Autumn and her appendix
Posted By Stephanie on May 16, 2010
I know it has been several months since I have blogged. I am sorry about that. We are busy and blogging just isn’t a huge priority for me. I am not a writer and quite honestly I don’t enjoy it, just like I don’t enjoy scrapbooking, but I have decided that I will sit down and blog about this last week for those of you who would like details.
Last Sunday, May 9, which just happened to be Mother’s Day, Autumn came up to me in Primary and said she was going to throw up. I took her out in the hall and pulled Michael out of his class to go and find his dad. The Young Women’s Presidency was out in the hall so they helped find Brian too. Brian came and took Michael and Autumn home. Just before Brian came back to get us Autumn threw up, and Michael got to clean it up. I was very proud of him, he did a job that even his dad would not have done. Autumn threw up all afternoon, and complained that her tummy hurt. She went to bed and in the middle of the night came and slept on our floor. The whole night she tossed and turned and kept saying over and over that her tummy hurt. The next morning she threw up again, and then I noticed that she felt warm, so I took her temperature and it was 101*. I asked her where her tummy hurt and she pointed to her right side, but said that it hurt all over. So I decided to google about appendicitis. She had several of the symptoms but it is very rare for a 4 year old to have it. I called my mom and asked her how she knew when Jenny had her appendix out, but there wasn’t anything that made me know. I called Brian and he said he didn’t think that she had appendicitis. So I went back to just doing things around the house, but things just didn’t feel right, so I called my friend who is a nurse and at first she said it was probably just a severe stomach virus, but when she asked if Autumn had a fever and I told her she did, she told me to call my pediatrician, so I did and the nurse told me to take Autumn to a children’s ER. I called Brian and he came home and we left for Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta. We left a note for Lizzie and Michael and told them we had taken Autumn to the Dr.
When we got to the ER we noticed a sign that said the wait was 90 minutes, so we were prepared for a very long day, but I guess when it is a suspected appendicitis they get you right in. We were taken back within 5 minutes and she was seen fairly quickly. They did X-rays on her and the Dr. came and told us that he felt that she just had stomach cramps, due to air in her bowels. Brian and I were listening to him, both of us thinking that we knew it was not stomach cramps and Brian was going to ask the Dr. about her fever and throwing up. The Dr. asked Autumn to stand up and jump up and down and told her that if she did that then we could go home. She just looked at me and cried, she would not do it, and she just hunched over leaning and holding her right side. When the Dr. saw her do that, he changed his mind and told the nurse to hook her to and IV and they would run all the tests to see what was causing her so much pain. Her white blood count was high, so then they ran all the tests to rule out appendicitis, but finally they had her take contrast, which is like a dye they put into her IV and then she had to have a CT scan and they found out it was appendicitis, they thought it had burst. The OR was busy so it was going to be a couple of hours so they started her on some antibiotics and I sent Brian home with Savannah so she could go to bed (it was 6:00 and she had missed her nap and was very hungry and tired). Poor Autumn had not eaten or had a drink since 10:00 that morning and she was hungry, but she kept crying about how thirsty she was. I felt so bad for her, I just wanted to giver her a drink, but couldn’t. By this time we had been in the ER for 4 1/2 hours. Brian went home to get all the other kids in bed and I stayed with Autumn. They took her into surgery at 8:00 and I waited around hoping that Brian would make it back before she was done. The surgery was done in about 50 minutes. The Dr. came and told me that all went well, her appendix had not burst, but it was very close, so we should be able to go home the next day. (Had it burst we would have been in the hospital for a few days.) Then I waited until she woke up and the nurses came and got me so I would be in the room when Autumn was brought to her room. Brian came just as Autumn was brought in the room and he was able to visit with her for a little while and then he went home again. I got to stay with Autumn and they even let me sleep in the same bed, which made Autumn VERY happy.
Autumn and Stephanie
Sweet Autumn
The next day the nurses showed Autumn a pain scale with faces on it and asked her where her pain was, she told them “a 2″. She was so cute about it, you would never have known she was in pain, she was happy and smiling. The Dr. wanted her up and walking around so we headed down to a play room just down the hall and I called Brian to let him know that we would probably be discharged around lunchtime. After we played for a little while we headed back to the room so Autumn could eat breakfast and we watched a little TV, then Daddy and Savannah came and Autumn wanted to show them the playroom so we headed back down the hall and spent some more time playing, until the nurse came and told us that Autumn could be discharged as soon as she ate her lunch and they could see that she was going to keep it down, so we went back to the room and got lunch.
Savannah, Autumn and Brian playing with the sand cars.
This was one of Autumn's favorite toys!
Autumn and Savannah eating lunch!
The nurse came in to take out Autumn’s IV and to take the tape off. I think that part hurt her more than the actual surgery did. We finally just told the nurse to take the IV out and we would take off the rest of the tape at home. Discharging always takes longer than you expect and we should know that, but we just wanted to go home and then we had to sit and wait. But finally at 2:00 we left the hospital! It had been a long couple of days and both girls were exhausted.
Savannah sleeping on the way home. She missed her nap again :(
Autumn sleeping on the way home.
We asked Autumn what her pain was at when we got home and she said “a 2″. She was happy to be home, but sometimes she says she wants to go back to play with the toys! I don’t want to go back, I hope I never have to. We are very grateful that all turned out well and that she is strong and healthy. She is running around and her pain is now a “0″. She has three little cuts, they went in through her bellybutton and it is quite bruised and cut up and then she has two little incisions a little lower than her belly button, so she shouldn’t have any scars. She has been surprised by all of the attention, lots of people have sent packages and brought things over to her, and she has enjoyed all the fun things. It was really cute when she got Grandpa and Grandma Heinholds package she said “but it’s not my birthday” what a doll!
Thanks for all of your prayers. I truly felt them while we were in the hospital.
