Get ready, I'm going to make a long story long.
it was SO necessary, but the organ itself, what is with that problem organ, the appendix? It's on my list of things I want to ask God about one day. Flies are on that list too.
So, what a whirlwind February was - and I can blame it completely on Jack's appendix. I completely forgot to blog about it when it was still a big deal around here, but to make a long story short, and then I'll go on and make it long again by blogging, Jack's appendix decided it wanted OUT in early February. So on Superbowl Saturday, early in the morning, he had it removed by a wonderful surgeon, spent four total days in the hospital, and now he's all better.
Yes, it was a few sad days leading up to that, but I'm glad we got there when we did, because it hadn't ruptured yet but they say it was close. Phew. Close one.
The story starts off on a Tuesday, when Jack has preschool. I noticed he had a hoarse cough, but after some hot chocolate and a few minutes of awake time, I decided it might be from the heater drying him out, so he went to school. Wednesday morning, he wasn't feeling too well, but I really can't explain it. He just wasn't feeling well. Little bit of a cough, but something was just off. Thursday morning, I wake up and find that he has vomited in his bed but slept through it. I hate it when they do that. It scares me. I think back to the stories I've heard of college kids choking on their vomit.Friday morning I think he probably has the flu and he's just not himself, laying on the couch all day and watching TV, which I was happy to let him do, because he didn't want to do anything else. I certainly didn't want to take him to the Dr. to hear "lots of rest and lots of fluids" one more time in my mothering life, so I just decided we'd stay home and weather the storm, so to speak.
At about 12 noon, that storm just looked weird to me. Jack's color was strange. He didn't want to talk to me (and we're buddies, so that's weird) and when I tried to touch him he removed my hands and ASKED me (kindly) to leave him alone! Yes, my feelings were hurt a little, but it's not all about me. I just kept watching him and he just seemed weird. And that's when I feel like my antennae were really up and I was remembering things I've read on blogs and sites about sick kids - that if they SEEM weird, that's a big deal. If they're NOT THEMSELVES. So red flags were flying in my brain, and where did I go? To the mayoclinic.com site, where I looked for things that matched his symptoms. Yes I came across appendicitis, but I didn't really think that was what it was. In my head, appendicitis was an "old person" thing. Jack's 5.
I sat with Jack for a while and noticed soon after the kids got home from school that Jack was writhing in pain on the couch, and really not responsive to our attention. He just didn't want to be touched, talked to, looked at, or thought about, it seemed. It scared me.
Because I couldn't find a good answer online quick enough, I called the number for our doctor and spoke to a nurse. While on hold, I kept searching on the computer, while he was in the other room feeling miserable. I decided before the nurse came on the line that it was indeed appendicitis and I got scared, because what I read was that the pain would be sharp for while, and that if it then subsided, it could be because the appendix had ruptured and for a while after the rupture the pain is a little less. When the nurse finally got on the line and had me do a few evaluations of Jack, she told me to get him into the urgent care office within two hours. So, I panicked a teeny bit. I got him there REALLY fast. And he was SO calm in the car on the way I was just sure it had ruptured. There was NO doubt in my mind it was his appendix at this point.
When I got to urgent care with Jack in my arms, he was SOOO thirsty and it sunk in what the nurse had asked me about when the last time was that he had eaten. It was now Friday afternoon and Jack hadn't eaten since Thursday morning, and I believe that was just a bit of a banana. I sat down with him in the lobby and finally reallllly took a good look at this boy in my arms. His eyes had dark circles, no color in his face, his lips were chapped, and he just looked like he was at the beginning stages of starving.
I was just about to get really sad when he asked me to get him some water, so I took him to the drinking fountain and we sat back down. A few minutes later, he threw up ALL over me - which turns out to be a great way to get OUT of the Urgent Care lobby QUICK, because they put us in a room right away. On our way down the hall to the room, I had the most overwhelming feeling of calm when I spotted JACK'S Pediatrician walking toward us in the hallway, her red hair bouncing toward us and my heart just warming in thankfulness that someone I KNEW was there to help us. It just happened to be her day at the urgent care, which was a few cities away from her normal office where we usually see her! I was so happy. I think she asked Jack and me about two questions, touched him once, and knew what it was. Grandma got there a few minutes later and I felt even more calm. And the ball was rolling toward surgery.
The ball rolling meant an IV, getting taken to ER, getting a CT scan, surgery, and then finally mending in a pediatric unit room.
I always thought one of the scariest things I could ever see would be one of my babies being wheeled away from me on a gurney. But that Saturday morning when Jack was wheeled to surgery, I wasn't scared at all. I had prayed. I had met the surgeon, who was the perfect mixture of cocky and confident when he explained the surgery to me. I felt so good when he was wheeled away because it meant the next time I saw him he would be on the way to being himself again. And in my heart, I really thought it had burst and I was worry about sepsis.
It had not burst, thankfully, but it had hemorrhaged and leaked and gotten infected in that area, but no big deal. My Jack was on the mend. But his first few hours out of surgery were interesting, with his face turning BRIGHT red, the doctors thinking he was allergic to something, and then realizing maybe the redness was just his reaction to the anaesthesia meds. I don't know, and I don't care, because that went away.
Of course it was hard being in that hospital room with Jack and seeing him in pain, but watching how quickly he was healing was so miraculous. Here was this boy who had been cut open and stripped of a tiny part of his body, and later that day he was smiling and looking full in the face again and had color to his cheeks and started to look like himself!
Getting him to eat and walk were the big deals for the next two days, and there was a lot of crying and pain, but it worked out well and we were able to come home Monday. Jack watched lots of TV in the hospital, I read books and watched a lot of TV too. Thankfully my girls were in the loving care of grandparents all weekend and it all ran so smoothly. Thank God for my family and friends who came to our rescue at a moment's notice. I will never stop being grateful for how close my parents are, and how close Bobby's parents are. I would not want it any other way.
Jack got plenty of goodies in the hospital from visitors. One of them was this bear, boo-boo bear from his Oma and Grandpa, and we got lots of snacks to eat from Grandma and Grandpa. And Aunt Ashly brought a basket full of goodies, one of them being one of the BIGGEST helps while we were there - socks! She had no idea that the batman socks she bought Jack would be the ONLY pair of socks he had that fit there - the hospital issued socks were WAY too big and kept falling off, and the socks he CAME in with got barfed on. :( So thanks Auntie Ashly. And Andrea's bag full of goodies, well let's just say, we have all sorts of fun activity books and all sorts of new food addictions because of what she brought us!
Getting to go home was so nice. First day or two were not easy - he didn't want to walk, but he needed to. But I'd say on day 3 of being home, things were almost back to normal! Besides the little bandaids on his abdomen, you wouldn't know anything had happened to him! My mom came over one day soon after the surgery and Jack and I were in the garage talking to her. Suddenly she and I heard a weird noise and wondered where Jack was. Well, the noise was the sound of his scooter shooting down the driveway, with him on it. Scootering just days after abdominal surgery? Not a good idea. But he was ready!
This whole ordeal makes me think about how my dad has said to me "There's nothing like the pain you feel when your kids are in pain." I have had a few instances where I've realized how true this statement is, and Jack's surgery ordeal was just another to prove it right.
It also makes me think about how many children have died from something this simple to fix, just because they were too far away from a hospital or the signs weren't noticed quick enough, or because they lived in the times of Little House on the Prairie or before. I'm so thankful for our doctors, and the internet and the nurse on the phone in this case. It was so quickly figured out and fixed, and I can't imagine being in the situation of seeing my child in pain for days or weeks and not knowing why, and not getting answers.
Those are the parents and kids I'll pray for tonight.
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