Recovery from appendicitis | a ballerina vlog

hey guys welcome back or welcome to my channel ballerina at home i'm jeanette kakarika i'm a soloist with the bearish stats ballet in munich germany i recently got surgeries for appendicitis so that's what i'm going to be talking about today it's going to be a little bit vlog style but i need to catch you guys up i think that this video is going to be really beneficial for anybody who isn't necessarily dancer but is athletic and is trying to figure out answers and trying to understand what's going on with their appendicitis or the pain that they're experiencing and i just really couldn't find that kind of material when i was looking on the internet except for like some marathon runners who were dead set on like running a marathon two weeks after their appendicitis just to start there's two things one is that i'm definitely not a medical professional and i'm definitely not giving medical advice i'm just gonna be talking about my own experience two the main point of this whole thing and if you don't take anything else from this it is just please please please take your pain seriously and if something isn't adding up when you're at the doctors express that to them just make sure that you're communicating with your doctors as best you can that was my biggest takeaway from this experience all right so i wrote it all down um so that hopefully i don't miss anything basically i had symptoms of appendicitis for a month before my surgery obviously we're in coronavirus times and so i didn't have any expected performances during this time period i also was dancing significantly less because after the christmas holiday we only came back for a very short time and then some dancers got sick and so they sent everybody home i wasn't personally quarantined but i only came back after that for one day before my surgeries so just to give a little context okay so it all began with what i described at the time as a stomach ache it was just really painful and it had me curled up for several days i assumed at the time that it was maybe food poisoning because we had tried a new seafood place the pain slowly started to go down my abdomen and into my lower abdominals and then this is what became known now as shooting pain which i have said so many times which was just like straight down and i now know that that was my bladder but i didn't understand that at the time and i kept describing this and like trying to google it and i wasn't getting a lot of answers so i booked to go see the doctor because the pain like just was continuing at that point i was thinking maybe it was a bladder infection maybe it was my first one i didn't have experience with that so i just i didn't know and apparently it's very common in women so the thing is right before my doctor's appointment my symptoms started to get better so then when i got there we took a test and it did say that i did have a bladder infection so then my doctor just took it for what it was and said okay this is what it is she gave me medicine of course for this just like didn't really look any more into it little did i know that the symptoms were going to come and go in waves for the next month i now also know that actually appendicitis can cause i mean maybe that's not like the right medical term but they can cause bladder infections as in it's not abnormal so i went on this medicine for the bladder infection my doctor my general doctor also um suggested that i go see a gynecologist so i went to go see mine and unfortunately before that my symptoms had gotten worse again and then they got better by the time i got to see her now my symptoms were better again but i realized this was a pattern that things got worse and then better and then worse and better so i said that to her but she basically just gave me like a natural herbal kind of medicine for post-bladder infection and speaking to my friends i realized that none of this was very normal for a bladder infection so i just kept googling but i really couldn't find what the answer was i really just had pain straight down it wasn't on my right side it was on my left side i didn't really get what it was that i was feeling with the pain but apparently that's the bladder throughout all of this dancing wasn't happening a lot but when we were dancing i was able to it really depended on where and the wave i was that i could do a lot of physical activity or not do a lot of physical activity i also woke up then sometimes during the night from pain and that's kind of when i was starting to realize that maybe this was serious and then i actually didn't feel anything other than the shooting pain except for the night before my surgeries and i finally felt it on my right side and it felt uncomfortable even to touch it and i was like oh my god okay i thought well maybe it's my appendix but i really didn't know if this was going to be a surgery situation or what i booked a doctor's appointment for the next afternoon she tested for the infection again i don't think she found anything she also tested my blood wasn't gonna come back until the next day anyway and then she had me wait around for use of the ultrasound room so she did an ultrasound she also had the other doctor there to look but they couldn't really see much but they realized it was abnormal so they wanted to call to book me to see someone at a hospital for like intestinal stuff but they were on a lunch break so i left from there i walked all the way back to work i then walked to starbucks i got myself a tea i got myself a bagel i ate lunch and then i finally got a call from my doctor and she said okay yeah go now um they can see you right now i walked as fast as i could so at this appointment they took more blood and they did an ultrasound but this time with the blood they kept a little cap on it because they were like well in case we need more later and i was like what the woman who did the ultrasound was like