hilltopics Images People Features 6A
Friday, October 13, 2000
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Fourth-generation student Melissa Holland faced appendicitis and surgery all in her first month of school
By Matt Merkel-Hess writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
It started at 4 in the morning.
Peta read it in the morning. Melissa Holland's stomach hurt. She was nauseous. She couldn't sleep. Holland tossed and turned for the rest of the night on Wednesday, Sept. 13.
"I didn't think much of it at first, but it just continued to get worse," she said. "It felt like I had a big bribe in my stomach."
This wasn't what Holland, Iowa City, Iowa, freshman, had planned for her first semester of college.
But she was stubborn — it would be eight hours before she saw a doctor and appendicitis was diagnosed. The pain she felt that morning resulted in an overnight hospital stay and almost a week of recovery.
Holland shares a room on the third floor of Hashinger Hall with Michaela Smart, Omaha, Neb., freshman. Holland had already missed her first class when Smart woke at 9 a.m. Holland told her about the pain and Smart recommended that she go to Watkins Memorial Health Center. Holland said no, still unsure what was causing the pain. She tried to eat a little and then went across the hall to take a shower.
As she returned to her room, she doubled over in pain, unable to stand. "I told, 'OK, you've time to go to the doctor.'" Smart said.
Holland wanted to first talk with her resident assistant, Patricia Moore, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore. Moore convinced her that she had to see a doctor.
"She's the most stubborn girl on this floor, except maybe me," Moore said. "That's how I got her to go."
Smart and Moore took Holland to the health center and waited with her. By noon, doctors made a diagnosis: appendicitis. Holland needed immediate surgery to remove her inflamed appendix.
Stopping the pain
The appendix is a small, finger-shaped pouch of intestinal tissue between the small and large intestine. Once inflamed, it must be removed as soon as possible before it bursts and spreads the infection to the rest of the abdomen. Without surgery, the patient can die.
When she found out she needed surgery. Holland tried to call her mother, Jan Locher, a social work specialist in the bone marrow transplant unit at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Locher and her husband, Steve, who is the patient coordinator for the unit, were unavailable.
Smart and Moore took the ailing freshman to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where she was examined by a surgeon and scheduled for an appendectomy at 8 p.m. Smart, who had missed two morning classes, left to take a math test.
Holland eventually reached her father, Del Holland, a high school teacher in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and told him what was going on.
"My sister had her appendix out, so I knew it wasn't that big of a deal," she said. "But I was worried about her."
"I was worried because I hadn't talked to my mother yet," she said. "I'd never gone into surgery, and I had no idea what was going on with my body."
Once again, Holland tried to reach her mother but was told she had already left work.
Then, a call came. The Lochers, who had spoken with the doctor at Watkins, had booked a flight to Kansas City, rented a car and were supposed to be at the hospital by 6:30 p.m., just in time for Holland to go into surgery preparations at 7 p.m.
Her mother said her first instinct was that they had to go.
"We wouldn't want her to go through this by herself." Jan Locher said. "We wanted to be there for her."
RA standing by
But Melissa wasn't completely alone — she had her RA nearby throughout the day.
"Doctors' offices and hospitals are really, really boring." Moore said. "I did anything I could keep her amused."
The jokes almost backfired.
"She kept me laughing, which was funny because it hurt," Holland said. "She made light of it, but at the same time she kept it in perspective."
In the afternoon, Moore alerted her co-RA on the third floor, Michael Payne, that Holland was now at the hospital. Payne, Colorado Springs, Colo., sophomore, and other students from the third floor came to the hospital for the afternoon.
Around 5 p.m., Holland was taken in for an ultrasound to examine her appendix. Her friends went to dinner and bought Holland a coloring book and a stuffed blue dog, which Holland later named Appendiblue.
When they returned around 7 p.m., Holland's parents had not arrived as scheduled. She didn't want to go into surgery without her parents, so her surgeon, Patty Tenofsky, agreed to push back the surgery.
At 7:30 p.m., her parents arrived. Surgery preparations began at 8:15 p.m.
"It didn't hit me until they came in with the cart," she said. "I started crying as soon as they laid me down on the surgery board. I was thinking, they're actually going to cut me open."
When she was taken into the brilliant white operating room, the nurses asked her what kind of music she liked.
"I told them, 'Anything but country,'" Holland said. "But they laughed and said, 'That's all we have.' And that's all I remember."
A changed attitude
"When it's your child, it's. 'Are you going to do everything right?'" she said. "But I felt very comfortable there."
Jan Locher said having her own child in surgery was different from her work as a health professional.
When Holland woke from anesthetics after the hour-long surgery, she saw her parents, RA and roommate. Locher said she was impressed with the dedication of Holland's RA and friends.
"They were wonderful," she said. "This is the thing that's really important—her RA stayed with her the whole day."
After the surgery late Wednesday night, Holland spent Thursday recuperating at the hospital and was released around 6 p.m. She stayed with her parents at their hotel to recover. By Friday, she could walk short distances.
Holland, a fourth-generation KU student, followed her parent's footsteps to Lawrence when she received a National Achievement Scholarship, similar to a National Merit Scholarship for minority students. Her mother also started her college career living in Hashinger.
Holland was not used to having difficulty walking - in high school she ran cross country and track and was a state champion in the 100 relay.
"I felt like an old lady because I had to sit on a bench and w halfway," she said.
Slowly, Holland recovered. By Saturday morning, her parents had left and she was back at Hashinger.
and she was back at Haskinger.
HER RA said the whole experience helped unify the floor.
Her RA said the whole experience helped unify the door.
But if she did, I'd never have any word "Moon" as
"Before that day, I didn't know her very well." Moore said
four times for five hours a day together.
spend four to five hours a day together.
Holland said that although she was tully to attend the University, she had a here. But experiences such as her recent attitude.
"The people have been great," she said. ates that fact."
APPENDICITIS
Appendicitis peaks in the late teens and early 20s. More males than females are affected.
- One of the most common causes of abdominal surgery in children.
- Appendicitis usually follows the obstruction of the appendix by feces, a foreign body or tumor.
Symptoms include abdominal pain, high fever, reduced appetite and nausea
If the appendix ruptures, abdominal pain may disappear for a short period, and the patient will feel better. In a short period, however, peritonitis (infection within the entire abdominal cavity) will set in, and the pain return.
There is no test to confirm appendicitis. The doctor must diagnose the condition from information reported by the patient and his or her own observations.
Source: Yahoo! Health (http://health.yahoo.com)
Melissa Holland , a fourth-generation KU student, studies for a chemistry test. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN