The Second of several very, VERY Late Blogs: APPENDICITIS

SO....... Appendicitis is that thing that everyone forgets that they can get until they have it... Well, just my luck: I got it in France. Not in my own bed in the US or even at College where people speak English... FRANCE! And the worst part is, before I left I asked my mom, as a joke, if they could take it out as a precautionary measure because I didn't want to have it in France. I guess it might have been a good idea!

So 4 weeks ago, yeah it's been a while, I woke up on a thursday morning, and just didn't feel good. I had a really woozy stomach and was nauseous. I'll spare the details of my several trips to the bathroom to dry-heave, and just tell you that I didn't really throw up... So it was almost worse in my opinion. I HATE being nauseous, if throwing up makes you feel better than I don't mind it. So I spent the whole day in a constant nauseated state, and then spent the evening in a painful state... A stomach started around dinner time, totally curbing any ounce of appetite I had, which was actually a good thing, and I called it an early night. I hoped the next day I could just go back to school and be done with the sickness; however, that was not the case... A wise group of Rotary Students once told me that I have the Immune System of an infant... not that Appendicitis has to do with the immune system, but they were right, I've had Zero luck with being healthy here...

This is why you go to a clinique and not a hôpital (this is the foyer) 

So, I woke up Friday morning with a pretty terrible stomachache. I'm not the person to scream and cry over pain though, I just get angry and frustrated, so I wasn't like hobbling around, I was trying my best to function normally, which clearly was the opposite of what I should have been doing, you'll find out why a little later. My host mom, being the always concerned type, called her friend who is a doctor, I thought it was not necessary at the time, but I guess it was! The doctor asked if I had had appendicitis, my host mom asked me, I said 'no' then she thought I didn't understand and made me show her my stomach to make sure I didn't have a scar, then she believed me. So I got dressed uncomfortably and went to the doctors office, getting in and out of the car was the worst of the trip... Once at the doctors office, she did some pressure tests and asked me a few questions, commented on how much my French had progressed, score, and told me to go to the Clinique (Private Hospital) for a more intense diagnostic and possible surgery because she definitely thought it was Appendicitis. I talked about it with my host mom, and we decided it would be better not to say anything to anyone until I knew exactly what was going on, so we came home, I sat on the couch in pain for about 20 minutes then we left again. We arrived at the Clinique and waited in urgent care for a bout a half an hour to forty-five minutes... This is the first instance where some good acting skills and wimping out would have come in handy... they  let me wait longer because I seemed to be ok... great! Finally they got me into a room, the first doctor, who was a student doing his residency, did some pressure tests and he concluded appendicitis and was going to order a test, then his teaching doctor came in and checked me with another two pressure tests and said I didn't need a test right away because it was pretty clear that it was appendicitis... They said they were going to wait for the surgeon to see if he wanted tests or if he would just go ahead and operate... this was all done quite non-chalantly and with no urgency whatsoever; as my appendix was growing in size and I was getting more and more anxious. They put an IV in my arm and told me I wasn't allowed to leave the hospital until after my surgery, but at the same time, they wouldn't let me go upstairs to a room because there was a problem dealing with my insurance... instance number two where a big show of pain and theatrics would have come in handy; if I had been in more apparent pain, they would have done the surgery and asked insurance questions later... So finally my seemingly non-existant host counselor called the surgeon and made some deal about insurance with him. I think there was a problem contacting the company, so my host counselor said he would front the cost until it could be reimbursed, but he didn't have to because they worked it out before payment was due anyway.

Instructions on how to take my Betadine Shower...yeah

So I got to my room, settled in with nothing, and my host mom asked me what I needed for the next 3 days then went home for a while. I took my Betadine(maybe iodine) shower, with an IV in my arm, that wasn't easy, then got dressed in my next to nothing hospital gown. My host mom came back some hours later and told me that she had contacted my mom and sent her an email also, and my mom was not nervous and it was all ok.

My host mom then left and I spent the next 8 hours playing Angry Birds and listening to music on my iPod, thank god I had it! My Host mom came back with her friend, the doctor around 9 and not soon after that, the night nurses came in and took me to the operating room. The last thing I remember was them telling me the room was gonna spin, and that when it started to spin, I had to close my eyes.

