In Which An Adventure Is Had

So last night everything was moving along as one would expect, I had just settled into practicing guitar, when M1 starts calling my name, obviously unhappy. I went in & she said, “My stomach, really really hurts!” First two questions in situations like this have to be ‘are you going to throw up? do you need a bowl?’ She said no but that her stomach really really hurt. I told her I was getting her a bowl anyway. I asked if she needed a tums, she said it wasn’t that kind of tummy ache. Don’t know what made me ask, but I did — “Where does it hurt?” She lay back and said, “Right here [indicating lower right quadrant of her abdomen]”. Oh hay thar appendix! I’m a librarian without an appendix — I really, at this point, prefer dealing with back-of-the-book appendices. She settled down with her bowl, I walked out of the room intending to go look up appendicitis symptoms in the dog-eared Dr. Spock, & she threw up & I turned back around & got her a fresh bowl & emptied the newly yucky bowl, finished looking it up.

Hrmmm… lower right, check. puke, check. “Moooooommmmmmmmyyyyyyyy! It huuuurrrrttts!” I told her I needed to call Felice. She said, “I don’t want to go to the doctor!” I told her to get out of bed & come sit with me on the couch while I called. After a little bit of back and forth about how this was something that I didn’t want to mess around on & I just wanted an opinion from Felice, she consented. Felice said, ‘can’t diagnose over the phone obviously, but she’s presenting some typical symptoms’. I got her to nail it down to this for me: If she’s not able to sleep through it, you should probably have a doctor check it out tonight, go to Children’s. Okeydoke, then. The adrenaline started to rise in the pit of my stomach. I put the girl back to bed (miraculously, M2 slept through ALL of this, only crawling into bed with me about an hour after I’d finally made it to bed!).

Not five minutes went by before I heard my name again. Are you figuring out where this story is headed yet? Yeah — it’s going there. So I go in & say, “M1, we need to go to the hospital & have this checked out. Hop out of bed & get socks & shoes on, I’ll let Dad know.” There was a little bit of ‘I don’t want to go, I’m scared, etc.’ but we had the talk — they’re there for exactly this reason. We’re going to a hospital that specializes in taking extra good care of kids. This has the potential to be very serious, so we want to get it checked out and the earlier the better. Every single person you meet there tonight is there to help you feel better. They’re all really nice people who care about you. She got out of bed, put on a non-Iron Maiden shirt (heh), I went in and told P that we had to go to the hospital. Poor guy — not a way any parent wants to get woken up! He came out to say good-bye & call when you hear anything & stuff. I grabbed my work bag (not being entirely sure how long I’d be there, I figured maybe it would be a good thing to have, since I have notebooks for doodling & gum & kleenex & pens & work information for forms &, should it come to that, my work laptop) and we went off into the cold night.

The roads at 12:30ayem are remarkably deserted relative to the times of day I typically drive. We made it there in no time flat. I figured out where we should park, as M1 was still ambulatory, I figured we should park somewhere leaving spots closer for someone else. We walked in and were greeted with a very cheerful receptionist. Amazingly, we were triaged before I even had time to fill anything in the stack’o'forms I was handed. Vitals taken, questions asked for the first time, and then the triage nurse handed M1 a cup and wipes & said, “Oh, and they’ll want you to pee in the cup! Your mom might have to help you with that.” She pointed out the bathroom & bustled off. I got the first form done & looked up & said, “Let’s get the peeing over with!” As somewhat expected, I had to hold the cup. It was one of the first of a couple awkward moments for M1, but it didn’t take as long as I feared it might. We didn’t get lots, but we got enough. We washed our hands, she made me completely cover the cup with a paper towel — “I don’t want anyone to see it!” Fair enough.

Got back to the room in time for someone to check in on our paperwork. I laughed — no where near done with it! She said she’d come back. I finished filling out paperwork. Then I gave M1 a notebook & a pen so she could draw. She drew three pictures & we talked a lot waiting for the resident doctor to check in with us. M1 said, “I’m starting to feel kinda better. Can we just go home?” Nope, not until they check you out. So she drew, and we talked about random things. She didn’t want to spend the night. She was looking better & obviously not in as much distress as when she had woken up. Eventually the resident doctor rolled around. She was very nice. She had trouble moving the bed down for an exam — I told her every piece of equipment always works differently. This was only her third night at Children’s — she’d been at another place and their beds worked differently, and obviously more easily. Eventually we got the bed down. She asked M1 a lot of the same questions, then did an exam. She said, “There’s tenderness in the right spot, but generally patients won’t even let us touch them in that area when it’s appendicitis, it might be early, it might be something else entirely, it might just be a little bit of gastrointestinal distress. I’m going to consult with the attending doctor, & he’ll probably come in & do an exam as well & we’ll determine any tests that need to happen from that point. If he notices something, perhaps an ultrasound.” And off she went.

