I Drove Myself to the Hospital! #SurgeryTime

Okay...okay...okay. Now, this week was by far the most strange week ever. You'll want to read this one. 

 Before surgery pain haha

It started off pretty normal with a really good Zone Conference, and then some solid exchanges. Then, Wednesday evening, I left my exchanges early so that I could swap out the car I was driving for a new Nissan Rogue. It's pretty sick. Definitely the lowest mileage of a car that I will ever "own." It literally had less than 20 miles on it. Then I picked up Elder Julian and Elder Wright and we got some Wendy's for dinner. My stomach had been hurting a bit this whole time, but I figured it was cuz I had canned salmon for lunch, or maybe because I was starving. Anyways...we ate our Wendy's and started our drive up to Wyoming, but my stomach still felt the same.

After taking a break in Coalville, I thought taking a poop might help my stomach. To my sadness...this did not end up being the case. I finished the drive to Evanston while my stomach kept getting worse. Once we got there, I tried taking some Pepto Bismol (in case it was food poisoning or something) and tried to get some sleep. As I lay on my mattress, trying to fall asleep, I realized that this mattress was less like a bed (it was an old hide-a-bed)and more like a grill or a cooking wire rack. Very very uncomfortable and not sleep-worthy. Especially with the pain, I was in. But...I decided to push through. I ended up not sleeping that night, and my stomach pain got worst. I tried texting and calling my mission nurse, and even my dad. But ended up getting ahold of my Mission President. He ruled out the fact of my stomach pain being food poisoning, and told me I need to go to the ER ASAP! Because my apendix may be exploding...and we wanted to rule that out. So I woke up my companions, and I drove us all to Evanston Regional Hospital. 

After getting checked in, I got a urine test, blood work, and a CT scan. I even threw up a few times due to pain. 

Me before surgery

Me before my CT scan

All these tests pointed to the fact that my apendix was very swollen and angry. By now it was around 7:30 am. The doctors then informed me I would be going into surgery at noon. Four more hours:((( 

So...I got some nausea medicine, an IV, some antibiotics, and some morphine to help with the pain. Fast forward four hours, and I was in surgery. It all went smoothly and thanks to the great doctors and nurses, I am recovering well. The doctor said my apendix was really swollen and he was amazed at how big it was. I also got a surprise visit from Jordan Packard who happened to be driving through Evanston, which was super thoughtful. There were so many tender mercies during this crazy trip. 

Facetiming my mom after surgery haha. I was still super loopy.

My first steps!!

One of my nurses, Kimberly and me

We ended up staying in Wyoming for four days, and Elder Geist and Elder Jones helped out a lot. I am excited to get back to normal missionary work and be able to do physical activities in a few weeks. 

My first real meal after surgery! Thanks mom

Here are a few other notable events from this last week:

- A dog peed in the church 

- I had my first Easter without an apendix!

- Ate Flamin' Hot Mac n' Cheetos for Easter lunch lol

Easter Lunch

- Made candy Sushi

MUST WATCH VIDEO:
I saw this video for the first time this week. I am sure it has been out for a few weeks now, but I wanted to share it with y'all here. Give it a watch and I would love to hear your thoughts! It is ALL Because Of Him! I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for me and you. 
The Good News | #BecauseOfHim Easter 2022

Song of the Week:
- I Am Trying To Be Like Jesus by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. I feel like this is a very fitting song for Easter week. I hope you guys got to take extra time to focus on Christ this week.

Scripture of the Week:

- Matthew 28:6 (The New Testament). We got to share this scripture last night with this man named Michael. This is a very fitting scripture for Easter week!

6 He is not here: for he is ^arisen, as he said. Come, see the place where the ^bLord lay.

Love you guys, 
Elder Ditto

Some additional notes from my mom that she shared with my family and for journal keeping I think might be nice to have:

• Tyler just called from Evanston Wyoming. He’s in the hospital with appendicitis. I guess he’s been feeling bad since yesterday but had a really bad night and wasn’t sure what to do. He called President Prier and he told him to go to the hospital. He’s waiting for the doctor and getting ready to go back for surgery. We just spoke with the doctor. It’s weird to not be involved or be there for support. His two other companions are there so I guess they’ll be his support.

• I asked Tyler if he’d have his companions text us and keep us updated. I hope they do! It’s weird to not really even have his phone number. Whenever I get a Utah call from an unknown number my heart always jumps a bit. Of course, normally I think maybe it’s a call saying he’s going to Japan but…I haven’t considered appendicitis. He said he thought maybe he had food poisoning or something because he was in so much pain.

