The timeline of events is as follows:
Thursday the week before Thanksgiving the school calls me at 2:45 p.m. to tell me Chad is not doing well. My first thought was, "Seriously, he can't wait 15 minutes and ride the bus home" but I hurried over to the school. Chad's stomach was not doing well and he did spend the night removing all of its contents.
Friday. Val had the day off so he stayed home with Chad and even though he was not losing his lunch anymore we kept him home thinking that he just had a 24 hour bug. The thought of the appendix came to mind but he never complained or grabbed his right side. He was able to each soup and drink a lot of fluids. That night he went to bed and I told him he would wake up feeling much better.
Saturday. Val go up and went hunting. Chad came up to our bedroom shortly after 8:00 a.m. in tears saying that his stomach really hurt. OH NO . . . so I hurried and ran through the shower and called Urgent Care because I was feeling too cheap to take him to the ER. I think Chad thought we was going to die waiting for it to open at 9:00 a.m. Luckily the wait was not very long. The physician's assistant did his assessment and hooked Chad up to an IV to help with the pain and drew some blood for lab work. They were thinking it was appendicitis and took some x-rays (still wondering why on that one). It was so hard to Chad to stand up straight he hurt so much. They then sent us across the street to the hospital to get an ultrasound. The poor technician had a hard time because Chad's stomach was clenched and he wouldn't relax. The technician got another person for a consult and they kept talking about fluid . . . that didn't sound good so I was starting to think his appendix had burst. Low and behold that was the case and they were just waiting for the doctor to review the ultrasound to confirm. In the mean time we were sitting in the hallway, Chad was curled up in a extra large wheelchair when the house supervisor found us and immediately took us up to a room. There are perks for working at the hospital and having people know who you are. They got Chad admitted and comfortable in a bed.
In the mean time I was trying to get in touch with Val to let him know that Chad would be going into surgery as soon as the doctor arrived. Luckily Val happened to be on the top of a knoll, had his cell phone on and got service and got my texts. They hurried home and he pulled in just as they were wheeling him to surgery. He was mostly out of it when he said "hi dad".
They wheeled Chad into surgery at 1:00 p.m. and they said it would be a short surgery depending on how bad the perforation was. So Val and I grabbed a sandwich and I started calling and texting everyone. My boss was so great and ready to come down if I needed her. She is so good to me. The doctor came back and said that everything went well but Chad's appendix had perforated so he had to wash him out with 3 litres of antibiotic stuff and they did need to leave in a drain. The pictures are from his surgery . . . sorry if you just ate. The first one is the perforated appendix, the brown stuff is not good. The second one is the appendix right before he took it out. Notice all the brown liquid on the left, that is what was leaking and can be very toxic to his little body. The last picture is the surgery all done. It is amazing what they can do with just three little slits in the belly. The doctor said he perforated sometime during the night.
After the surgery and our visit with the doctor, Val headed back out to hunt. I made it up to recovery just after Chad woke up and one of the first things he said was "what about basketball". The nurse said that Chad came out of the anesthesia almost instantly, his eyes just popped opened and asked where I was. Chad was so thirsty so they were feeding him ice chips.
We went back to his room and we settled in for our stay. He did great, but he hated the drain, it would pull and tug anytime he moved. Keston and Tylissa came up to the hospital and when Val got home he picked up food. I finally got a hold of mom . . . teach her to go to relief society. Everyone was so great and texted words of comfort and love. Thank you to all. Ken and Tracy happened to be in town to grab stuff for their house so they stopped by for a quick visit. Here he is after his surgery hooked up to too many tubes and wires. He is not looking so great but the first time he was really relaxed and not in pain.
We watched Toy Story 3 and then went to sleep. We both hate IVs in the night. First the battery was dying so it started beeping, then it ran out of the meds, and then something else but I don't remember. Dang beeping thing.
Sunday was an up and down day, he would be doing great and then he would have a hard time. We laughed because he was still on a liquid diet so he got coffee for breakfast . . . did they not read that he was a peds patient and who wants chicken broth for breakfast. After a while they said he could try solid food so we ordered up some pancakes and it tasted so good he ate too much to fast so he was in a lot of pain. The doctor came over and they took out the IV but had to leave in the drain but he would check back later in the afternoon.
Chad had a rough afternoon so I called Val and he grabbed our friend D and they gave him a blessing - why we didn't start with that I don't know. After the blessing we got Chad some better pain meds and things started looking up.
The doctor came back late in the afternoon and removed the drain. Here is a picture of Chad's little belly right before they took the drain out. Chad was amazed how far the drain was in. Can you see all three incisions? The hole where the drain was had to heal on its own, they didn't stitch it or anything just some gauze.
Chad's deacons quorum came up after church and brought cards. Chad was feeling pretty good so they had a nice visit.
Chad was doing to good and we were up walking around the nurses station so the doctor said we could head home. We headed out right at shift change and got home just after 7:00 p.m.
We are so blessed - the timing was perfect. Chad was hunting out in the boonies the week before. I can't think what would have happened if they were out hunting. With it being Thanksgiving week it was a slow week at work so I was able to take the time off without hindering anyone. Also Chad didn't miss too much school because of the holiday. Chad had a slow week. We watched a lot of movies. Needless to say it was a slow couple of weeks but Chad is back to normal and even made it for the last week of basketball.
So for all you mothers out there the point to all this rambling is this . . . THE WHOLE STOMACH CAN HURT WITH APPENDICITIS it doesn't have to be just the right side.
