But really, it hurt. It hurt so bad. I was pretty sure it was appendicitis early on in the day. The internet helped me figure that out. (After I’d had the CT scan, been diagnosed with acute appendicitis, and been scheduled for surgery, the ER Doc joked “would you like to consult the internet first, or can we proceed?” to which I told him I will certainly be checking WebMD as soon as he leaves). But I didn’t want to go to the hospital yet. At that point, I had never left Abby (who had just turned 10 weeks). I had been pumping, but I froze all the milk because it was for when I went back to work. In other words, I had no milk for Abby were I to go to the hospital. So, I took some milk out of the freezer, stayed home long enough to feed her one last time and to pump once, and then around noon I had my dad take me to St. Joseph’s Hospital while my mom stayed with Abby and Max stayed with Connie. 

I was much more distressed about leaving Abby than I was about having to have surgery. Of course everything was fine. Moms always suffer more from being separated than young babies do. But suffer I did.

The surgery was done around 7 o’clock at night, and I was out of the hospital around 11 am the next day. No pain killers. I think the surgeon was mad at me. But really, it was a quick recovery. I was a little tender for a couple days, and I certainly milked it so I didn’t have to get on the ground with Max for awhile, but within a week I was fine and dandy. If ever you have to have an appendectomy, I definitely recommend staying active and trying to get back to your regular routine quickly. You’ll feel much better, trust me. 

But the real take home message of this story is for the breast feeding mamas: always keep a bottle or two worth of milk in the fridge- you never know when an emergency might pop up!