Tummy ache

I was eight when I went to my neighbour-friend's birthday party. We shared a common wall, living in a tenement housing. All my other friends were there, we were all small, not knowing much about the world. Most of us went to the same school. But that night something made me uneasy. Some persistent pain in my stomach. We were just having fun. I told the hosts that I had tummy ache. My friend's mother quickly gave me something to eat, thinking that I was just hungry and couldn't hold off any longer. I ate that pancit or whatever it was. Something prevented me from enjoying it. The pain persisted and I also had clammy hands and felt a great unease. In the end I excused myself and went home, which just meant going out the door, walking down the steps, going to the next door portal, walking up the steps and entering home. I did that in 2 minutes flat. Tatang Tutuy was there and rubbed garlic on my belly while I sat on the toilet for some time. They were thinking that I just needed to relieve myself and everything would be all right. I still felt terrible, like there's something inside me that is consuming me and I couldn't for the life of me know what it was. That night I lay in bed feverish. I was on the bed with the T rod for hanging the mosquito net. That night I shook so much because of the cold that the T rod was shaking. They My parents brought me to the hospital. After doing some tests, they decided that they should operate on my straight away. Appendectomy. Ruptured appendix. My frail little body was being poisoned I would have died if I were brought two hours later. General anasthesia knocked me out in 5 seconds. I woke up with my appendix taken out, after an hour of surgery, and a stitch three inches long. Normally, with appendix operations, you would only need a short cut, but they needed to clean me out. I got better. The week after I was back at the hospital to get them remove my stitches. This was one experience I would never forget. My parents blamed my heavy school bag for the onset of appendicitis. I don't know if that was it. After a while, I was carrying the same heavy bag. Even nowadays, I still usually carry heavy bags but no appendix would need now to be taken out. I'm free.