Thursday, March 12, 2009

How can something so little cause so much pain??



So on Tuesday my sunshine woke up at 4 am with pain in his abdomen. I told him to lay on his side because it was probably gas. A little while later he told me it never went away so I told him to go potty because he was probably full of poo. Well that didn't do anything either. At around 5ish he started throwing up. His body had processed all he ate the night before so all that was coming up was the stomach acid. So for the next 3 hours he was getting sick every 20 minuets or so. At 8 am my FIL picked up Em and took her to school. I went to WebMD and looked up appendicitis. R seemed to be having all the right symptoms. I could press in on his left side but not his right. He couldn't stand straight up and down. So I called the ER to talk to a nurse. She suggested that I take him to his doctor or come there. Well since we just changed insurance about a week ago I decided to take him to the ER. We arrived around 9:30 and they got us in pretty quickly. The nurse we had was awesome. He talked to R and explained everything to him before he did it. The doctor was also really good but we didn't see him as much. They hooked him up to an IV right away and withdrew some blood for tests. The results came back that his white blood cells were elevated so they ordered a CT Scan. Well in order to do that R had to drink some medicine without throwing it up. (The bags they make you use in the ER to trow up in are totally gross. They are clear and your see everything. I almost needed one myself.) They gave him some anti-nausea medicine and he was able to drink down the yukky "apple juice" in two hours. Then he had a CT Scan and a couple of hours later I got a call from the surgeon saying that he wanted to remove the appendix but he wanted to do it at another location. (The local Surgery Center). So we start getting ready to leave and R is really worried that they are going to remove his IV then have to give him another one. Well as we are waiting to be released the nurse comes back and tells us that the hospital won't release us to a place that is considered a "smaller" center. So I would have to sign out AMA. So we decided to stay there. The relief on R's face was amazing. He was still worried about the surgery but he was doing better. Than I get another call from the DR and he tells me that I can sign out and do the surgery at the other place and that it is all my choice. So I told him that I think R would do better at the Hospital. (I felt very grown-up telling a doctor what I thought was best for my son.) So he got a little snotty on the phone and said fine...we can wait around for an opening, which probably wouldn't be until 8pm, if that was my choice. I said thank you we will. Then the phone calls are made to let everyone know the latest. They decide to transfer R up to Peeds to wait and we start getting everything together, again. Then the nurse comes in and said they had an opening in the OR and we were going straight up to pre-op. So back on the phone I go to let everyone know the change in plans and that it is happening sooner rather than later. Up to pre-op we go. They get him all ready for surgery and then guess what we did...we waited around for the surgeon. I guess he was still mad at me for not moving. He finally arrives and they wheel are little boy away. That is a very hard thing to watch. Now while we were waiting in pre-op my MIL and FIL had picked up our daughter from school and as they were walking into the hospital my MIL tripped and cut open her nose. So as soon as they wheeled our son off we headed back down to the ER to see what was going on with Donna. She split open her nose and needed a couple of stitches. She has bruises all on her legs and arm and her neck really hurts. She was released from the ER and got home about the same time we did. (8:30pm).


R makes it through the surgery wonderfully and the surgeon calls his appendix "wimpy"..whatever that means. It takes him a couple of hours to come out of the medicine and they send us home. I can't believe that we brought him home within an hour and a half of him having surgery. Crazy. He did get sick off the anaesthesia a couple of times. That night I was giving him ice chips to suck on every hour. So needless to say yesterday I was a basket case.


I asked E if she wanted to go to school yesterday and she said no so I kept her home. Later she tells me that while she was taking a shower to get ready for school she was crying in the shower. My poor little girl went through a lot on Tuesday too. She saw her grandma fall and bleed all over. Every time she came into the room to see her brother something was going wrong and he was either in pain or throwing up. Then as soon as we got home and got him all set up in bed she came in to see him and he got sick again. My poor little girl. She was a great help yesterday. She played battleship with her brother and got him things that he wanted and was just there for him. What a big little girl. Today she was off to school without any incidents, well besides spilled milk. R is eating better and getting around better too. Below are some pictures I took yesterday. His anaesthesiologist was fabulous and calmed all his nerves before the surgery. He even gave him a hat to take home that was just like his.



They go in lapriscopically (sp had no suggestiona on how to spell it) and he only has three little holes. He will be more sore from the co2 that they filled him up with to expand the area they were working on.

Thank you all for your prayers. When we were praying with R before the surgery and we were asking for God's "peace that surpasses all understanding" I can truly say that the whole time he was in surgery I had peace. Peace in the knowledge that my son is more precious to God than he is to me. Peace in God's love for myself and my son. Peace that "even before R took his first breath God knew when he would take his last" and that "everything works for the good of those who love the LORD"!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad R is home... and safe...
Auntie T

Unknown said...

Good job mommy. Peace that surpasses all understanding, what an awesome thing! Your kids are learning to live by the gospel because of the wonderful example you are setting. Praying that R heals quickly and perfectly.