The Chaos Theory

Yes, last Thursday and Friday was an experiment in the chaos theory for me and I am happy to report that I, and everyone else in my reach, survived.
I'll start from the beginning to keep everyone up on what's been happening:
It begins Wednesday night really. We had a huge rain and electrical storm about 2am. It woke us up and the power went off for a bit and I didn't realize that my alarm has no backup battery. So around 6am Ang came in my room to wake me up. She crawled into my bed, which is oh so comfortable since I have a twin bed, and tells me she is sick. Her stomach hurts and she hasn't slept since the storm. I offer to call the sub line but she says she can make it and we head to school. I know she's not well (she makes oatmeal but doesn't attempt to eat much of it and she has zero energy, less than usual in the morning) but we plug along. We hang out at school in Antartica for a while (our friend Shannon's room) discussing the movie we watched the night before and want her to watch Akeelah and the Bee (an awesome movie, rent it tonight! make your kids watch it and start drilling them with the dictionary!). We head back to our respective European and North American continents and I don't really register the fact that Ang has veered off to the nurse's office. Moments later she comes into my classroom and wants me to press down on her abdomen, hard. So she lies on the floor and I do, just a tad bit irritated that the medical professional in the building couldn't have handled this. Once I do it though, she nearly passes out from pain and can't get off the floor without help. So we decide to go to the emergency room.
All of this happens before 8:30am. And I am not ready for the school day to start yet.
So we go, I drop her off, call my mom, go back in to check on her, and before 8:55 she is taken back to an ER room. I leave her, worried but knowing I need to handle things at school for a bit.
So all day there is chaos in my brain, not necessarily in my outward appearance but in my brain nonetheless. I have my cell phone on, something I never do, and explain to the kids I'll have to take calls during their time. They seem okay and very worried about the other Miss Knapp. They behave so well - I am so proud of them. I only have to bring on kid into the hall when I am on my phone, for throwing a paper ball but I lecture him and he returns to work quietly. My kids are unusually quiet today, which is a relief. They spend the majority of the time reading with each other, cuddling the stuffed animals I have just introduced to our room. They are happy. So am I. But I am worried.
Ang calls around 11 and tells me they are doing a CAT scan and blood work. Then I don't hear from her again. I am getting calls from my parents, inquires from work and friends and I know nothing. I make it through the day and it goes well. Despite the fact 1) that we have a surprise lockdown drill and 2) the air conditioning in my room has broken. Life is insane isn't it?
At 4 o'clock I bust out of school and am to the hospital by 4:10. Ang calls as I am driving into the parking lot to tell me they are sending a surgeon in shortly. I find her and we sit in the ER room, waiting.
Then her surgeon, Dr. Fletcher who is awesome, comes in and says that her appendix is enlarged despite what the radiologist and the ER doc say and he wants to do surgery. So he says they'll send us to pre-op. I call friends and my parents and we wait some more. By this point she's in pretty heavy pain but has been on morophine most of the day (thus the no calls for 6 hrs). They also won't give her anything to drink which pisses her off. Adding insult to injury;-)
We head up to pre-op and we wait. They get her ready and we wait some more. She sleeps a lot. I read stories from my kid's textbook which I stuck in my bag to pass the time. (Can I tell you I am not a fan of dragon stories and the one we have to read next is like 10 pages long? Ugh!)
At this point I just want to say how great our new Yuma friends are. My team leader from school brings me a sandwich so I can keep my strength up and sits with me while I eat and Ang sleeps. That was so great. I hadn't even thought of food and it was already 8 o'clock.
At 10 o'clock they wheel her away and I head to the waiting room. The surgeon promises to find me in an hour or an hour and a half.
I sit. Animal Planet is blaring out of the TV I can't reach to turn off. A 7th grader from my school, from Ang's team, is there too with her family - her older sister is having the same surgery. She tells me all about her classes and asks me random questions about the word of the week. She's so cute. Nervous but obviously glad to have found someone who will pay attention to her for a little bit.
The doctor comes out in less than an hour, about 55 minutes and tells me Angela has done excellently! She did have appendicitis so it's good he went in. There is no definitive test so he wasn't 100% sure when he cut her but he says it was getting infected and needed to come out now. Whew!
Around midnight I get to go back and see her in her room. She's been put in the new part of the hospital, the cardiac unit, as surgery's full. She has her own room and it's nice. There's a chair that reclines and I am invited to spend the night.
For a while I help her get some water and she's a bit out of it. The funny thing is that they make you sign all these papers and listen to all this crap and you've just had surgery! The nurse is reviewing paperwork and then asks Ang if she has a living will. She says yes. The woman says do you have paperwork on whether you want to be revived. Ang says she has a DNR. The nurse turns and looks at me and I look and Ang and I say no.
At this point Ang gets a bit beligerent. She says she has a DNR, she doesn't want to be revived. I say, yes you do. If something happens tonight we want them to do all they can to save you. She shakes her head. I look at the nurse and say yes, save her. We decide that the DNR is only for it you are in a permanent vegetative state or 99 years old. It's not for tonight. Ang says fine and resigns herself to our decision:-) Wow. Life is never dull!
At 1:30 Ang and I are figuring out her lesson plans for Friday and discussing what I need to do to take care of her kids. Luckily I have already done mine and called for subs for us both. I've also read 3 stories and graded 60 unit tests. Guess I was a bit nervous!
I hang out until 2:30 but can't sleep and am terribly uncomfortable so I head home.
At 7am Ang calls me and tells me she's ok but in a lot of pain. Last night she thought she was ready to go home, not today.
Friday was crazy as well. I attend a staff meeting, prep both our rooms, brief the subs who will teach our kids for the day, go home get Ang clothes, head to the hospital, then pick my mom up from the airport at 12:30.
People were so great though - thank you to all of you for well wishes, prayers and your love!
Friends brought her flowers and visited her, our pastor came by the hospital and prayed with all 3 of us. The calls and emails have meant so much.
Today I had a sub too. I think we are all exhausted and there was still a bunch of little stuff to do and help Ang with. I'll head back to work tomorrow but my mom will be here all week. Thank God for moms!
So yeah - the chaos theory. Gotta love it!