there is some major swelling you need to go see the surgeon now what honestly that day i knew i was gonna go see the doctor and i knew something was gonna happen but did i really think i was gonna have surgery that day absolutely not so i went to the surgeon and he was like we're gonna have to do surgery on you today he asked like did you eat today and i said yeah i ate like an hour or two ago and you're really not supposed to eat before surgery if you don't know that already but i really didn't think i was getting surgery that day so i thought did not even cross my mind and i was hungry and they were taking blood so i didn't want to pass out but they were like we're doing it anyway so at this point i think it was like probably 4 4 30 in the afternoon they took me straight up they had me changing they had me signing a bunch of stuff translated all the english for me but luckily the surgeons and all that they can speak english oh also they had to take two really intense corona tests before i was admitted into the hospital and not two as in two and two horrible they like got all up in there and so actually now that i've gone back to work and gotten a test at the theater i like can't complain because they're so much more gentle so i was preparing for the surgery like super fast let's do it started changing and i called my fiance in the bathroom because it was all happening so so fast i wasn't gonna be allowed visitors because it's corona times so that sucks i went into surgery honestly i don't remember much about waking up by now it was like nighttime staff i had been in surgery for like three hours i think that they were saying that they're gonna like debrief me on how it all went the next morning um because it was late and the surgeon was going home and then i at first was just uncomfortable but i was like that's fine i'm on pain meds it'll you know and i tried to like sit it out i was like laying there in pain and then eventually it was way too much and i was like give me more medicine or something because i'm in so much pain and apparently they took an ultrasound again but i have no memory of this whatsoever and they put me back into surgery because they realized i was still bleeding and that it was an abnormal case of appendicitis i don't know what that means um but then i was in surgery for another three hours and by the time i was out it was like 4 30 in the morning i accidentally texted my friend instead of my fiance that i was out and it was just like garbled garbage and i accidentally took a selfie so the next morning i was so lethargic so tired couldn't really move it was like an effort just to like move my arms but um that's what they were telling me is that i had to move i had to move otherwise i wasn't going to be allowed to leave the hospital i remember two of the nurses forced me to get up and stand up and they wanted me to even walk around and following that i was in so much pain and it was not good it turned out that there was sort of like a bladder situation that they had to resolve and then i was in a lot less pain because my bladder had been swollen and giving me pain i had been infected for a month this was a symptom of appendicitis so my appendix presumably had actually been swollen longer than that then that day i think my doctor my general doctor called me to apologize she said i'm so sorry that we didn't do all the tests the first time you know please feel comfortable coming back you know she was like very apologetic and realized that we didn't do enough the first time i came to her you know i have to say although i don't want to like necessarily like blame myself for other patients at the same time i now realize that maybe my pain tolerance is slightly different and i think also at the same time we're very in tune with our bodies as dancers or athletes even so if you really don't feel like something makes sense which i didn't feel like it made sense when i first went to her you should just speak up about it especially with like a general doctor she's not specialized in intestinal medicine so it's better to speak up and demand more tests and then just be safe also the next day when i saw my surgeon he also apologized to me because i had to go into surgery twice they didn't realize how complicated it was and they didn't know until they got in there they'd actually put a drain in the first surgery and then when i was complaining about the shooting pain which was the same pain i said before the first surgery so it doesn't make sense to me that it would be the drain they took that out and then i was bleeding more and are those things related i don't know because i'm not a medical professional all i know is what they tell me the one thing that did help was that even though all i could do is like pretty much lay there eventually i was able to like raise the bed up so at least i was sort of laying in like a relaxed position i could even put my feet up eventually to be sort of almost sitting on my own but with support i would maybe turn on a yoga with adrien video even though i couldn't do absolutely everything there was something very relaxing and calming about it and at least you know i could maybe do the arms up i could maybe do like a small like the smallest twist you've ever done in your life and just like breathing exercises moving your arms and all that is so important i was so swollen like my arms like none of this and i would also say like trying to do breathing is really important they were really nervous about that because i had been in surgery for six hours they gave me um a tube to make sure i still breathed they actually had a machine for me to blow into to make sure i had the lung capacity to do so it was quite funny they also gave me a sheet on like doing like little feet exercises but yeah you'll feel better if you're able to like move even the smallest smallest amount and i knew i was better when i was finally able to stand um i wasn't