Apparently they did my operation via camera... I can't think of the name right now, 'something'-scopically. They cut my belly button, and right inside each of my hip bones. they blew my stomach up with air so they would have space to work, then they put a cutting instrument in at my left hip and a pincer thing at my right and cut it and pulled it out... so now I have 3 cool scars... all are small and, after 4 weeks, already fading. I hope they don't disappear that'd be a shame, it seems to be a cool and unique souvenir. After the surgery I stayed inflated for about 2 1/2 weeks... I burped air, just air, about 6 times a day...

Portable Urinal that I refused to use.

I woke up about an hour later in the "wake-up" room to the attendant pulling a tube out of my throat, I in turn made an ugly face at her and said I didn't like what she did. I then continued to talk in French for the next 15 minutes at everyone who walked in and out... apparently I was speaking great French, I don't remember everything I said but I did ask about how much they liked their jobs and if I could see my appendix, I wasn't allowed... then I was brought back up to my room and left under observance once every 30 minutes. I was woken up and my blood pressure was taken... and the night nurses were far from nice... so that passed... the next day a few friends came it was cool! We didn't do much but talk, but it was still cool to have some company. They left and then another person came into my room to share it with me. He had some developmental problem though plus appendicitis, so that was just kind of crappy and awkward. He went into surgery that night and came out just as I was going to bed... I didn't get to fall asleep and had a shitty night's rest because the nurses were in and out, flicking the lights on and off every 25 minutes! anyway, I left the next afternoon for my house. I stayed at the house a week. There was a nurse, also a friend of my host mom, who came every day to clean and dress my incisions and to make sure everything as healing properly. He was very nice and quick and gentile and everything a good nurse is.

On the Wednesday following my surgery, Harry Potter 7 pt.1 came out in France so I went to see it with my host sister and Joelynn and Hunter. It was worth the amount of pain I went through walking around a mall and sitting down with jeans on. I was still bloated the size of a balloon and none of my jeans fit around my waist; I wore them halfway down my ass, neither stylish, nor comfortable... I had to unbutton them while we were sitting watching the movie because they were rubbing on my incisions. After the movie we decided to do a little shopping while we waited for my host mom to pick me and my host sister up. We were at H&M which is Men's on top and Women's on the bottom so the group split up, going to their respective sections, about 15 minutes later my host mom calls me and asks me to join then downstairs and that she is with my host sister just outside 'Kaboodle'. I, thinking that this is a store, exit H&M and travel to the other end of the mall downstairs, searching for my host mom. I got frustrated and I was, for some reason, exhausted, and very sore, so I returned to H&M to see my host mom standing out front. I was SO ANGRY; not at anyone, just in general, and then she asked me several times if I was alright, and I had to fake a smile and say yes, she didn't believe me, apparently I wasn't very convincing, so she asked me another 8 times... UGH! We left soon after and I took a nap as soon as we got home.

That Saturday, Jean-Pierre, the nurse, took out my stitches. The stitches in the hip incisions came out quickly and easily, but the belly button stitches were in pretty deep and had to be gently, yet still quite forcefully, YANKED out. I bled some more and he put a dressing on the belly button because it was bleeding he told me to change it if it soaked through, which it did, so I did, then it was pretty good. After the stitches were taken out, I guarded the oddly shaped and colored bruises for about 3 weeks. The night of the day I got my stitches out, I went to a nightclub with my host sister Auberie, my host sister's friend Melanie, Hunter, and Melanie's Cousin. We went to the Palace in Rouen: Rive Gauche. It was pretty fun, the music was almost exclusively American or English and there were a lot of creepy middle aged guys all alone with their shirts un-buttoned to their belly-button, but other than that it was fun. After that day/night, I knew that I was going to be okay. My body handled all that dancing and moving and I didn't fall apart so I wasn't worried after that.

The First of several very, VERY Late Blogs: PARIS

So, Paris is Paris, everyone dreams of visiting, everyone who goes falls in love, and everyone who lives there is, well... snooty, but that is besides the point. I was given permission by my host mom to be allowed to go to Paris without parents. But only me and Hunter, one of my friends were allowed to go, she didn't want a large group going, which I can completely understand, and my host sister also came with us. We started the day very early, it was still dark when we left! We almost missed out train and ended up having to sit in front of the bathroom door; this was much better than we originally had thought!

