Who really needs an appendix anyways...

Well, I think its pretty easy to say that this weekend took an unlikely turn. One day we were showing Laura's cousin Kelly and her fiance Nick around Jackson, and the next thing I know I'm starving in a hospital bed waiting for surgery to get my appendix out!



I woke up Monday morning with really bad stomach pain, almost like I was REALLY hungry or had a really bad running cramp. I told Laura and our guests that I would probably meet them out the mountain in a couple hours and tried to sleep it off. Every time I woke up the pain was worse, I couldn't find a way to lay without being in excruciating pain. I tried to eat a couple of times and ended up throwing it right back up. I told Laura I wouldn't be making it out to ski and just kept on going back to sleep every time I woke up. I woke up around 5pm when Laura got home and noticed that instead of my entire stomach hurting, it now only hurt on the right side and the pain was a lot sharper. Thinking that this could be something with my appendix I quickly looked up my symptoms on webmd.com and told everyone that I thought I might need to go to the ER. They agreed and next thing I knew we were on our way.

Upon arriving at the ER, I explained my situation, had a CAT Scan and quickly found out that my self-diagnosis was correct. They told me that I should stay the night and have surgery first thing in the morning, and began pumping me full of drugs.

Hanging out waiting for my CT results.

After a long and painful night, I found out that my surgery had been bumped from 7am to 1 pm, which is great news when your appendix feels like its about to pop out of your stomach like an overdue baby. A lot of drugs and pain later, I was heading to the operating room. The operation was quick and successful, and luckily they were able to perform it laparoscopically...which basically meant less damage/pain/recovery time for me (its much less invasive than how they used to do it). If anyone is interested you can learn more about all this here.

After the surgery, I was still in a lot of pain but was feeling a lot better. I could finally have water for the first time in over 24 hours, and sadly, eating crushed ice was an extraordinary experience. A couple hours later I was having Jello and ice cream, and by night I was back to eating normals foods.

You know its sad when crushed ice is as satisfying as filet mignon.

Livin' the Ice Cream Dream!

I have never been so proud of my [newly rediscovered] ability to pee.

Not sure, but I think this is the 'after' shot.

I had a fever after surgery, so they didn't want me to go home yet. Last night I got woken up every hour or so to get my vitals and temperature read, and to blow in some stupid tube! After about 3am my fever went away, and they finally let me get some sleep. This morning my swelling had gone done and the doctor told me things were looking good and they said I could go home.

Currently, I am still walking like a 90 year old man, but I feel a little better as time goes on. Hopefully I will be back to normal in a day or two.

Although this entire ordeal messed the plans up for the weekend a bit, Laura and I were still able to take Nick and Kelly to the mountain a couple of days and out to see some of the wildlife. We got to give them a little backcountry tour too, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy!

I like this one because the moose is looking directly at me... "What you doin' Chris?"

Laura shredding the pow pow.

Laura, Kelly and Nick coming down Rock Springs in the JH backcountry.

My friend Marcus returns to visit us in Jackson Hole tonight and will be here for the next week. My friends Ross and Kristina are arriving on Friday as well, so we will definitely be trying to make the best of their time here aside from my recent health issues. Oh, and here's the really good news... I was thinking this surgery was going to put me out for the rest of the ski season, because I thought it had a 6 week recovery period...however...the doc says I can try taking it easy on some groomers as early as Monday if I'm feeling up for it, never expected that one!!

Don't worry I'm not planning on pushing it to hard, or hurting myself again...but you know I just have got to ski once the time is right :D