Surgery Surprise

If you were to ask our kids, they'd probably tell you that we don't have much sympathy as parents. When they are hurt or complaining of sickness, we usually tell them to shake it off and that they'll be fine. We have never been big on rushing to the doctor, since things usually resolve on their own with just a bit of time.

Well, thankfully, this time we didn't wait too long! It was Saturday night and Joel complained of a stomach ache. He had been fine the entire day, ate normally, and was running around about an hour before bedtime. We didn't think much of his complaint and just had him sleep with the garbage nearby...just in case. We didn't hear anything overnight and he woke up the following morning saying that he didn't sleep much because he had stomach pain all night. We tried to rule out all sorts of things, but just couldn't figure out why he was having pain. Eventually, when he was crying and crawling on the floor to get to the bathroom, we decided to take that as a sign that he was NOT okay. Tyler took him to urgent care and they quickly sent him to the ER. He spent quite awhile there having a lot of testing and waiting for results. They finally determined that it MIGHT be his appendix and wanted him admitted to the hospital for observation. Unfortunately, we were at an off-site ER, so Joel had to take an ambulance to the hospital. Upon arrival, we quickly learned that the plan for "observation" had switched to just going ahead with surgery to remove his appendix. We were shocked, Joel was a bit scared, and we all just wanted the long day to be over. After a ton of waiting, he finally went back for surgery around 7:30 and by 9:00 he was out and heading to the pediatric floor to spend the night. His first few hours were rough, but he slept and felt a little better in the morning. We were all happy to be discharged the next day and then Joel began the slow process of healing. The first couple of days were hard. He had a lot of pain and didn't want to move much. By the middle of the week, he was moving around much better. We took a field trip each day to various stores and he enjoyed walking around and pushing the cart for stability. By the end of the week, he was feeling great and life began to return to normal. He enjoyed a few visits from some of his sweet friends, but he couldn't wait to get back to school to see everyone! The whole experience was quite the curveball during an otherwise VERY busy time of the year, but we made the most of it!