The first person to use the bathroom, was about 15 minutes into the voyage. The first person was a mid 20's female, perfectly capable of figuring out the automatic door which consisted of one button to open, one button to close and a lever to lock. You think that the whole world would be able to grasp that. Most people figured out that you needed to push the button with the BRIGHT GREEN ring around it to open the door, but this is as far as people's common sense went. once the door was opened there were two buttons to choose from, one was circular with (<>) and, because the door was already open, there was no green ring around it, and the second button was another circular button with (><) on it and there was a BRIGHT RED (meaning close) ring around it... The red automatically stopped everyone from hitting that button... everyone pressed the Non-Lit "open" button, but never even thought to touch the close button. Most of the patrons took ALL of their strength and closed the door manually, pulling it along the track, seemingly run by pressurized air. Yep, everyone damn near pulled their shoulders out of socket to close the AUTOMATIC door! Once inside, virtually no one locked the mechanism by turning a small lever that had a key emblem on it, could it be more obvious!? We ended up stopping about 8 people from intruding on others during their entirely too long bathroom visits. The only one person who did everything correct without thinking was a rather elderly lady who, in french, said "wish me luck" as the door was closing, we all preyed that she locked it, thus making her the winner, SHE DID! we wanted to clap for her upon her exit, but we decided that may be somewhat bizarre and inappropriate. About 20 minutes before we arrived in Paris, a younger woman entered the bathroom, yanked the door shut manually, idiot, and then didn't turn the lever the lock the door, on her way out, the woman could not arrive at pressing the open button. She tugged and tugged on the door, trying to open it manually, we found it entertaining, so we let her try for a pretty good while, before I relieved her and pushed the open button for entry, she looking amused with herself, thinking she found the solution and not knowing that I had pressed the button, then searched for the closing button.... she in-turn pulled the lock lever and got frustrated and left.... then I pressed the close button because it smelled. and then it locked from the inside. The last 15 minutes of the train ride, there was a huge line for the bathroom, and everyone was waiting for a phantom, none of us had the heart to tell the people in line that it was closed.....

We arrived at the Gare St-Lazare around 11:30AM. We took a little tour of the opera district of Paris. We took a small detour into the Galeries Lafayette to see the giant ChristmasTree.  Then we walked to the Bourse (stock exchange) and took the metro to Notre Dame... We walked around near Notre Dame a little then found a Starbucks... I got a great Caramel Machiato and an "American" cookie, it was SO GREAT! I noticed that there was only foreigners, russians, british, and us in the café. There was a potential Frenchman upstairs using the Wi-fi access. After eating, we made our way to the courtyard of the Louvre, then walked all the way from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe. It was A LOT of walking, but definitely worth the experience of just doing it. It rained a little along our route, but we didn't mind, when it got bad, we ducked into a store along the Champs Élysées. After reaching the Arc de Triomphe, we decided to search for a nice, somewhat inexpensive café to grab lunch. We spent 20-30 minutes searching for a decent café, we found a great one! We all got sandwiches, Croque Monsieur for Auberie and Me and a Club for Hunter, and fries. It was good, not too pricy, less than 15Euro a person, which is great for a large Lunch in Paris including a drink. After Lunch, we took a small detour to see the Eiffel Tower then  we made our way back down the Champs Élysées, and to a metro station. We arrived in front of the Gare St-Lazare and bought our return tickets then decided to do another small tour of the area... We made a wrong turn on the way back and ended up about 25 minutes away from the train station, with 30 until our train left! Yikes, we ran, and asked for directions several times... the answer was always "keep going straight" and then we would hit a wall or building and have to turn, then the new direction giver would say "keep going straight" so we never knew who was right. We ended up finding it on our own, and it's a good thing we did, we were tired and drenched, and just as we got on the train, it departed from the station. It was a quick ride home. I read a book called "Talk to the Snail: 10 Commandments to Understanding the French" It is an insight on the frustrations of being a non Frenchman, living in France.


All in all, it really was a great day. I was wiped out after an entire day of walking, but I didn't mind, it was just great! I can't wait to go again! After being there once and doing the overview, now I can make more specific trips to different areas, that will be cool!