able to stand upright because the back is quite flexible the first time that i tried to stand up and be completely upright i felt my back kind of go on me i had had a large scopic surgery which was the three points and although that's less invasive than having to be cut open it is also three different points and then you know they're going in and being quite small being a dancer uh they also had to put some gas in there to enlarge it so all this stuff my poor body had gone through [Music] i basically just stayed in bed and got up a little bit you know to be allowed to shower to go to the bathroom and stuff so i was walking a little bit within our apartment and my fiance was taking care of me then i had to go back i had to do the blood test and get the wounds checked a few days later and when i was at the hospital again it was around lunch time and i had been quite like consistent with my meals and they took the blood they checked my wounds i was with my surgeon and i started to feel super light-headed and i had not felt like that since i was like a pre-teen back um forever ago and i uh i hadn't eaten breakfast that day and i nearly passed out like the lights closed on me and that was the only time i had ever happened before in my life but i recognized it straight away and i was like oh my god i'm gonna pass out so i had to ask the surgeon if he had anything sugary and if i could have some water and luckily they did they had some gummies so i eat the gummies i felt instantly better but um yeah just take really good care of yourself and if you gotta bring snacks so the first week post-surgery i did basically absolutely nothing i did just walking around in my apartment or walking to the doctor's appointment and that was it after the chinese new year actually i started doing yoga that morning very very very simple and i did that every single day just to get a little bit of moving just a little bit of twisting and to get some belly breathing i also went out for walks because they say that after appendicitis surgery it's good to walk because that's a safe form of exercise and walking is actually a very good form of exercise anyway so i did that for two and a half weeks almost three weeks and then i actually decided i felt good and i wanted to go on my bike very lightly nothing fast nothing crazy no going up and down hills that was also the week coming up on three weeks post surgery that i started finally doing some physiotherapy okay i believe that's everything so i'm going to let you catch up now on everything i've been doing it's okay you're so fluffy looking i just got back from my general doctor appointment where i got some physical therapy written off through insurance some extra physical therapy because the theater offers us so much fortunately our budget has been cut and so that's one place where they're asking dancers to cut back so i need to be able to do like twice a week or so to see acupuncture and to see um a holistic kind of physical therapy which has been so great and even the difference between just a couple of days between sessions has been so good and tomorrow i'm gonna go see the acupuncturist but it's all just super super gentle with a focus on like getting my organs healthy and running efficiently because that affects the whole body and i'm really into that whole idea i like western and eastern medicine together actually the guy that i am seeing for this physical therapy and who's kind of guiding me through it he was a principal dancer here for a long time at the ballet so i know that he knows what he's talking about he has a lot of experience himself so that's nice to be in good hands i actually saw my surgeon yesterday also um because i had to talk to him about some more testing that he wants me to do i also spoke to him about extending my work leave because the amount of time was really for somebody who's gonna go and sit at a desk not a ballet dancer um because i had read in one place that six to eight weeks recovery time is probably best for like heavy lifting and like difficult athletic work um but i mean you see so many differing opinions but that's why i really wanted to start vlogging even if this video is not like super helpful for a lot of people maybe it's helpful for a few um because i felt very lost anyway um i also spoke to both of them about how i'm feeling a little bit of discomfort and it's not the same sort of sharp pain but it's like a dull um achy kind of in the bladder not a lot but it happened a couple of times last week that's one suggestion i have for anybody who's going through something similar or maybe not even so similar but uh to write down how you feel like your symptoms and how things are going because it's so easy to forget and i think it's good especially in this situation where i clearly had some trouble understanding and they had misdiagnosed me basically i think i'm i want to be extra careful and like really know what i'm seeing and what i'm feeling and experiencing and my general doctor said about this discomfort after doing more tests because she really wanted to be sure she took my blood again she did an ultrasound on me she didn't see anything there was no inflammation so she said to me that it's very possible that it's scar tissue but she said that very hesitantly and she said it saying that you know if this kind of thing worsens though i have to tell her because she wants me to then go and get a scan at the hospital which i really appreciate i appreciate that she's working with me to make sure that whatever my pain threshold is that i get the right treatment from now on okay that's it for now bye [Music] update i've done some more tests following the recommendation of my surgeon and there's nothing glaringly wrong but we're still waiting to hear back the official results but it's still good news that there's nothing clearly wrong i am increasing some movement i'm hoping that maybe i can get some clearance to start