Tori's Surgeries

Having three pregnancies right in a row with no break was really hard on my body. Through both Maycie's and Kasen's pregnancies I was hospitalized twice because of what we thought was a kidney infection and kidney stones. When the 4th time in the hospital came around, we decided to start working with a general surgeon. I went to Doctor Todd Russell and he said that he thought I had a hernia and chronic appendicitis. The reason everyone had trouble diagnosing the appendicitis is because "Chronic Appendicitis" is apparently pretty rare and hard to diagnose. Chronic appendicitis is a disorder caused by inflammation of the appendix over a period of time, that reoccurs until surgically dealt with. Often, individuals with chronic appendicitis are undiagnosed until an episode of appendicitis occurs, resulting in symptoms that progress in severity. Diagnosing chronic appendicitis can be difficult because the symptoms are severe but individuals with chronic appendicitis often become used to the abdominal pain and discomfort. Left untreated, chronic appendicitis can lead to life-threatening complications such as a ruptured appendix and infection that spreads to other parts of the body. So when we finally decided this was the cause, Doctor Todd decided on surgery. I had the surgery two and a half weeks after delivering Kasen, which was hard on my body, but much better than continually having pain and being in and out of the hospital. These pictures are the last pictures I have of me with my appendix still. The hernia ended up being about 6 inches long, stretching from the middle of my rib cage to my belly button. When they put the band on me to find a good vein, my arm turned very "hulk-like" as you can tell by the picture.

I tried to nurse while I was in the hospital, which was really tricky. After they had me hooked up to the IV's and monitors, nursing got even trickier. At one point Kasen got all tangled up in all the cords and I had to get two different nurses to help me untangle him. We got a good laugh out of it because it seemed as though I was delivering him again... but out of my side this time. Ha.