One morning while I was still in elementary school, I was facing the toilet as a green substance came from my mouth in the form of vomit. This wasn’t a pretty green. No, this particular element was a gross looking, army green. After telling my parents, they decided I should stay home since I probably had the flu. I made my way to lie down on the couch, thinking that would be my location for the rest of the day. I assumed my position with a bucket on the ground at my side in case of any other previous occurrences repeating themselves. While lying there, I listened to the surrounding sounds of my siblings getting ready for school and my mom getting ready for work.

Once they had all left and my step dad went off to feed his cattle, I tried to get some sleep and watch T.V. After about an hour or two, I felt a strange, sharp pain in my lower abdomen. In a confused manner, I tried to stand up so I could get to the home phone in order to call my mom. As soon as I moved, it hurt worse. I couldn’t stand up well enough, so I decided to crawl. Eventually, I got to the phone and dialed my mom’s number. Once on the phone with her, I told her what was happening and how I didn’t think it was the flu, but that something was definitely wrong. Since she was busy at work, she couldn’t take me to the doctor. Instead, she called my step dad and asked him to take me when he was done with his morning chores. I waited on the couch for him to get back and take me to the doctor. As soon as he walked in the door, I lifted my head up off of the couch to let him know where I was. Then, he walked over to me and asked if I could walk. I told him that I couldn’t. After hearing this, he picked me up, grabbed my shoes along with my jacket, and walked out the door with me in his arms. While outside, I noticed our white Suburban was already running. He carried me over to the passenger door and set me down on the seat inside. Next, he closed my door and walked around the car to get in the driver’s side. We backed the car out of the driveway and started our route to Maquoketa’s walk-in clinic known as Medical Associates.

Throughout the ride, I was in pain and not enjoying myself. The only thing on my mind was, “Let’s get this over with.” We finally got to the doctor and checked in by giving the lady at the front desk my name along with my insurance card. Next was the waiting room. We waited until we heard the nurse call my name. Once my name was called, the nurse led us into one of the rooms to inquire about my symptoms and get them on record. After the nurse was finished, the doctor came in to read her report and make the decision on what would happen next. The doctor decided I needed a CT scan and an ultrasound which would have to be done at a hospital. Once they told us we had to go to the hospital, we decided to go to Finley Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa. We left the walk-in clinic and drove to Dubuque, then reached our destination at the hospital. Within the first hour of arriving at the hospital, I had to be checked in and directed where to go. Then, they led me to a room where the CT scan would take place. Before the CT scan, I had to drink what they call contrast. Contrast is a nasty tasting liquid that contains iodine and is sometimes needed for certain areas to show up clearer in the images of the scan. Once I drank the liquid, they told me I needed to wait 60-90 minutes until they could perform the scan. While I waited, none of the pain had subsided. I went through the scan then they had someone do an ultrasound on my abdomen. As they looked at the results, they found the problem. It was my appendix. “What was an appendix?” I thought. At this point, they told me my appendix, like everyone else’s, contained some sort of substance that would be poison if released into the rest of my body. I had an appendicitis which meant my appendix was at risk of rupturing, therefore letting loose the poison into my body. While they were telling me this, I still had no idea what it meant. I was thinking, “Appendix? What was that nasty drink that left its taste in my mouth? I have to get an IV?” This whole event started at the beginning of the day around 5:00 A.M. and now it was afternoon. Soon after, I was told I needed surgery to get my appendix out. They called it an appendectomy. I still had no idea what the heck they were talking about. All of these fancy words and the time they were wasting. Couldn’t they just make me feel better already? Later, they moved me into another room and my mom came to sit in the room with my step dad and me. It was getting to be late. It was about 7:00 P.M. Now, I had an IV in my vein, I was in nothing but a hospital gown with ugly gray hospital socks, and they put my hair in a blue hairnet. While I was in this room, I guess they had put some calming substance into my IV in order to calm my nerves. It made the pain go away temporarily and made me feel that I had no worries. In that moment, I could’ve started laughing and singing “Hakuna Matata”. Then, my mom and step dad started talking to me about the surgery. I started to get worried. I was thinking, “What if they give me the dose of anesthetic but I’m not unconscious and they start the surgery?” The thought started to scare me. I imagined that I was lying on the table, unable to move, unable to open my eyes, but still conscious and still aware. That terrified me, so I quickly looked over to my mom and my step dad, waved my hand, and said in a dazed voice, “I’m still awake.” At the time, I thought this was serious and that they needed to know so that they wouldn’t send me to surgery while still conscious. However, they thought I was just reacting to the medicine that was in my IV. To me, it was logical thinking. Then, a few nurses and a doctor or surgeon came to get me for surgery. They brought me to the room and started administering a dose of anesthetic to “put me under”. After a short amount of time, I was out. The next thing I knew, I was slowly waking up. I noticed that my lower stomach was sore but I didn’t know why. I pulled back the gown to look at what was hurting and I quickly regretted it. They had put a yellow substance all over my stomach and the stitches looked like spiders. Later, I found out the yellow matter that was on my stomach was iodine.

Even though the surgery was over, I had to stay the night in the hospital. If everything went well, I could go home the next day. Throughout the night, there were monitors attached to me and nurses would come in to check on me. It seemed like they came in every 5 minutes, they just wouldn’t let me sleep. Although disoriented, I managed to get through the night. The next day, I woke up and it didn’t take long before I was out of the hospital doors and into the white door of that familiar Suburban. I may not have gained anything except a new memory, but I did lose my appendix in the process. Fast-forward to the present, I still don’t miss it.