High Maintenance Mom

On May 19th my youngest son came home with a stomach ache. He threw up a few times and had a low grade fever. I thought he had H1N1 or a stomach flu. I called the doctor and they said we didn't need to be tested or stay home for a week. N was sicker on Thursday and on Friday morning I took him to the doctor. From there we went to the hospital where we learned his appendix had ruptured. Eight days later we came home and are waiting to see if he needs a second surgery. I've tried to figure out if we could have come to the hospital before his appendix ruptured but I'm not sure we could have. The doctors told me appendicitis is often hard to diagnose in this age range. Below is a more detailed account of our week in the hope that it will help someone else...

I actually have a number of hospital stories with both kids but since each issue is different, I still don't seem to know to go to the hospital until it's really obvious. On Tuesday morning I took B to Stanford for an MRI at 6am. We were home by 11:30 am when we received a call from school about N. N had put his head on the table during lunch, looked green, and told his teacher he needed to see our doctor. S picked him up at school. N barfed a few times but didn't have much in his stomach. He had a low grade fever (~99-100). I called the doctor, assuming it was H1N1, and found that they were not concerned (I kept B home from school on Wed. anyway but B's school issues are a whole other topic).

On Wed. N said his tummy hurt and he didn't eat much. We tried to get him to drink but he didn't really want to. We ended up forcing a little food and drink. Both S and I felt like we were fighting a stomach flu too. I felt awful and we all napped at different times. On Thursday N was the same for most of the day. I ran a few errands from 3-5. When I returned, N was in bed with a fever of 103. I gave him Tylenol and let him sleep. Later he moved very slowly and I thought the fever was causing his whole body to ache. Then he ate half a hot dog. He told me it hurt to pee and after many questions we found that it hurt the muscles in his abdomen to push the last bit of pee out (as a female, I had a hard time figuring this one out).

I called the after hours clinic (4 phone calls to be able to talk with someone) and no one said, "come in now." He cried when I tried to move him and told me he really wanted to sleep (it was 9pm). I pushed on his lower abdomen but didn't know what to look for so I let him sleep. In the morning he walked to the table for breakfast. We called the doctor again and got an appointment for 10:45. After watching him try to get onto the couch, I called back and moved to the earliest time, 10:15.

The doctor asked for a urine sample and then told us we needed to go to the ER after watching N cry from having his lower abdomen moved around. I obviously hadn't pushed hard enough the night before because it was obvious to me that he needed to go to the hospital when the doctor pushed. But then it was obvious to me we needed to go to the hospital when it took N 10 minutes to walk to the car.

We got to the hospital around 11am and waited in the ER. It was unclear if it was his appendix or swollen lymph nodes that mask appendicitis. By 4pm they thought it was his appendix but weren't sure if it had burst. The whole time N kept asking if we were going to make it to his teacher's farewell party, where we were also celebrating his birthday, and if he could have cake or ice cream. After about six hours of watching movies and listening to others in the ER, I finally asked if there were any games available and we were given Junior Monopoly, a coloring book, and card game - I should have asked earlier. I had no cell service so it was challenging to communicate with anyone.

S and N came around 6. Around 8 we went to preop and then he went into surgery around 9:30 pm. Around 11:35 pm the doctor came to talk with me. The appendix had ruptured and it took a long time to clean. N would need a tube down his nose for at least two days, IV antibiotics for at least 5 days, and a possible second surgery. We were in our shared hospital room by 1:15 am. Our roommate cried most of the night for water and food. In the morning they learned he wasn't going to have surgery so he got to have water and food. Then he got to go home. N was upset that he couldn't drink or eat and he didn't get to go home. That was our most difficult night.

Our second roommate did not cry all night. N and I got a lot of sleep and felt much better in the morning. He started moving around and at 9pm we got our own room. It took several days for the tube to be removed and for him to be able to eat solid foods again. We are now home and he is running around in the morning but exhausted by lunch.

In a future article, I will write more about the hospital stay and what we've learned. I'm very grateful for modern medicine, our friends / family, and the resources in our children's hospital.