I almost died at 20 years old.

To set the scene for you, I was on vacation the last two weeks of july. One week with my family was spent in Jackson, California, and the other spent in Utah with my friends. Prior to that I had just put my two weeks in at my job and I had another job in the books for me. I was hyped, two weeks of vacation and a new higher paying job? Could it get better?

The second week of my trip in Utah was for a festival called “Hive”. A brand new festival. Various artists were playing over a two day period. Needless to say that whole time I was everything but sober. I had a blast, dancing, singing, and being with the people that I love most in the world. I don't think I stopped smiling once since that trip. When it came to an end, we were all very sad. Driving back we reminisced on the time we had in Salt Lake City, Utah. We stopped at the bonneville flats, took some fun photos, joked about eating the salt, packed up again and left. We cross over into the lonely Nevada desert. We stopped for gas, and that's when it hit me. A small but very noticeable pain in my lower right side. I didn't pay any mind to it, it would pass. 15 minutes from that gas station I had to pull over. I knew I was going to have to make myself puke or the pain wouldn't go away, right? 20 minutes go by, of me shoving my fingers down my throat dry heaving. That's when I realized I had nothing in my stomach, not even a drop of water. Of course I wasn't going to throw up. Mind you, my friends are sitting in the car watching me, making sure I'm okay. I finally hop back into the car and continue to drive. 5 minutes go by before i realize, i'm in no condition to drive. The pain is getting worse, I can feel it in my head and my right leg. My best friend starts to drive, while I'm in the fetal position in the back of my car. I tried to sleep, i couldnt the pain was paralyzing. My friends stopped anywhere they could to see if there was something that would help this growing, deep, pain.

At some point they took me to a subway and went to get my bread. I got out of the car and realized I couldn't stand. My head was pounding, my side felt like I was getting stabbed, as I lay down in the middle of the road, I started puking again. Pretty gross outside a subway. My friends and I ate in the middle of the road, trying to laugh at the situation. They had bought me garbage bags, water, gatorade, garbage bags, and saltines at a previous stop. We continued our drive, at this point our 8 hour drive had turned into a 12 hour drive. The very last gas station was the worst. I felt it come on so fast, I grabbed the bag and violently vomited everything in my system out. That's when I finally had some relief, the pain went away. We damn near threw a party. We get into town and everyone goes home. I went to bed immediately. When I woke up that Monday morning, I wanted to cry. The pain was back. I had already been dealing with it for 14 hours at this point, why more? What the hell is wrong with me? I spent the day sleeping, and watching movies. When my precious mom came home from work, she suggested that if the pain was gone by the next day, we go to the hospital. I immediately threw that idea out of the way, I hated the hospital and there was no way I was going. My boyfriend came to see me for a little while to check on me. The second he left was when I knew something was seriously wrong with me. The pain shot through the entire right side of my body, I started puking and gagging. I was rolling around the kitchen floor screaming for my mom to do something. She threw me into the car and drove me to the ER. Which is where the real story starts.

They took me back and took my vitals, and drew my blood. They got me back into the room very quickly. At this point it is 8pm and the pain only stops when I stop moving, the seconds my pinky toes twitches, the pain shoots around my entire body. They gave me a pelvic exam and said it was inflamed which could be the cause of my pain. What the hell? An inflamed pelvis is what is causing me all this pain? No way doc. He mentioned my appendix, but brushed it off and said “ your heart rate would be elevated and you would be in more pain” I thought I was in the worst pain i'd ever feel for the rest of my life. After that my mom and I waited 5 hours in the very back room, nobody checked on us, nobody gave us a status on my health, we didn't see a soul. At 1:30 am, is when it happened. It started in my right lower side, it felt like someone took a lighter to my stomach, and stabbed it at the same time, it ran slowly to my head and face, and back down the other way into my right leg. I rolled off the bed, screaming on the floor holding my side. My mom ran out of the room screaming for a nurse, she was followed by my nurse and my doctor. They stood around me staring at me, “ PLEASE HELP ME “ I pleaded with them. They calmly discussed what to do with each other. “ THERE'S BLOOD IN MY IV MOM IS THAT NORMAL”? I was so scared, i told my mom i loved her, i told her to tell my friends and my dad and boyfriend that i love them. I was sure that I was dying. They gave me two doses of morphine, put me back on the bed. The world was spinning, I felt great. The only relief I had in 18 hours came from those two doses of morphine. They took me into an all white room where they injected me with iodine. They put me in for a CT scan, my body felt warm, I felt calm and finally at peace. When the CT scan was over Two ladies took me into another all white room and started taking all my jewelry off, and cleaning my entire body. They started asking me all these questions, I can't remember answering them coherently. I asked them what was wrong with me and what they were doing, they told me to be patient and stay calm. I was in and out of consciousness for our entire conversation.

