Halstead Sister

Appendicitis Part 1

This was requested by @2181A789jbvc
CW: not too graphic mentions of vomiting/diarrhea and periods/tampons

Tess POV 20 years old
I was home from college on break and enjoying the time to just lay on the couch and binge watch my favorite crime drama. I was unfortunately pulled back into reality when my older brother opened the door to the apartment.
"Geez, T." Jay said, turning on the lights. I squinted and tried to shield my eyes from the blinding light. "Have you even moved today?"
"I went to the bathroom and got a snack" I gestured to the collection of fruit gummy and chocolate wrappers around me.
Jay smiled and shook his head. "How about some dinner. Real dinner." Jay suggested.
"I'm honestly not that hungry. A little nauseous. Probably from eating junk all day." I admitted sheepishly. Jay accepted my response and went to get himself some leftovers we had in the fridge. He rejoined me on the couch and I continued to play the episode I was watching when he came in.
That's how Will found us when he came home nearly 3 episodes later. "I take it you've had a productive day." He said sarcastically.
"Very. Made it through half a season." I told him.
"And she made me watch for the past 3 hours" Jay glanced at his watch. "This has been fun but I'm going to bed." Jay said goodnight to me and Will and headed to his room.
"Lemme guess, you're going to stay up for a while?" Will looked at me.
"The only thing I have to do tomorrow is finish season 6 so I can sleep in" I said jokingly.
Will rolled his eyes. "Since some of us have real things to do tomorrow, I'm going to shower and head to bed." He gestured to the remnants of my snacks, "clean this up before you go to bed." I agreed and Will left me to my show.
Two episodes later, I was starting to fall asleep. I gathered my trash, turned off the TV, and made my way into my room. As I was getting into bed, my stomach cramped. Being a girl was the worst. It was day 4 of my period and I still had bad cramps. I popped some Tylenol and Advil before going to sleep.

I woke up at 7:00am with intense pain in my stomach and bad nausea. I was also drenched in sweat. I reached for the bottle of pain killers to get rid of the cramps. I tried to fall back asleep but I was too uncomfortable. I was hot but also cold from the amount of sweat on my body. I was nauseous and really didn't want to throw up. I hated throwing up more than anything in the whole world. The thought of it made me panic. And then there were the cramps. It was the worst cramping I had ever experienced in my life. After about 20 minutes of writhing in pain, I decided that maybe I should try and use the bathroom.
Good thing I did. Let's just say, it was nonstop, watery, and painful. My stomach churned and cramped. I was sweating in places I didn't even know could sweat. And then there was that nausea. With each wave, I panicked. I couldn't throw up. I couldn't do it. I was on the verge of having a panic attack at the thought of vomiting. And then there was the severe pain and diarrhea. And sweating. That was it. I decided I must be dying. I realized I had slept with a tampon in (of course I removed it before this ordeal). The severe pain, sweats, nausea, diarrhea- the only explanation I could think of in my sick, anxious state was that I was dying. It must be toxic shock syndrome.
They warn girls about that in elementary school and middle school when you learn about periods. They tell you if you leave a tampon in for more than 8 hours you will get toxic shock syndrome and you will die. Not that it might happen; no, they scare 12 year olds into thinking they'll die if they leave a tampon in for 8 hours and 30 seconds. (Turns out, that is very much not true and getting toxic shock syndrome is extremely rare).
An hour later, I was still unable to leave the toilet. I tried to breathe through the cramping and nausea and kept repeating to myself that I would not throw up. I had no choice but to call out for my brother. I was too weak and in too much pain to yell. I picked my phone up from the floor and called Will.
"Tess?" Will asked, still half asleep.
"I think I'm dying." I croaked.
"What? Where are you?" He sounded fully awake now. I recounted the past hour for him and I heard a knock on the bathroom door. At this point I had taken off all my clothes. I didn't care. I truly was convinced I was going to die and Will was a doctor. I weakly moaned that he could come in. "Oh T" he sighed when he saw me.
"Hurts" I groaned. "Sorry. Can't hold it." I felt embarrassed as Will witnessed me relieve myself.
"I've seen worse, kid." Will told me. I moaned and writhed around until the wave passed.
"I really think I'm dying" I panted.
"Can I feel your stomach?" Will asked. He didn't wait for me to reply and gently palpated my abdomen. I winced in pain as he touched my lower abdomen. "Sorry." He said. He pressed again and when he let go the pain skyrocketed. I screamed. "Ok, ok. I'm done." Will reassuringly patted my leg. "I don't think this is toxic shock syndrome." He told me. "I think it might be your appendix."

A/N: This may or may not have been based on my life when I genuinely thought I was dying but it was just a bad stomach bug.
Is this chapter too gross? If it is, let me know and I can take it down and modify it. I tried not to include too much detail.
Stay tuned for part 2!