ER: Wedding Edition {30 Day Challenge}

{Another picture of yourself}

This is not a flattering photo. But I believe that if I'm forced to bombard you with photos of myself, I have to at least make it interesting - give you a story. And does this photo have a story. Not one that will propel you towards your writing desk, but one that makes you appreciate the normal and predictable nature of life. Or maybe I tend toward histrionics. We'll find out soon enough, I guess.

This photo was taken on the 25th of April 2010 - the day of mine and Rod's engagement party. Rod's folks had decided to throw us an engagement luncheon in his home town of Klerksdorp. All you really need to know about K-dorp is that it's small, dusty, formerly a mining town, and home to about a million Lebanese people, most of whom are connected to Rod's family in some way or another! We chose to keep it small, inviting only the immediate family. Invites went out to our approximately 45 guests (small!?!) and all was set. The day before the party we drove out to Klerksdorp. We figured staying the night would give us more time to get ready in the morning, and it's one of the better decisions we've ever made.

At about three o'clock I started feeling a little ill. I've had hernia troubles for a while, and I felt a bit of pain I assumed to be associated with that. I drank some milk, took some hernia meds, and settled down to relax. About an hour and a half later I was in the bathroom on my knees, deciding whether or not I was, to quote Stephen King, going to blow my groceries. Eventually Rod came to find me, and I was lying on the bathroom floor, shivering and sweating, in the most pain I have experienced to date. My stomach was twisted in a vice and I didn't know my own name. As he was helping me up, the pain dropped to my lower right abdomen. That's when we went to the emergency room.

At 7pm that Saturday evening I went into surgery to have an emergency appendectomy. The doctor who performed the surgery later told me that he "wouldn't tell me how my appendix burst in his hands as he removed it". But that's telling, isn't it? I was lucky enough to have a private room with bathroom at a private clinic - a luxury I would not have been afforded were I in Joburg - and a doctor on standby for such emergencies. It was an hour from admittance to the squeaky transit into theatre.

Needless to say, the luncheon was cancelled. A few of the family did visit me at the clinic - some even with cameras to document my glamour! This photo is courtesy of my mother. Personally, I think I look okay for someone who was wheeled out of invasive surgery about 16 hours before.

We eventually had an engagement party nine months later! And all I have left to show for that warm April day are a few photographs and a scar about an inch long on my abdomen that reminds me that I'm lucky to be alive.

Until tomorrow!
Peace and Love!