A surgeon came into my room when the ladies were done cleaning me up. She sat down and said “ Hi Avery, I know you are scared. We are taking you into surgery, your appendix has ruptured and you are bleeding into your stomach right now. “ I wanted my mom so bad, I started crying and told her that if i die, tell my dad to take care of my mom. She left the room and 20 minutes later they took me up into surgery. I had so many nurses and doctors that never left my side, they made me feel not alone and safe. I don't remember a whole lot during this process, I do remember my surgeon laying me down on the table and saying “ stay with me okay? Your mom needs you”. I remember dreaming of my boyfriend, Cody. We were at disneyland walking around and laughing, it was peaceful and very comforting. He told me he loved me, and that we were going to get married (we better) . The dream lasted forever. It came to an end and I woke up in a room with three other people and we were all in a T shape with three nurses with us. A curly haired lady walked over to me and said “ hi Avery, welcome back.” I asked her how it went, and she said these exact words `` Well you're without an organ, so that's cool huh”? I laughed and grunted. When I looked at my stomach I found three small incisions. One was covered with a big white bandage and there was a bag attached to me, filled with red stuff. When I asked her what the bag was for, she said it was to drain the rest of the infection they couldn't get. Gross. I was in recovery for 7 hours, with the kindest nurse in the world. I hope she knows who she is. I was in and out of consciousness for those 7 hours when I was awakened by my nurse who said “ SH we aren't allowed to have family back here, but im getting your mom” 2 minutes later my heaven sent angel walked through the door. “ hi bunny foo foo” she said. I started crying immediately. I don't remember much after this, but they got me into a room with another very sweet older lady. My dad and mom sat around my bed telling me how much they loved me and how lucky I am to be alive. I was in the hospital for 4 days. At that time I had the best nurses and the best doctors. Everyone was so sweet and went above and beyond. ITs scary being in a hospital, especially alone. They gave me some strong antibiotics that made me pretty sick, my stomach was so sore and swollen. It was hard to walk, hard to sleep, and hard to move. I woke up nauseous every morning, which was followed by a shot in my ass so I didn't vomit. The day I was released, I could barely keep myself together. Finally getting out of this dark and depressing place. I had a surgeon and a med tech came in to pull the bag out of my stomach. I wish for everything they would have sedated me. It was 2 feet long wrapped all around my stomach, they had to take it out slow. He's asking me questions to take my mind off it and I couldn't even hear him, I was gripping the bed and squirming all around. Finally that nasty tube was out. My sweet stepmom came and picked me up, when I got home I cried at the mess I had left. My clothes were everywhere, there was stuff I threw to make a path for my vomit. I had ten days of antibiotics and on every one of those ten days I woke up nauseous as hell. I was scared because if i threw up i had to go back to the hospital. Fuck no. Luckily I didn't, and my recovery and healing process went very smoothly. It took me a while to eat normally, but I'm still struggling a little. My follow up with my surgeon was the end for me, She told me all my incisions look great and I looked great. I didn't need any more follow ups, she gave me a hug and said “ I'm proud of you Avery, you kicked ass.” Here we are almost a month later. Im close to completely healed, i have phantom pain in my right side sometimes, i know that's just my brain messing with me.

I came out of this stronger and more vigilant. Things like this happen all the time, at 20 you think your body is indestructible, you think nothing will happen to you. I thought the same thing and now I'm one organ down. If i can give you any advice, take care of yourself. Have fun, but remember you are only given one beautiful body, make her happy. Thank you for hearing my story, if you liked it leave a tip! There's more crazy stories to come!