We watched the clock tick… babies with croup in the background, a little boy crying briefly… M1 definitely had the more comfortable of the spots to sit. Every half hour or so, I’d have to get off the chair and wander around. Oof! Not nice to tired bones & muscles! M1 was clearly feeling better. She said she wanted to go home. We talked more about random things. I told her I didn’t think they were going to have us stick around based on what the resident was saying. She said, “I feel good!” And then admitted it was still a little tender there. But she was smiling & laughing & being very good natured & sweet. Around 2:30 the attending doctor came in. He introduced himself with a handshake, and got right to it. More of the same questions. He did an exam. And here is where it got awkward for M1 — he asked when she had pooped last. A stranger was asking about her pooping habits! OH! The horror! She said she didn’t know but admitted to me later that it had been the day before. He checked her throat, moved her legs, her neck, he asked her to jump up & down, which she did with glee & he laughed. It was at that point that I started suspecting he was thinking this was probably the healthiest kid in the hospital. He said, “We’ll check her pee, but I don’t anticipate finding anything. Appendicitis doesn’t tend to come & go, it comes on & increases over a 24 hour period, so while we’re only 4 or so hours into this, it’s not increasing & in fact is coming, atypically for appendicitis, in waves. When I did the exam, there was nothing there to indicate anything out of the normal. There’s a little tenderness, we should watch that, but I suspect we’ll be giving you your walking papers shortly.” At one point in there, I did feel it necessary to explain that when she had originally woken up, the pain seemed to be fairly sharp & she was a lot more miserable when I had made the decision to get it checked out. He, to use touchy-feely speak, validated me on that & said my instinct was right & that if I become concerned again to absolutely bring her back. And then he was off. I have not seen such bloodshot eyes on anyone as he had in a long long time.

The bustle-y triage nurse came bustling back in for the pee & said, “This usually takes 30-45 minutes” before bustling out again. 2:45. I looked at Marian & said, “well, the worst part of coming to the emergency room is frequently the waiting.” She agreed & said she wanted to go home. Forty minutes later, the resident doctor came back and said, “Did he come in and talk with you? Yes? Ok, well, here is your follow up sheet with instructions. Let us know if you have questions in the next day or two, might want to check in with M1’s doctor, you’re free to go!” M1 did a little victory dance, and then practically danced out the door all the way to the car. Well, not quite all the way to the car because it was cold out & it wasn’t long before we were huddling and walking quickly…

We called P from the car — “Well, we know something.” “What do you know?” “We know we’re on our way home now! But now I have to hang up and drive!” We were home by 3:30, talked for about a half hour, then pushed M1 off to bed. P went & took a shower then headed into work because he’s funny that way. I took a bath to “unharsh my mellow” & went to bed. 8:30ayem? Both girls were up when I staggered into the living room feeling as though my eyes must be as bloodshot as the attending doctor’s had been. I CAN’T believe M1 was up at 8:15. She blew it off — “Oh well, I got some sleep before we went to the hospital.” Heh. She was cranky tired by bedtime tonight though…

So, my intent for today was sleeping. It didn’t happen that way. I took M2 to auntie’s, we got home, changed the sheets on the girls’ bunk bed (puking last night aside, though M1 is a very tidy puker, it was time anyway), tossed ‘em in the washing machine & M1 started saying “Are we going to work today? We should go to work & get lunch.” I did have that team meeting & another meeting I wanted to be there for today… welll… “Come on Mom! Let’s go to work!” Y’know what? If she really wants to do that? If that would be some sort of reward for really freaking excellent behavior under stress & fear last night? Absolutely. I have no problem with that. So we packed a movie, some Iron Maiden, because she’s bonded with L at work over Maiden, some coloring, some sudoku & off we went. We got teriyaki for lunch, went to the team meeting, got her set up with her movie for the second meeting, and then after the meeting, I let her rock out to two Maiden songs with L. They both really dug it. It was really adorable. She picked her favorite song from them (Flight of Icarus) & it came on & he said, “whoa — I was your age when this song came out M1!” Part way through that song, there was a small crowd of people around them also watching the video & providing peanut gallery commentary. I let it go on to the next song, and then I said, “ok, let’s head out!” So a reward well won & she fell asleep on the way home. The rest of the day was fairly predictable with tiredness & crankiness & eventually bed for them.

All in all, while it’s not something any parent wants to go through, I have to admit that of all possible outcomes, we couldn’t have hoped for a better one. And I think it was a really positive experience for M1 to have actually gone through & know that on the other end of the the car ride, there are people there that genuinely care about helping her to feel better, even if they do ask awkward questions & make requests for awkward things at times. Really, all things considered, we had a pretty good time last night hanging out & talking & laughing about random things…

And now I’ve told my tale, I’m going to go get through the guitar practicing I didn’t get to last night (though I’m blowing off exercising), and then? I’m going to bed, to bed, to sleep, to sleep to sleep!