A Visit to the Hospital

It was a normal week day in Nepal. We had attempted to go out to eat but our car's battery was a little to tired from working so hard this winter:) So we decided to order in. We ordered a nice calzone, fish & chips and a salad. The food delivery system here named Foodmandu is an all time favorite at our house. They deliver food from proabably close to 100 restaurants in the city. It's an awesome convenience! So....we opened the food and dug in. Did I eat too much calzone....um.....well maybe:) As soon as I finished I got that feeling, "oh no, what have I done?" I felt super ucky. Which quickly turned to pain.

 

Since living in Nepal I have become associated with many types of stomach discomfort:) but this one was different. You have the oh so common crampy feeling which develops a close relationship between you and the "Loo" as the Brits call it. This can develop from many different sources, such as; water, dirty veggies, etc. We have become a little more accustomed to the climate and are quite careful so we haven't dealt with this too much, recently. You also have the chili burn:) We live in the land of spice! We are talking pump the food full of it and chomp on a green chili on th side, as a "accent" to that food. We do enjoy the spice but sometimes if you get a little to ambitious you will know the warm swirly feeling in your tummy. But this wasn't what I was feeling at all. It was a burning pain with no side effects.

 

After almost 24 hours I realized it wasn't going to pass. I headed to our very trust-worth clinic to see what may be the problem. It's always an ordeal to pack up kiddos and head to the doctor. I hate making that call. You feel you will go in and after all that they will roll their eyes and say, "You have gas, crazy lady.":) But despite that, we packed up the kids and took them to a friends with an emergency overnight bag and ended at the clinic. After a brief visit and ultra-sound it was concluded I had an acute appendicitis. What?! Now I'm wishing I had just had gas:)

I had never expected to have surgery in our little 3rd world country. There hasn't been too many good stories coming out of the hospitals by nationals or foreigners. So my plan was, Be healthy for life! Hah:) Within 3 hours I was diagnosed, transported to another local hospital and landed in the ER. I felt like I was on a movie, zooming through traffic in an ambulance. The overwhelming unlikely feeling I had was of calm and total lack of stress. Not what I had expected at all. I thought I would have been in a puddle of tears and hyperventilating. This day had not turned out as I expected!

 

 

They wheel me out of the ambulance to many curious eyes. The white lady had arrived at the hospital. It was due to be entertaining for sure. We settled in to a slightly curtained space in a row if ER patients. They took my vitals and began to prepare me for surgery. They attempted to convince us to do an epideral but we were pretty uncomfortable with that and with the Lords help we were able to convince them to do the general anesthetic. They then wanted us to present a large sum of money before they would do the surgery. It was night, all the banks were closed and the people in charge of speaking to our insurance company wouldn't be in for another day and a half because it was the weekend, and their card machines weren't working. None of these things are unusual but it was new lesson for us in third world practices. Thank God for our surgeon who demanded they let me into surgery without payment. Otherwise they would have held me until Sunday when the workers came in to deal with the insurance. He was our angel this night.

Quickly after, they wheeled me in and in no time the whole thing was over. After the sedation wore off I was in the ICU ward with constant attention by the nursing staff. I awoke and immediately knew I was going to be ok. Compared to the 2 C-sections I've had this felt worlds better. Cory was unable to stay the night because I was in ICU. He came back the next morning to check on me. I assured him I felt great and encouraged him to go ahead to church. The biggest blessing about the whole event was how our church did in the midst of it all. Cory told them he was on his way and that they could start an hour late.

As he came up the steps to the church he found a mountain of shoes outside the door. Which is always a good sign at Asian churches! He walked into find our song leader had started at the regular time and had led in speaking about some verses until Cory arrived. The crowd was full of unexpected visitors. Many due to Cory's recent visit to speak in a Buddhist high school at Christmas. He was so amazed and blessed to see the initiative and leadership these baby Christians all showed and how God took over and blessed immensely in our absence.

After a lil struggle with the billing department we got checked out less than 24 hours before we checked in. I feel good! Moving a little slow but amazed at Gods care of me and protection. Many thanks to everyone who sent up prayers for me. Praise the Lord, He is ever watchful and always in control.

 

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