space kitty knits

So my weekend was pretty exciting. It lasted from about Friday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon, and plenty happened in that time! =D

Friday afternoon I hopped on the train with J and we went up to Poughkeepsie to spend the first night with his sister, Maeve. I gave her her graduation present then, and she was mightily pleased. But, as it is of course a trillion degrees here now, she won’t be wearing them until perhaps this fall.

I love this pattern (Monkey). It’s quick and easy and beautiful.

Saturday morning we got up and went to an awards ceremony for Maeve, where her parents surprised her and we watched her get a prize for being awesome at Art History (which she is). Then we had lunch and picked up some grandparents at the train station, and chilled out. Dinner that night was lovely, and I, having managed a trip to Michael’s (that family is so good to me) I worked on the $1.50 Cardi. Everyone was very impressed.

Sunday morning was graduation, and we had to be up early to get the grandparents to their designated seating area under a tent, and also to scope out some seats for ourselves. Vassar has this awesome amphitheater that the graduation took place in, and all of the folding chairs had back legs shorter than their front legs so we sat more or less level. Very lovely. Their main speaker was Terry Grose (rock!), whose father had unfortunately died just before, and his funeral was that day. So instead of being there she recorded a lovely speech and we all listened to it and stared at a big radio on the podium, as per her suggestion. I also spent time watching the ASL translators in the corner, who are always lovely and enthusiastic.

And we got a break with the weather, and I was able to finish the cardi and wear it a bit before it got hot again. I don’t know if J has any pictures of me in it, but it’s lovely. I’m not wearing it now because I want to lengthen the ribbing on the button band some and make the sweater a little wider around. The buttons gape, and because I’m not particularly skilled at sewing buttons on, they’re pulling some. I’ll fix it soon.

After lunch and mingling we went back to Maeve’s apartment to help her pack her things to go home Monday morning. She had to be out of her dorm/apartment by 10 AM Monday, so we helped load things into the van Kevin rented. Around now I started to feel kind of icky, but assumed it was something temporary that I’d felt before. I blamed it on breakfast and lots of sitting around for graduation, and they let me do minor packing things instead of say, maneuvering the couch for half an hour. I was tired and a little cranky, and around 6:30 we finally let up and went back to the hotel to dress again for fancier dinner.

At dinner, I started to get worse, and was in rather more pain. My back hurt, and my abdomen hurt, and I didn’t feel like eating. I felt bad, though, leaving dinner, but I finally went and lay in the car, still in more pain. Kevin came out with Jamie soon after, and they took me back to the hotel around 8:30 or so.

I spent the next three hours in increasing pain; my back was stiff and cramped, and I had this radiating pain in my abdomen that wouldn’t let up. I might’ve fallen asleep for a few minutes a few times, but every time I woke up it was worse and finally, after a bout of throwing up and some writhing in pain, I said, “We need to call your dad up here again.”

Kevin, who fortunately is a doctor, came up and poked at me a bit and said, “I’m thinking we should go to the emergency room.”

So we did. I threw up again on the way out of the hotel, and again at the hospital, and Kevin advocated for me plenty, going, “Part of triage is checking her vitals! Have someone check her vitals!”

So they admitted me to the ER and the three of us, me, Kevin, and J, spent the night there. They did some blood tests and re-hydrated me and had me drink some oral contrast for the CT scan, but they had to wait 2 hours for it to get into my system, so they gave me something awesome for the pain. It made me sleepy and painless. It was great. But the best part was they were able to locate the exact origin of the pain (lower right abdomen) which had been confused before by all the other abdominal pain. The rest of the general pain went away and I could still feel this one hot spot by my hip.

The ER doctor did indeed predict appendicitis, and the CT scan eventually confirmed that. Around 4:30 Monday morning we called my parents (again, I promise they were informed) and told them what was going on and that I was going to be admitted to the hospital. My dad decided he was going to come up, so he did, and managed the drive in really impressive time.