• I just talked to Tyler. When he called he was all groggy and then said “I can’t remember why I’m calling you." Anyways he seemed in good spirits. He thinks his surgery will be in two hours now. I guess there are more important surgeries that need to be ahead of his. He thinks he might go home tonight from the hospital as long as there are no complications or It’s not more inflamed than they anticipate. He said he was such a young strapping handsome missionary that they wouldn’t need to keep them for very long. I asked him about recovery time and he said they told him he needed to take it easy for two weeks. He was super mad that he doesn’t get to play basketball. And that they said he can’t tract door-to-door. He’s allowed to go to one door and then he has to sit back in the car. 

• He just arrived in Wyoming last night. I guess he wasn’t feeling good while they were driving. When they got to the Missionaries apartment he went to bed on a really horrible pull-out hide-a-bed. He said the pad was only like a quarter-inch thick and had those terrible metal bars everywhere. He tried to put cushions underneath it because it was so uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure if he would be going back to that apartment or what?

• He said the doctor that is doing the surgery is a member of the church and went on a mission but is no longer active. He said he was spreading the good word to the nurses that were working with him. He also said now that he’s on the morphine drip he’s not in pain. I told him that it will sure be hard being in Utah in a couple of days and not seeing him and that it would be hard to not drop off some chicken noodle soup. He laughed and said, “that’s OK I don’t really even like chicken noodle soup.”So, all in all, he seemed to be happy and he’s anxious to feel better.

• Update…

President Prier just called me. Apparently, the number listed is our home number and so that’s why he hadn’t called earlier in the day. He was so nice! We probably talked for 15 minutes. And the majority of that time he told me how much he absolutely loves Tyler. He actually broke down in tears and quietly cried for a couple of minutes.

Apparently, he is a doctor and so when Tyler called him this morning at 5:30 AM and described his pain and where the pain was that President Prier knew it was his appendix. President Prier called the stake president in Evanston who is an ENT. The stake president then contacted Dr. Kendricks who he thinks very highly of and asked if he would be Tyler surgeon. The stake president is at the hospital this morning doing surgery and said he would come by and visit Tyler.

President Prier anticipates that Tyler will be able to be discharged from the hospital today. In fact Dr. Kendricks just called me and he confirmed that that is the plan Unless the appendix has actually burst. 

Pres Prier anticipates having Tyler stay in Evanston for a couple of days and said he would make sure one of the other Missionaries gave up his bed (And I thought it was cute because he said we’d make sure he washed his sheets😂). The house Tyler was at last night are the zone leaders of that area and President Prier said they absolutely love Tyler and are excellent Missionaries.

So then they’re hoping to be able to bring Tyler back to Salt Lake this weekend when he’s able to travel more comfortably. President Prier said it’s very important to him that Tyler understands the kind of rest he needs to take in order to recover fully. He said he would be also in contact with the doctor and would make sure that he helped enforce whatever recommendations and make sure Tyler understands how important that is (like a dad figure). He said “Tyler is such a hard-working missionary that I know he would think he didn’t actually need to take time off.”

• As I said Dr. Kendricks just called me as well to ask if I had any other questions before they took Tyler back for surgery. They’re doing it laparoscopically with three incisions. And then they pull the appendix out of the belly button. And they did the scans this morning at 6:30 AM they believe that the appendix had not ruptured and they started him on antibiotics immediately. He said it’s not very common to have your appendix rupture after you’ve started antibiotics so he’s hopeful. He said he would call me when the surgery was done. He gave the phone to Tyler so I could wish him well. Tyler wasn’t really with it so it was a short conversation. Tyler told me this morning that he did get a blessing from his companions. He said, “Elder wright has very soft hands.” 😂 I’m thinking the morphine is doing its job!

• I could tell President Prier is really an amazing caring man!  It’s pretty wonderful to see someone else who loves your child as much as you do. He said they have 200 missionaries that are all reassigned to his mission. He said some of them have a hard time ever accepting the reassignment. He said he could tell Tyler has had a true personal conversion and he feels like is the “top missionary in the mission.” Hard not to feel a little mama pride after hearing that!

• Update… Just heard from the doctor. The surgery went well. The appendix did not rupture. He anticipates him being discharged this evening.

• Well, we both look a little psycho in this picture but I had to do a screenshot. One of Tyler’s companions FaceTimed me so we could chat. I tried to screen record but it didn’t get the voice so unfortunately, I can’t share that. But it was hilarious. The first thing he said is “mom I did drugs!” Then he was telling me how the nurses all saw him naked because he had to take his gown off but he couldn’t do it himself. And then I told him “I can’t believe you get to go home today.” This picture is The face he made right after I told him that. He said “what I’m going home? I don’t wanna go home.” And then he started crying. His companions all reassured him that he was just going home back to the crappy hide-a-bed not home home.  And then one of the companions was super sweet and said that he would give up his bed for him tonight. After chatting for a few minutes Tyler said “I better stop talking cause I might say something embarrassing. I’ll call you later.” He said my abdomen hurts like crazy.

Post Surgery bill: