I give you 3 guesses of where I have spent the past 2 1/2 days...give up? In the hospital! Thursday, after route, I wasn't feeling like myself...loss of appetite, fevers, chills and nausea. Great, best time to get the flu! By 5:00PM, my upper right side, under my rib cage, had a dull ache. So I figured I would take a nap, since I had been running on empty for days. Then at 6:00, my ache became a throbbing. When 8:00 rolled around and I was still awake, I thought a gang of knives was attacking me, the pain was so great. I told Geoff I was going to the hospital because I was having an appendacitis attack. He said it was too high up for that, but off I drove as fast as possible. After crawling through the parking lot and finally able to somewhat walk through the ER doors, I was ready to collapse. I was taken immediately into the back and test began. Then at 10:00 they brought me 64 ounces of lemonade (ya right...anytime a hospital offers you a drink...don't! It is a trick!) Actually, it was a contrast drink for the CT Scan they were going to run on me. The doctor said they had to do it this way because where I was describing was too high for my appendix. Needless to say, by 2:00AM Friday morning, I was on the operating table for an emergency appendectomy. It was about to rupture! They finally released me today at Noon.

Sentara, as boring as a hospital can be, was great. Since I don't have insurance, they are seeking grants from foundations to assist in my hospital bill. I was able to sleep as much as I wanted (which turned out not to be a lot.) And best of all, I could have all the free milk I wanted (hey that made it all worthwhile.)

Unfortunately, at one of my busiest mments, I must spend the next week at 25mph. That is hard to do for me, but considering the pain (although it is different now) is still pretty intense. I have to walk a lot, so a neighbor, who is studying to be a nurse, is going to take me for small walks when she is off. The pain causes me some dizziness, so I need to be chaperoned on these little adventures around the block. I can't take any more time off from work, so I need to find somebody who can drive me on my route and help with the papers and walk my apartments since I am not allowed to do stairs for a week.

But the way I see it, it could have been worse. At least I will be around for our Christmas Giving Tree program!