Appendicitis, Grattitude and Things I Could Have Done Without

Where do I begin. Last Thursday....no wait, the week before last Thursday...actually...okay Thursday Oct 23rd my son Christian (12) came down with a low fever. No worries. Kids get bugs.

By the next day he was having a little stomach trouble (aka diarrhea) ( I know he'll love me sharing that information.) Then by Saturday he was throwing up. So we decided he had the stomach flu. Only he was really being lazy. "Mom. Can you reach the remote that is sitting just barely out of my reach?" Of coarse I got it for him like any kind mother would but I'm thinking 'Dude, you are really milking it this time'.

Sunday, more of the same.

Monday - Gary calls from work to ask me how Christians side is feeling. 'Uhhhh what is he talking about? I never received any information on a side hurting'.

Apparently Christians right side had been hurting for 3 days. 3 DAYS!!! Probably should have mentioned that sooner.

So as any great nurse mom knows, to test for appendicitis you push in on the painful spot and then release quickly. The pushing in is not supposed to hurt but the release is supposed to create great pain. After trying this several times it only hurt to push in. Hm?

So I called the nurse. She recommended the same test which I did and got the same results. Only excruciating pain on pushing in. She then had me ask him to jump. This also caused excruciating pain and she recommended we see the doctor just to rule out appendicitis.

While at the doctor he did the same push test with the same results as well as having him jump down off the table which again....PAIN. It didn't quite seem like appendicitis but he scheduled a blood test at the hospital just to be safe.Two hours later the results were borderline. Hm. So we thought, 'Oh, what the heck. Lets do a CT scan just to be on the safe side. After all it's only money and a month before Christmas. At least Murphy's Law will make it so nothing is wrong and we can go home".After a painful insertion of an IV (that refused to go in the left arm and had to be put in the right) and some pumping in of some stuff that makes his organs light up they took the scan.

Sure enough, appendicitis. (I guess that would mean all the times we kept pushing on his side and making him jump up and down really were causing pain. Sorry Christian.)

After speaking with the doctor we found out he would only be in the hospital that night and would be back to normal life in no time.

How grateful I am to live where we do. We asked the nurse if she knew if there was a priesthood holder who could assist in a blessing. Of coarse the male nurse standing right in the room was worthy and happy to assist.

When the surgery was finished however we learned that the appendix had ruptured. He would have a drain coming out of his abdomen to release all the infection (Sorry no picture. It's about an inch above an area that a 12 year old by is not about to let his mother post on the internet) and his hospital stay would be extended to 5 days. 5 DAYS! ARE YOU KIDDING? Okay so the panic button went off a little.

The doc also gave us some awesome pictures. They are a little graphic so skip ahead if you are like Susan and they make you light headed.

The top left is his appendix and the puss and infection. Top right is the doctor snipping the appendix.
The bottom left is when they dissect the appendix. And the bottom right is where they put it in a little sac to suck out the tiny hole.

Here is a picture of Christian after surgery. He looks so small doesn't he. It's weird how I thought he looked huge in his football uniform and now he looked like some scruffy little kid. He was so pleasant the entire time. Really, through all the needle pokes, side pokes, jumping up and down he just kept a smile on his face and did what he was asked.
When he was first waking up we had to break his heart every five minutes because he kept asking the same question.

When can I go home?

I'm sorry honey, not for about 5 days.
5 DAYS! WHAT? WHY?

Well, your appendix was squirting infection into your body and they need to keep you here longer than they first thought.

Oh.

(3 minutes later)

When can I go home?

And his heart was shattered again.

Tuesday - No food or drink. Not the best day. He had a nurse who looked about 95 years old. She had no idea how to run the new IV machines. She would say things like, "Lets try this... beep beep beep beeeeeeeeep! Hm....nope. Well, maybe this...beep beep beep. Ah, that seemed to work". I'm thinking, 'Are you kidding me? You are guessing? Sheesh! How many years since you even went to nursing school anyway?' Still, nothing went to disastrously wrong so I guess she did okay.

Wednesday - Clear fluids only. Broth, herbal tea, jello. But a very good day and pretty good night too. Plus we had the best nurse. Her name was Sunshine. What a perfect name for her profession. Why do I keep running in to people with such perfect names? (Remember Officer Slaymaker?) Anyway, She was so kind and truly just a ray of sunshine in the middle of the night.
Thursday (Dooms day) - This was the day they changed his pain meds and he was allergic to them and broke out in hives. Then they also decided to switch to oral antibiotics which made him throw up all his food and have awful diarrhea. It also caused his drain to go bizerk, needing emptied about every two hours. His fever spiked again and his pain (which was down to a 3) was now at a 9!

We had a good home teacher come and give Christian another priesthood blessing that eased many of our concerns. They switched his pain killer and his antibiotics and he improved rapidly after that. But with such a bad night and his drain going so crazy the doctor ordered that Christian stay one more day. Blast! That means he had to stay in the hospital for Halloween.

Throughout the week there were many friends and family that came to visit Christian. We were both very grateful for the visitors. His teacher even came and brought a huge gift box that the kids pulled together.

Here is a picture of him on Halloween. He was feeling much better. We stayed up late watching scary movies and eating yogurt. Yum yum. Oh and he did eat one Reece's Pieces and three whole Skittles.Unfortunately his dad didn't have such a good Halloween. Thursday he came down with a horrible case of Strep Throat. This is after the 103 fever hit but before his throat swelled up to look like a bullfrog.
The next morning Christian was able to go home and has been doing well ever since. This is him with another one of our favorite nurses, Holli.

Through this entire experience I just kept thinking how grateful I am for such qualified doctors, surgeons and nurses who could care for Christian. Also gratitude for wonderful antibiotics, painkillers and anti-nausea medications that have been discovered. Even gratitude for that awesome nightlight built in at the hospital and the hospital bed that raised and lowered and let him sleep in a curved and comfortable position. Technology is a miracle! Now hospital food on the other hand made me grateful that I can go home and cook a nice hot meal.