CANADIAN HEALTH CARE!
to those of you who have been in touch with me over the last week, this one was a given.
to keep us all on the same page, here's a little summary:
on monday i went to the doctor after spending saturday throwing up and sunday with a belly so painful i could barely stand up. from there i pranced (not quite) over to the ER, where i spent 9 hours getting tested and having innumerable hands on my body. it was pronounced that i had an infected abscess on my fallopian tube that would need to be removed immediately. so i made a few calls and prepped for surgery. i woke up a couple hours later, disoriented and writhing in pain, to see joe's face; mom had called him and he'd driven over to be there. what a sweetie.
i woke up feeling swell, and found out i'd actually gotten a 2-for-1 surgery (or scar, at least). after cutting my stomach to remove the abscess/fallopian tube, they found that wasn't actually where the problem lay. there was infection and swelling throughout my stomach, so they hadn't been able to tell that it was actually my appendix causing the problem. it was "the size of an apple" (apparently this had been brewing for at least 9 months, which accounts for random and strange and usually painful ailments that afflicted me. insane.). more cuts were made and they removed not only my supersized appendix but parts of my intestines on either side that were badly swollen/infected.
mom and becky drove up and arrived the next morning- something i would never have asked for, but definitely definitely appreciated.
i spent tues-fri recovering and got to leave today, a couple days early because i passed all my criteria to leave by thursday. thankfully i really didn't need pain relievers (let's hear it for those pain-tolerant genes!), and most of my pain came from jarring my stapled stomach with laughing. this surgery made me realize that i laugh almost constantly.
i must say that i know the most thoughtful, caring, delightful people on the planet. i was absolutely overwhelmed with the amount of support and love i received. flowers and books and movies and magazines and visits and calls and messages sent to the hospital...i come rather emotionally unhinged when i think about it. i'm so blessed, and so thankful.
i seem to have lost weight from not eating for a number of days. i considered wheeling straight from recovery to modeling, but now i have this blasted scar that mars me. oh the irony. i'm happy to send along photos of my guesome stapled stomach to any interested parties.

i want to offer up a huge shout-out to my body for being so mind-blowingly awesome and not only carrying me through 9 months with a pernicious tenent and getting all hacked up, but doing it with zest and vigor- i feel, and have felt for the duration of my hospital stay, considerably great. and today i'm heading to VA for two weeks of R&R (read: vacation. sweet! :))...and so mom can keep me from overworking.