good experience. I was surrounded with nothing but love and given all of the proper care plus more. I happy to say that I survived surgery in Africa and did it like a champ.
xoxo,
Alexandra
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