"Red, white, and blue the stars over you. Mama said, Papa said I love you so " "MARYANE, MARISTEN, MARJORE. I LOVE YOU SO NANG DAGWAY NINYO RUN. Panguli mo didto. Kapila giingnan nga di magsigeg ikid unyag humag kaon. Suss apendikon jud mong mga bayhana mo. Tagam jud ng dagway ninyo." -Linya sa akong Mama ug imong Mama. I never thought that these sentences would haunt me almost two decades later. Everything that happened that night was like every other cringey hospital scene in a movie. I was in the emergency room, then in a laboratory, and then the scene shifted to the doctor saying I needed to get surgery as soon as possible.
(No)Classical music blaring in the background, nurses and patients blurring past me, except no one was there by my side holding my hand. Twenty-four hours of unimaginable pain and thoughts of death have passed, and I was asked to shave down there, remove any jewelry, and get ready. I took a quick glance at my father's face thinking maybe this would be the last time he would see me awake. Fired some texts to my sisters hoping my words would not haunt them if I didn't come out alive.
And then someone they called 'Coach' wheeled me down the hallway to the OR (Operating Room). Nurses standing by the sideline looked at me, smiling as if I were a graduate about to receive my diploma.
When I was finally in the OR they hoisted me up to a bed where I met 6 people wearing blue surgical gowns, caps, and gloves. One was the surgeon, the other was an anesthesiologist, and the rest I assume were nurses and interns. Everyone was so chill especially the anesthesiologist who was constantly flirting on Sheila(an intern/nurse-maybe) asking her to break up with Michael (her boyfriend-maybe) and date him instead. I was thinking at that time there was no way I would die listening to a guy with a broken Bisaya who looked like a vocalist of a local rock band destroy someone's relationship. I couldn't accept that.
As I was looking around, there was a lot of medical equipment I didn't know the names of and several bright lights around me. Then they put a hose to my nose, covered my mouth with a non-rebreather mask, a blood pressure cuff to my right arm, and another band to my left. I didn't know what they were doing exactly, but I was sure of one thing. On my right side, there was a machine that I knew very well because I saw it on TV countless times but never hoped to see it in real life. The machine of life, I called it. I could see the lifeline, which indicates if someone is still alive ticking constantly. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep...
At the wall far away, there was a clock, it said 8:12. It turned out they would start the surgery at 8:30 P.M. Minutes later, when the interns and nurses were finally finished attaching everything to my body, the anesthesiologist asked me with his broken bisaya, "Ma'am, gusto mo bang matulog, unyag operation na? " I said yes, and he turned me sideways and injected the anesthesia in my spine. Minutes later, half of my body started feeling numb. I could feel the doctor slicing through my stomach now. I didn't feel any pain but heck I knew he was doing something on my waist down. Then, through hazy eyes and a half-conscious brain, I started convulsing. BEEP. BEEP. BEEEEEEP. I was shaking. I could hear the sound of the lifeline in full volume. BEEEEEEEEEEP. I felt like I was being possessed. I wanted to shout for help but I couldn't because of the thing covering my mouth. BEEEEP. I arched my body. BEEEEEP. My heart was slamming on my ribcage but no one cared. There were 6 or more people in the room, but they never batted an eyelash to my face. BEEEEEP. I convulsed one more time and the bands were so tight on my arms that I thought my heart would explode. And as I was about to give up......
BLACKOUT...................................... I FELT NOTHING, KNEW NOTHING.
After what felt like an eternity, I awakened from a loud crack. Someone slapped me. I almost didn't feel it but I heard it. I opened my eyes and I saw Jesus with his long hair saying "Ma'am, mata na. Tapos na." The end. Note: Appendectomy or the process of removing one's appendix is a relatively safe procedure. OA lang jud kaayo ko. In fact it has 0.08% mortality rate. So kung padung ka operahan, ayawg kabalaka. Ma okay raka.
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