They moved me upstairs to a real room and the three of us slept some more. I got checked out a couple more times by some doctors and some nurses, and each of them said, “Yeah, most likely appendicitis.”

The surgeon called his team together for a 10 AM operation, and they had to call my mom a couple times to get consent. At 10:30 or so I actually went under. I met my anesthesiologist (who had an awesome Slavic name and an awesome mustache) and my nurse (Evan) and what I remember of before and after surgery is somewhat vague. They took me down (in the bed!) and gave me something in the IV, at which point I got drowsy. I said bye to J and Kevin, and went into the OR, where they arranged me and asked me to move my arms, I think, andt the anesthesiologist rested the mask over my mouth. After that I fell asleep.

I woke up and was rather retarded, and remember being rather retarded and asking a couple of random questions (like “How did I gethere? But how did I get here?” and “I’m funny… I mean, hungry…”).

I woke up again around 3 PM (still Monday) and dad was there, and the nurses came in to feed me jello and chicken broth and juice and tea and some kind of super-food apple drink, all clear liquids. Dad and I hung out some, I read the book he brought me, and J and Kevin had gone back to the hotel to sleep. Maeve at this point had to be out of her dorm, so presumably all of her stuff was packed up. Glad we had moved all the heavy stuff Sunday, then, I suppose.

Dad went to the hotel to sleep some more (and watch cable) and I slept. Judy, Maeve, Kevin and J all came back later, with Dad, to visit again, and I was up and walking around the ward. The nurses were all rather impressed, but they were the ones who had told me to get up and walk if I felt funny.

The surgery was labroscopic, so they went in on the left side of my abdomen, and I have three smallish incisions. But they did inflate my abdomen with a gas so they could maneuver, and I’m still a little poufy from that.

I knit a little Monday night on Kevin’s “Spring Cable” Socks:

But not for long, because I didn’t trust myself to twist a cable without a needle like I had been doing. On Friday I turned the heel on my own with my own maths! I was rather proud of myself. These are in a beautiful and wonderful Gaia Sock by Dream in Color. They’re a little farther along still, but not too much. I had dad try them on last night to get a read on the fit for a man’s foot, and I think they’ll work.

I need a size small woman’s pattern for Judy, because she has tiny feet, but her socks will be in silk. Recommendations? Warnings? I’m considering Saucy by Cider Moon, but it’s pretty darn close to the Monkey pattern. I don’t know. That, or Jaywalkers, because they’re simple.

I spent the night at the hospital (ate some more jello and juice and broth and things). There was a really annoying woman across the hall who kept calling “Help!” and “Nurse!” for nothing at all, and it was like listening to a trapped cat all evening. I closed my door and put on CraftLit, and managed to sleep.

More nurses woke me up a couple of times, but I slept okay that night. My shoulder hurt, irritated for some reason (probably via a pinched nerve) by the air in my abdomen, and getting up was tricky, but I made it through without any drastic problems.

I was discharged Tuesday morning, and met J and the family back at the hotel by about 9 AM. I was allowed to eat real food (cereal and tea) and to check my email. I emailed my English teacher about my portfolio due soon, and he emailed back, calling me a crazy person.

So then we packed up and drove home from Poughkeepsie. I spent much of the drive in dad’s car sleeping, or reading, and we got out every couple of hours for a rendezvous at rest stops, where I clambered out and wandered around.

We picked up Sarah from school, and sent J off to his Tuesday evening class, and I unpacked some and tried to find the best way to sleep that night without being in lots of pain (and thus unable to breathe, etc).

And that was the end of my weekend, more or less. I watched House with J when he came back, and then I went to bed. I didn’t sleep in much this morning, but I got to stay home until F block, because E block is pretty useless at this point, and now I’m going to go nap for a bit.

So I will leave you with a super exciting picture of my surgery wound! I’ll be showing this of at school today. =D Look how swollen my belly looks. Weird!

Yay!

My belly button hurts.