My Emergency Hospitalization and Life Saving Surgery

My life was going along perfectly fine. Until it wasn't. No notice, no prior symptoms, and the worst pain of my life. I'm sharing all about it and what I've learned.

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No Notice and Nothing Had Been Wrong

*This post is long, it contains personal details and information, including medical things, so if this isn’t for you, feel free to stop reading now. Also, as much as I would love to answer personal emails or DMs asking me ‘what happened’, I can’t. But I do share it below! I appreciate your support and reading if you choose.

Things were going along completely normal and fine for me. I had just spent a long weekend at my daughter’s parents weekend at her university out of state.

I flew back to San Diego with my husband on a Monday afternoon (10-27-25) and we arrived home around 6 PM. I unpacked my suitcase and did a little bit around the house, and I was tired from a long and very event-packed parents weekend.About 9:30 PM I went to bed because I was tired from our weekend and travel, but healthwise I was totally fine.

On my flight back to San Diego at 5PM. I was completely fine.

At 11:30 PM I woke up out of a cold sleep with excruciating abdominal pain. The last time I had felt pain like that, I was in labor 18 1/2 years ago.

I paced around my bedroom thinking maybe this will pass. But it did not, and it was getting worse by the minute. That’s when I told my husband to drive me to the emergency room, which is 1 mile from our house.

Sky High Pain Tolerance

If you know me in real life, you would know that I have an extremely high pain tolerance, I try to avoid doctors, and I’m the least likely person to tolerate spending time in an emergency room and would rather tough it out at all costs at home. So the fact that I asked to be taken to the emergency room, and immediately, I knew something was extremely wrong.

I had a 100% drug-free, natural childbirth and that was a walk in the park compared to what I was experiencing.

In my hospital room after I was moved out of the emergency department and admitted to the hospital.

The Emergency Department: Not Rushing to Help

Upon arriving at the emergency department (or emergency room as most of us call it), I realized that I was in a waiting room full of homeless people, addicts, and some really bad looking characters if I am being completely honest. Your mileage may vary based on where you live.

There were people in the waiting room that seemed extremely calm. I, on the other hand, was literally moaning, screaming, and doubled over in abdominal pain that was next level.

Finally, after the triage person semi-realized I was not drug-seeking or faking this, I was put in a little area with a curtain. There was a person who appeared to be dead outside of my room. There was a sheet covering a body on a gurney. I did not care if a dead man or the Pope would have been there.

I spent 2 1/2 to 3 more hours in my agonizing condition until an attending physician (I think?) or someone with enough ‘status’ to allow me to be medicated finally came to talk to me. He determined that they could at least start some pain medication in my IV. Because prior to that I was white knuckling it with a needle in my arm for the IV, but they would not start any medication.

They started giving me Dilaudid intravenously, which I’ve researched and it’s 10 times stronger than morphine! And it was not even controlling my pain!

The Same Questions Over and Over

I cannot tell you how many times I answered the following questions: Yes, I had been having regular bowel movements. No I was not backed up. Yes I could pass gas. Yes I could urinate. No I could not be pregnant. When my last period was and no, I had eaten any unusual foods.

Be ready for it, it was so tiresome especially in my condition, but I was in a teaching hospital, and I probably answered those same questions for at least 30-40 different people (nurses, doctors, students, etc.) in 24 hours.

Finally I Found Out What Was Wrong

A CT scan of my abdomen revealed what the problem was. Not appendicitis, not an ectopic pregnancy, not an ovarian cyst. This was so much worse.