maybe doing some pilates and gyrotonics and maybe some easy bar next week but we're gonna have to see what they think today the people that i'm working with they feel like things are going well and like flowing and like every week is making a pretty big difference so this is good news hopefully we're coming to a little bit of an end with me being stuck at home i would quite like to be a little more active soon and this isn't just like the guilt talking because yes i do have that but i feel like i'm mature enough that i can compartmentalize that it's not like overwhelming my life but i just miss like i miss dancing i miss dancing i just miss dancing also i miss seeing my friends because as much as i am an introvert like i need to see a couple of people sometimes you know okay i'm done talking to the camera [Music] bye [Music] okay we're vlog style we're more casual now today is my first day to go and do some training and by training i mean it's going to be very simple gyrotonics and why gyrotonics because you're able to distribute the weight with distributing the weight you're able to focus a little bit more on what group muscle group or area of the body you want to be working on i might also talk a little bit about leg stability with um my guy who helps us at the ballet um so i'm very lucky also i don't have to pay for this and yeah that's what i'll be doing today also an update that i am still as of yesterday feeling that bladder aching again uh like i mentioned i had started feeling that around three weeks post-surgery and it's dull um actually i'd say it's probably less pain than before at this point i'm not gonna contact my doctor about it but i'm actually supposed to see her next week anyway because i need to get more physiotherapy credits um through the insurance so i'll be seeing her next week today first i'll be seeing physiotherapy and then i'll go see um the pilates dryer tonics guy and we'll do a little bit of movement but really the focus for me is not on getting back into shape it's on quality of movement and building blocks and having my body be healthy and not trying to go faster than i should so with this in mind let's do it final update is things are pretty good i mean i'm not 100 but i feel like myself 95 of the day i'm not even thinking about this this final test has turned out to be pretty much fine i just still have a little inflammation going on in organs nearby which isn't surprising although this test was actually taken like three weeks ago i did have a little bit of a drama trying to get this uh info oh well sorry if my makeup is a little wacky but i did take class today i've been doing some bar uh just really simple keeping my legs below 90 except to stretch i can stretch to the front and to the side but not to the back really um but i'm just keeping everything at 90. i'm also avoiding like really fast tondus because with tondus when they're really fast there's a lot of clenching i don't want to be doing that opposition is really really hard so i'm not there yet to do center like that which is good that's fine with me um and i've been working on pilates and yoga and gyrotonics is very very helpful i just actually filmed this video of one of my sessions yesterday and it's helping to give me confidence and also more range of movement and to feel confident within that movement i'm very lucky all this happened when it did because not really missing out on anything i don't really have to rush back either i don't think it's a good idea when i google stuff there's such a wide range of what they suggest but you hear about like runners trying to do marathons i heard of an ice hockey player who just three days after his surgery i mean supposedly he planned it with his doctor but i mean mine was definitely not planned and it was quite complicated but even so he said yeah the doctor just said it was really gonna hurt and it really really did and if an ice hockey player says that i'm sure it did really really hurt but he said that he was fine i don't know if i really believe that i think we should be taking care of our bodies especially as athletes and i think we should be holding ourselves to higher standards personally i don't know what he was playing but if it was like for the stanley cup or something i get it but yeah i'm just really grateful that like i don't feel the pressure to rush back i did speak to some ex-colleagues of mine who also had appendicitis and they also had bladder swelling so they had a really similar um experience as me and one of them i know she took like nine weeks to come back to work but she said it coordinated with their summer holiday kind of just talking to her about it made me feel a little better if you made it to the end of this video good for you and uh wow you must be very interested but i know that maybe it was a bit long it was a bit rambly but i just really wanted to give out some specific information to just like the few people who could really use it it's okay if um this is too long i don't blame anybody but hey if you are all the way here um maybe you want to subscribe and please like the video i do vlogs i do ballet i do diy and i do recipes and i have a couple of travel videos hopefully someday we can expand upon that future's looking bright see you next time bye you

Channel: Jeanette Kakareka (ballerinaandhome)

Views: 7,170

Keywords: appendix, abdominal pain, jeanette kakareka, ballerina and home, recovery time, athlete, sports, burst appendix, stomach pain, bladder infection, bladder pain, ballerina, ballet, ballet dancer, ballerina vlog, ballet vlog, injury, surgery, laparoscopy, laparoscopic, hospital, injured dancer, ballerina appendix, ballerina appendicitis, dancer appendicitis, athlete appendicitis, ballet dancer appendicitis, ballet class, gyrotonics, accupuncture, pilates, misdiagnosed, appendicitis signs

Id: a_Q8WaV0gRM

Length: 26min 14sec (1574 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021