Nick came home from school Friday afternoon throwing up. No fever, just couldn't keep any food down. Early Saturday morning the complaints about a tummy ache started, and so did the fever. The tummy ache got progressively worse, to the point where he could not walk and did not want to be touched. Suddenly not seeming so much like the run-of-the-mill stomach virus! Thank goodness for weekend sick call at the pediatrician's office....off we went around 10am. A brief exam by the doc, a look at his white blood cell count, and it was pretty obvious to the doc: Appendicitis!! She scooted us off to the ER at Emanuel where we underwent another few hours of test, ultrasounds, CT scans....most definitely appendicitis! They started an IV (pretty dehydrated), some antibiotics, and some morphine to ease his pain. It was all quite a blur!! The most frightening part was the unknown as to whether or not it had already ruptured. The radiologist and the surgeon did not agree on this at all.
So this is what a kid with appendicitis in the ER after a little morphine looks like. Finally, a little rest while we wait, and wait.....
The decision was made around 2:15 to go in for surgery that afternoon. At about 3:30 he was wheeled into the OR, and about an hour later (the longest hour of our life) the surgeon came out to say all had went very well, and to our relief it had NOT ruptured (Radiologist = 1, Surgeon = 0!!).
By 6:00pm we were settled upstairs in our room for the night and dad had gone to get big sisters to come back for a visit. After they headed home for the night, Nick and I hunkered in for our sleep over in room #3537. And THIS is what a kid looks like after he gets an infected body part removed:
Really, what this look says is:
1. I have a TV hanging at the foot of my bed and a ginormous remote ALL to myself.
2. I have an automatic adjustable bed that I can tinker with every five minutes to get it "just right".
3. I get unlimted chicken noodle soup, saltines, and red Gatorade.
4. And, the best part of all, I get to lay in bed and pee into a bottle that my mom holds without missing a second of my Pokemon movies (IV fluids, Gatorade...come one people--enough!!!!)
Between the nurse checking in throughout the night and my responding to "mom, I gotta go!" every couple of hours, it was not the most restful night of sleep. When the nurse told him at 7am that if, after he ate breakfast, he could get up and walk around the halls without a problem, it would be ok for him to go home today. Gotta love a kid with a mission....we were on the road by 10:45!! Unfortunately, I think the ride home in a bumpy car and maneuvering in an environment not built to convalesce in was a little more than we bargained for. He had a couple of pretty rough patches this afternoon--lots and lots of pain and tears. Suddenly getting up to walk to the bathroom was not quite as appealing. And since they didn't send us home with our own supply of morphine, he had to settle for Tylenol with codeine. Once that hit his system he settled in for a nice nap and a little more Pokemon.
So now we take it day to day as he gets back to his full-speed ahead self at his own pace. I have to think that even HE will tire of watching back to back to back to back episodes of Pokemon movies. (yeah, right!!).
On the lighter side, one quote from the weekend:
Surgeon: "Nick, we are going to have a do a little operation and take out your appendix."
Nick: "Well, but then are you going to put it back?"
All in all, he was a total trooper!! He has such a great spirit and sense of humor--it really helped all of us get through. We will keep you posted on his progress!!
1 comment:
Oh goodness Jen....I can't imagine as a mom how scary that was and trying to be "the mom" and be strong. So glad that he is home and healing. You know you are a dedicated blogger when you are documenting all of this at the hospital :-) Give him a hug for us
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