Warning - Long post, no pictures.
It is crazy what happens in 4 years. On this day, 4 years ago my life literally changed. I was on my LDS mission in Napa California. It was one of our prep days to get stuff ready for the week. My companion and my self spent a lot of time with the spanish missionaries in the area. We had heard about a rope swing that looked out over the entire valley. The view was spectacular. Vineyards with changing colors, fog slowly rolling out, a sense of peace over the entire area. It was awesome.
Now I am a bit of a scardy pants, so I only went on the swing a couple times. After everyone had finished playing on the swing I decided to go on a couple times before we left. The famous last words "One more time", and it really was my last time. As soon as my feet left the ground, the rope went tight and *SNAP*. The next thing I remember, I am gasping for air as my companion and the spanish missionaries run down to me yelling "Don't move!!" I had fallen about 12 feet, while doing a backflip in the air and landing on my upper back/neck bouncing and landing in some mud face down. I laid there in the mud for a long time, as we discussed our options. I knew something wasn't right inside and that we needed to head to the hospital. After some struggle we were able to get me on my back, and then sit up. Meanwhile, everything was going hazy, and had a white haze around everything I was looking at. Before we started our journey, I received a blessing with a lot of strength and power. (I won't share what was actually said because it was extremely personal). We then started our mile hike back to the car.
With taking a lot of medical classes I learned that we did the stupidest thing possible, move someone after an accident. Luckily it was a bit of a chilly morning, so the cold helped numb the pain I was feeling. I had my arms around two of the missionaries while another scouted ahead for the quickest/less steep way back. After slipping a couple times and catching myself on the other two missionaries we finally made it back to the car. On the car ride there my body started to warm up, and with it I felt searing pain all the way up my body/back.
Upon arrival at the hospital, they put me in a wheel chair, gave me a neck brace, and rushed some MRI's and x-rays. I kept getting colder and colder even though the nurses were putting more and more hot blankets on me. I knew then that something was wrong, but I didn't know what. The results of the x-ray said there was no broken bones. Thank you Jesus! My passing out relaxed my muscles so my bones could do their actual job. The MRI came back with less than happy results. I had ruptured my spleen.
Now side story. In my family half of us do not have our spleen's. Now you may ask "well what does a spleen do?" Well I will tell you. It helps filter your blood, and stores different anti-bodies for common colds and what not. So now I can get sick pretty quickly so I take vitamin C pills every day.
So a ruptured spleen. They told me that in order to get everything they were going to have to do an "emergency exploratory splenectomy", code for "cut you open like a fish and clean you out". At this point I was starting to freak out. Surgery. Alone. In California. Eff. I signed the paperwork approving the surgery, and miraculously the operating room had a surgery end a lot sooner than expected, so they were just cleaning it up and going to wheel me in soon. My companion, the spanish missionaries and the bishop of the ward I was in came to the hospital to give me another blessing before I went in for surgery. This blessing promised a quick recovery along with some other things as well. It was a major comfort to me. The last thing I remember before going in for surgery is someone shaving my stomach and using tape to get all the hair off so it wouldn't go into my body.
Flash forward a couple hours, I am coming out of surgery, groggy and in a ton of pain. I make a phone call to my parents telling them I am out of surgery, and recovering. I was cut open from my belly button to my sternum. 23 staples, and a whole lot of internal stitches to keep it closed. The next day, the surgeon came in to see how I was recovering and told me that from the time I fell, to the surgery I had lost 3.5 units of blood. That was a good portion of my blood, and the reason behind my foggy vision, headache and staying cold. They gave me 4 units of blood to bring me back to the level I am supposed to be at.
This started my weeklong visit to the hospital. Admitted on a Monday morning and released Friday afternoon. My mission president gave me permission to talk to my family, so my Dad would call in the morning, my mom in the evening and all of my siblings called as well throughout the week. I was actually lucky that my brother was living in Modesto California then and came up to see me. He came after the effects of the drugs had worn off so I was happy and able to talk clearly. I was actually able to hold my niece, and have some fun with their other two kids as they sat on my hospital bed with me.
That time in the hospital was when I truly came to know my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ the most. I spent a decent amount of time reading and studying, I had a lot of visits from ward members checking in on me, and a surprising outpouring of love from everyone.
On Friday, I was getting ready to be discharged and I was put on a conference call with my Dad, Mission President, and two doctors from Salt Lake and we discussed my mission plans, and whether or not to stay for recovery or go home for recovery. The doctors were stressing that I go home to recover, but since my family has so many with out spleens it is nothing new to my family. We were able to convince them to let me stay, and I did so by recovering within 1 week. That was all it took to return to normal. I spent Saturday sleeping and munching on crackers. Sunday I went to church and we played some games with some members, Monday was p-day so I slept all day, Tuesday was a zone conference so that took all day, wednesday was a couple appointments and then recovering, Thursday was an interview with my surgeon and he took out my staples and gave me the go a head to return to life as normal just don't over do it, friday was the first day of almost full missionary work. 1 week, everyone was calling me Wolverine since I healed so quickly, and with little effects. Every now and then my back gets super tight and sore or a migraine but that is all.
So that is my spleen story. It happened 4 years ago, but every day I see the scar on my stomach and am reminded at how fragile life actually can be. This has completely changed my perspective on life since then. Have fun, enjoy the little things but still do your required work.
