2007. I swear this year is simply trying to kick my ass to see how much I can handle.

Late Monday evening, Boy #2 woke up with a stomach ache. We assumed it was either a virus or gas as the tummy pain wasn’t localized. The stomach pain continued through yesterday but by 20:00 the pain had become localized to his right side and more severe. We could have taken him to the pediatrician’s after hours clinic but I knew if they suspected appendicitis they would send us to the hospital, the same if we went to the urgent care clinic, so we went directly to the emergency room.

We didn’t have a very long wait in the waiting room. The doctor and first year resident ordered lab work which came back with a sky high white count, so off to radiology they sent us for a CT-scan. Twenty minutes later we had the results. Acute appendicitis.  They went ahead and started his IV line in the ER and gave him some Nubain for the pain.  Then we had to wait and see if the surgeon on call and the anesthesia team would be willing to perform the procedure at that particular hospital. We had taken him to the hospital closest to home (about a 5 minute drive). It seemed that the problem was that they do not do pediatric surgeries so they first had to find out if the surgeon would do it, he asked his hight and weight (5′ 6″, 129) and said, “He’s the size of a small man, I’ll do it, let me know what anesthesia says.” At first they didn’t want to do it. So they made calls to the other two hospitals in town and nope, they couldn’t do it, they were backed up and wouldn’t be able to touch him until sometime later this afternoon at the earliest, they relented and agreed to perform the procedure where he was.

The surgeon was able to remove his appendix with the lap/scope procedure. He started at 02:00 was done in 45 minutes. Boy #2 then spent an hour in recovery before they brought him up to his room. They discharged him this afternoon at 14:00. Man, was he ready to get the heck out of there and come home. He had been ready to get home since they brought him his breakfast tray of “clear liquids only.” For the next 4 hours it was like having a grumpy old man in the room. “I want real food. I need something I can sink my teeth into. I’m sick of peeing into this jug thingy.  Can’t you talk to the nurse and tell her she HAS to let me go home now?!” Heh. He’s been resting comfortably and has had no need for the Lortab they sent him home with. Ibuprofen has been sufficient to keep his surgical pain under control.

I  thought that tomorrow we might have a day of reprieve. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out that way. Baby Boy and I had appointments scheduled with our neuro-shrink for Friday but his office called and asked us to reschedule for tomorrow morning. Neuro-shrink is also a forensic-shrink and he was called in for more testimony for a trial at the last minute for Friday so they had to shuffle things around.

Damn. I’m exhausted.