Why I was in the hospital

Everybody has been asking, so I finally wrote it down. I already emailed this to a couple of you... :)

Monday night (7/30) I had pains in my stomach, so I took a couple of Tylenol before I drove back from NYC to DC. I drove for two hours and stopped at a rest area, and my stomach felt worse (I thought it was from suspect spaghetti sauce, and if I went to the bathroom, I'd feel much better, but no-go.)

I got back in the car and drove two more hours, but as I'd slow down for tolls & stoplights, any engagement of my stomach muscles was painful. By the time I got to my parents' house at 1:30am, I couldn't stand up at all. I felt like I'd either pass out or puke or both.

After 20 minutes on my hands and knees in the street outside my parents' house, I finally called and woke them up; it took us another 20 minutes to get me inside the house from the car. I had to stop every two feet and rest on all fours. I was crawling part of the way. After I went to the bathroom I felt a little better, but still like I was going to pass out/puke. We called an ambulance, and the EMTs poked around my belly, then tried to get me out to the stretcher; I still couldn't stand beyond 90 degrees.

I got down three of the front steps before I had to stop again, then finally puked, thank god, and they carried me the rest of the way to the ambulance. I got to the hospital about 3am Tuesday morning (7/31). Apparently I'd had an ovarian cyst that ruptured and didn't stop bleeding, because I was on anti-coagulants. I had about a liter and a half of blood in my abdominal cavity. They couldn't even see my internal organs on an ultrasound because of the fluid. At one point my blood pressure dropped to 60/30. Yipes!

After about 40 bedridden hours in the hospital, I finally got to come home last night, no surgery necessary. Yay!!! I still feel kinda weak and my belly's a little distended, but much MUCH better than I was. I've had to miss the first three days of rehearsal for my new play at Woolly, but they've been very understanding, and I'm looking forward to being there tomorrow, taking it easy at first.

How's that for a story? :)