Appendectomy

This past Monday night I was scheduled to travel with the other YAVs in Lima to Huancayo, a town in Peru's Andean mountain region for a 5 day retreat. The plan was first for all of us to attend a small party Monday evening at the apartment of another PC(USA) mission co-worker who lives in our site coordinator Debbie's neighborhood. After the party, we would go straight to the bus station to get on an overnight bus to Huancayo. However, we learned Monday afternoon that we would actually be unable to make the trip to Huancayo due to workers protesting and blocking the one highway that runs between Lima and Huancayo.

Regardless, I still went to the party with the other YAVs and Debbie on Monday night. The entire evening, I had been having bad stomach pains. As I was waiting for a bus to take me back to my host family's house after the party, my stomach was hurting worse than it had been all night. Upon seeing how full the busses were and realizing that I would probably have to stand up in a crowded bus for the hour-plus long ride back home, I decided to instead see if I could spend the night in Debbie's apartment instead of going all the way back to Comas.

Debbie and her husband Harry, being wonderful people/an extraordinary YAV site coordinator couple, of course let me spend the night in the guest bedroom of their apartment. We all figured I either had a stomach virus or had eaten something undercooked. Before I went to bed, Debbie off-handedly asked me if I still had my appendix. I said yes, but that I doubted my appendix was causing the problem because the pain was in the center of my stomach and not on the right side, where the appendix is located.

However, when I woke up at 3am, the pain had definitely all moved to my lower right side. Concerned and unable to sleep, I used Debbie's internet to look up signs and symptoms of appendicitis on Web MD. I basically had all of them (chiefly, stomach pain that starts generally in the center abdominal region and then slowly becomes acute and concentrated in the lower right side), and the web site said that appendicitis, if not treated quickly, can cause the appendix to rupture, which is a medical emergency. So I knocked on Debbie and Harry's door at about 3:30am, asking them to take me to the hospital.

The Stella Maris clinic is one of the best hospitals in Lima, and is probably less than 1/2 mile from Debbie and Harry's apartment. After being given a physical examination, blood tests, x-rays and an ultrasound, they confirmed the appendicitis and the need to operate. The laparoscopic operation was performed by a surgeon who also performs organ transplants. The operation was over and I was awake and talking by mid-day Tuesday, and discharged from the hospital at about mid-day Thursday.

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Calling this year of service in Peru a year of "firsts" would be a gross understatement. I had never even had an IV in before this year. Aside from my wisdom teeth being removed, I had never had surgery and had never spent the night in the hospital. This probably explains why I was a lot calmer during the whole ordeal than a lot of people were. (Debbie kept giving me updates about how people here in Peru were reacting when she told them the news. I did get a chance to talk to my mom before the surgery - she seemed a whole lot more nervous than I was, but I had never had surgery in ANY country before, so I didn't know what to be scared of).

At this point, I simply have a lot to thank God for. I could have very easily been on a bus to Huancayo Monday night instead of safe and sound in Debbie and Harry's apartment. Or I could have been at home in Comas, where I would probably have been taken to a much different hospital. And if Debbie hadn't asked me about my appendix that night before I went to bed, I probably wouldn't have even considered appendicitis to be a possibility for the cause of my stomach pain.

I feel very lucky and blessed to have so many visitors in the hospital - the other YAVs, Debbie and Harry (who I'm still staying with for a couple days before I go back to my host family), my host family and a few people from both Santa Isabel and Km 13 churches. The time I've spent in the hospital really is like a perfect snapshot of my mission year as a YAV. Thanks to the wonderful people, family, community, fellow YAVs and churches here in Lima, I've "received" and "been served" so much more than I myself could ever possibly give" or "serve."