This week has been one of the longest of my life.

I know that an appendectomy — a laparoscopic appendectomy, no less — is considered a fairly common and simple procedure in modern medicine. But with the pregnancy having slowed my healing time in addition to lowering my threshold for pain (both very common pregnancy symptoms), I am still in quite a bit of discomfort.

Perhaps the biggest complication that the pregnancy brought to the procedure was that due to my enlarged uterus, the incisions had to be made a lot further away from each other. So for the first few days after surgery, I could feel — by way of pain — the path where the laparoscope (the camera) had made its way from about 4″ above my belly button to the actual surgical site, about 8″ away on my lower right abdomen.

My OB tells me that he and the surgeon had debated whether to give me a traditional appendectomy instead given the complications that the pregnancy would provide, and that they had chosen to go the laparoscopic route mostly because the surgeon is one who specializes in laparoscopic surgery.

The good news is that I am healing, albeit slowly. My entire stomach no longer feels like it’s on fire. And as of today, the only pain I feel is from the three incisions, and only when I move.

The hardest part of this ordeal has been watching my family suffer. When they first informed me of my diagnosis, I immediately asked if the condition had resulted from something I had done — in other words, was it my fault?

The answer, obviously, was no. “There was nothing you could have done to prevent it,” the doctors assured me. But you can’t deny that technically, my family just went through a week of hell because of me.

So thank you to my wonderful husband for working from home the entire week, taking care of me and Claire and Comang. I know that this week could not have been easy, being cooped up inside, missing events at the office, and trying to juggle everything that was going on. But despite the overwhelming fatigue that shadows his eyes, he remains in good spirits while ensuring I am as comfortable as possible and keeping our increasingly-high maintenance baby happy (and teaching her to high-five!). My mother has told me numerous times this week how lucky I am to have such a supportive husband…as if I needed reminding!

Thank you to my mother who stopped by on Sunday night and Wednesday afternoon to help. And a huge thanks to my sister who visited on Monday, in addition to yesterday and today. We couldn’t have done it without you guys.

(To those who may be wondering, our nanny only came for her regular hours this week as she had prearranged plans.)

And to my Claire Bear, mommy is very sorry that she was not (and is still not) able to pick you up. It breaks my heart to see you reaching your arms up to me and not being able to immediately scoop you up in my arms, to only be able to embrace you if someone else is supporting you too. I know that you will understand when you get older, and I promise that things will get better soon!

When a package arrived for me earlier this week, J placed it at the edge of our bed so
that I could easily get to it when I woke up. Later, Claire came to “visit” me and
proceeded to steal the package off the bed! J took this snapshot of her with his phone
as she was making the escape, package in tow.

Lastly, a great thank you to my dear readers. All the comments, emails, and messages meant a great deal to me, and helped put a smile on my face on more than a few occasions.