Did I (not) Shave My Legs for This?

Friday, February 2 was a day like any other. The joy of having a Happy Groundhog Day breakfast with my friend Michelle quickly faded when I arrived at school. I had been there for five minutes, happy tummy full of a bagel sandwich, great coffee, and bacon (yeah, I went all out...it WAS Groundog Day, after all...)So I took off my jacket and started writing the morning assignments on the board, when suddenly, there was a fire-ish pain in my lower abdomen that caused me to double over and not breathe. When it subsided slightly, I attempted to stand up, but couldn't straighten to my full height, so I shuffled over to my desk as the next pain hit. I sat down at my desk, but the pain would have none of the sitting, but trying to stand up just made things worse.With my face wincing in pain, my first student walked in and greeted me with a cheery hello. "Good morning," I replied with a forced smile.Over the next several hours (8-10:15) the pain progressively got worse. When my students come tell me their tummy hurts, I ask if they've tried going to the bathroom. I did that, and cried. I stood, I sat, I squatted, I leaned, but nothing helped, and by the time my friend Kristi came with her 4th graders for reading buddies, I was twisting and writhing in my chair. We played web doc and she decided it had to either be 1)gas 2)my appendix 3)a kidney stone or 4)something with an ovary, so she sent me to the school nurse, who made me lay day so she could listen to my bowels (apparently they were working fine, there were sounds in all 4 quadrants???). She asked me a few questions, and then said she wanted to call my doctor and try to get me in super fast, which she did. Cindy was amazing, and she drove me to the doctor, where my mom met me (because the school secretary Kathy had called her...am I seriously 29?) The doctor examined me and when I almost passed out from her pushing on my tummy and letting go, she said I had to go to the emergency room.Stay with me now. It was at this point, when she pushed on my stomach, that I suddenly realized, 'I can't go to the hospital...I can't wear one of those little gowns...I haven't shaved in over a week. It's been too cold, and I've been running too late in the morning.' So I blurt this information out, the doctor is cracking up, so is my mom, and I am mortified. The doctor said, "When you aren't in so much pain, you'll find this moment extremely funny." I do.Excuse me, where's Dr. Carter?So on to the hospital Mom took me. They were expecting Angela Coch, 30 year old female. Welp, that's not me I said. My mom said it was close enough, and I had to stay.I quickly glanced around the ER at St. Luke's, desperately hoping to find my favorite ER doctors and nurses on duty. Where was Dr. Carter? Did Nurse Hathaway have the day off? Was Luka Kovac going to rescue me? I think I was a bit delerious with pain at this point.Fast forward a few minutes...My dad arrived at the hospital to hang out, so we had the total party room. My nurse was hysterical, but I couldn't appreciate her humor much since laughing caused the pain to worsen exponentially.The doctor come in to examine me, to which I inform him, I haven't shaved my legs. Everyone laughed, since I had also warned both nurses of this as well. I didn't want anyone to be surprised...or think I didn't know it or something.The doctor said I needed a CT of my lower abdomen, since there are so many things that live in the lower right quadrant of your abdomen. He gave me a long list of possibilities, none of which sounded super appealing. They gave me some pain meds, which I asked them to only give me half, since my body really doesn't like foreign substances, so they did. Needless to say, the pain over the next hour went from a 7 or 8 to off the charts. Not sure why, but it did. I never once cried though. It would have made it worse.I had an interesting adventure with a bedpan, but I'll spare you the details. If you want the super funny story, just ask me.After my 2nd round of pain meds at 2:30, the nurse came at 2:50 to take me to the CT scan. The scanner guy was an attractive man, sadly so, since I was in so much pain, I couldn't even check his finger for a ring. He did the scan, and as he was helping me back up onto the super high gurney, I doubled over in pain from the movement. He then said, "Wow, you have beautiful eyes." Pause here.Okay, all I can think at this point is, "Dude, I haven't shaved in a week, I'm not wearing underwear, and this gown makes my butt cold, and as much as I'd like to pursue your delight with my eyes, I just can't." But what I said was, "Thank you." Ahh, the fairness of it all...So the doctor came back a few minutes (okay, 30 minutes) later and said I had a cyst in my ovary that had ruptured. All he could do was give me some pain meds and send me home to follow up with my doctor next week. I was so thankful it wasn't anything requiring surgery, and equally thankful it wasn't just a bad case of gas.So that was my super fun Groundhog Day. I spent time with family, was covered in prayers by friends at church and school, and learned that I can't always be in control of everything, even if I want to be. I hope this gave everyone a few laughs. Once the pain went away, I saw the humor in it all!!!! (okay, in most of it. :)