After neglecting my blog for so long, I'm finally back. I've been meaning to get back into the habit of blogging, but so much time has passed since my last post that I've been avoiding it. I treat my blog somewhat like a journal (minus the really personal stuff), so when a lot of time passes between posts I dread having to play catch up. Because I can't remember everything from the past four months, I'll start with Christmas break and go from there (unless I remember something that I really want to write about). I might span this over a few posts, depending on how much I write. I don't like reading extremely long posts so I won't make you sit and read one.
December 20th: I left for the airport at 6:30 A.M. I actually managed to get a few hours of sleep before leaving. I usually never sleep the night before flying anywhere because it's always a morning flight and I'm extremely slow at packing (plus I'm usually doing laundry so I have all my clothes to choose from). I came really close to missing my flight. I didn't expect there to be so many people at the airport because most students had already left for home. It was also the day that all the missionaries were flying home. It was pretty cool to see so many all in one place. It reminded me of when people in the military come home because so many people were shaking their hands and telling them they did great work as they walked by.
I, along with other people that were cutting it close to their boarding time, got to go to the front of a line to check our baggage. We were told to go through security at the International Flights section of the airport because it would be less busy. It was significantly less crowded, but they were telling many people to do the same so there was still a bit of a line. As I stood in line, my eyes almost never left the clock. It was as if I thought I could slow time down the harder I stared at it. I couldn't. As it got closer and closer to my departure time, I was starting to panic. Luckily I made it through and boarded my plane...with less than 10 minutes to spare.
It was a good flight. I got to the Portland Airport and had an hour to wait for my uncles to get in. When they arrived, we were picked up by another one of my uncles and my sister Sunhee. I didn't know she was coming so it was a great surprise. We stopped at Olive Garden for lunch and it was delicious! Then we went home. It felt so good to be home. The rest of the day was spent just catching up and relaxing...until after dinner.
I went to bed around 10:30 P.M. because I was tired and I was having slight abdominal pain. I tried to sleep, but it got worse and around 11 I got up crying and told my grandma. It hurt really bad. She suggested a heating pad to help ease the pain but I didn't stick with that for very long. The pain was so bad I couldn't lie still and keep it on. I went to tell her it wasn't working and had to run to the bathroom to vomit. *Sorry if this grosses you out.* I threw up a couple times and we decided to head to the emergency room. My uncle came too.
*I know I said I wouldn't make this long, but I don't want to stop in the middle of the story. Sorry I lied.*
There were a couple people ahead of me so I had to wait awhile. I vomited again while in the waiting room. My turn finally came around and I got into a hospital gown. Before they could give me anything for the pain, they had to take some blood. The nurse tried on my left arm first. My blood wasn't coming out very fast and he kept shoving the needle further into my arm. It hurt. Then the blood stopped coming out altogether so he switched to my right arm. Again, not much was coming out so he got someone else to do it. This nurse poked my left arm again and got the blood she needed. Usually I would have been bawling like a baby because I hate needles, but the abdominal pain was so bad I hardly noticed (except when the first nurse was attempting to shove the needle all the way up my arm).
I talked to the doctor and found out for sure that it was my gallbladder and that I was having a gallbladder attack. Between Olive Garden for lunch and the dinner my great grandmother made, it was too much rich food in one day for my body to handle. They gave me drugs for nausea and the pain, but the pain meds didn't work so they gave me something stronger. They kept telling me to calm my breathing because I was hyperventilating. I tried, but it was hard. I came really close to passing out...it's a weird feeling. My hands and arms even started going numb. Once the stronger pain killer kicked in, I was so comfortable and almost fell asleep (it's hard to sleep when people are constantly checking on you and you can hear the people on the other side of the curtain talking about why they are in the ER). I got an ultrasound and then was told I would have to have surgery while I was home. Boo!
After three hours in the ER, I finally got to go home. I was so drugged up and could barely walk to the car. My uncle jokingly asked if they took out my funny bone because I had been having a "Wendi Moment" (extreme case of the giggles, usually with tears) a few hours prior and now I looked dead. I threw up once more in the car (luckily I had a bowl). I finally got to sleep and thus ended my first day of break and being home.
Yay for completing my first blog post of the year!
