Days Four and Five

We did a lot of this the first couple days. This time we were just reading books. I needed a break from all that running around!
We went outside, and he said, “I like it here.” Which summed up the day for sure.

I think this hospital is so incredibly awesome. We bowled a bit in the play room as well. Eventually he got out a baseball bat and whacked them all down, which was funny mostly because he turned to me with a surprised look and said, “This TOTALLY works mom!” He also thought it was super cool to be in charge of the remote for the TV.

Bailey loved the animals on the floor of the hospital. She kept blowing raspberries and singing with us and wanting us to sing again. She also loved the floating fish–Devon took pics of those and the animals on the floor also.

Funny story about Carson. I showed him Dev’s appendix pictures taken during his surgery and the yucky stuff, and Carson turned green and stopped eating, saying he thought he was too sick, and literally was about to pass out. He laid on the bed. I thought it was so funny. Dillon, not so much. I had Devon show him just the bandages, and we had a repeat of the above reaction. I don’t know why it’s so funny to me. I guess I do feel bad because that could not be fun to be so easily affected by stuff like that, if it lasts his whole life. And of course scary if he actually did faint, but he didn’t, so I can giggle, right?

We rode down with them on the elevator (naturally) and said goodbye. Devon was SO tired. He watched a little Scooby Doo and ate 1/2 a donut. He went to sleep.

Again about 1:00 am, I had already talked to the nurse because his hand with the IV was really swollen and bruised, and she said he needed a new IV. He had woken up because she had tried to give him the medicine but it wouldn’t go through, either. The IV team was on it’s way, so I decided I’d just tell him, since that would keep him up and they were going to be there in a couple minutes. So we said a prayer together, and I talked with him to keep him awake. I said, “Dev, you are doing so great. There are a couple more hard things left to do, but hopefully you’ll be able to go home tomorrow.” As soon as I said that he asked, “Is it shots or pokes?” He was so sad and screamed again when they had to give him another one. At that point, no matter how great the hospital was, I knew he was ready to go home. He was having a hard time settling down after the new IV because he was just so sad. Even as I wrote my little notes about all that, he was still so exhausted, but still so sad and saying it hurt.

DAY FIVE:

Devon had to get his blood work, but I was so happy when the nurse said she’d just do a finger prick! Yea! Before she did it, he whispered to me, “Is it going to hurt?” Luckily, it didn’t bad! His hands were so bruised though, the medicine just hurt every time they had to give it to him.

The surgeon’s came in about 10:00 am and said everything with the blood work was great, and he could go home! Yea! I told Devon and he said he was happy, but he said, “Well…I like home AND the hospital. Maybe we can have a hospital at home, without the shots and pokes. And have a playroom.” That would be nice–the playroom:).

So we had a couple hours before all the discharge work was through. So we made the rounds, went outside, went to the playroom one last time, and the Air Force came and talked with the kids and gave them little souvenirs. Again, great hospital. They just have it down! He rode his car around, and ate one last yummy lunch, whatever he wanted (he chose chicken nuggets and a root beer float).

They instructed us to bring him back to the ER if there was pain or fever or discharge. He wasn’t to ride his bike for 2 weeks or wrestle or bounce on trampolines or anything else that might end up with something jabbing his stomach. We loaded up all our many things to go home!

We got home about 2:00, I put a note on the door that we were sleeping, turned off the phone, and Dev and I took a nap in my bed for 2 1/2 hours. Ahhh. It felt so nice because there were no interruptions and it was so peaceful.

THE FOLLOWING TUESDAY:

You thought it ended there, huh!? Well, we had another scare. They said the risk of infection afterwards was up to 25%, within 1-3 weeks of the surgery. So it had been a week, and after Devon came home from preschool I noticed that he had a fever. It got up to 104.5! But he was complaining of a sore throat, so I thought, well, maybe he just has strep! I was crossing my fingers for that. So I called the Surgeon and told them what was going on. The nurse was actually surprised at the surgeon’s answer. She was sure that he’d have to come back in, but he said to take him to his normal pediatrician first. So we did that at 5, since we had to wait for the bedtime care. So they tested him for strep, swine flu, foot and mouth disease, and who knows what else.

None of those came back positive. So guess what he had to do? Head over to the hospital and get his blood work done. He was none too happy. He felt totally betrayed. And the first one didn’t work after much wiggling around, so they had to do two pokes. Bailey screamed with him, and I found Carson covering his ears.

Anyways, they decided that from his blood work, although his white blood cell count was elevated, the other things they look at led them to believe that it was a virus, or strep that was just a false negative. They gave him a prescription and sent him home, saying if he didn’t improve in the next 24 hours, then we’d probably have to go to Primary Children’s for another visit. We actually had our pediatrician call the surgeon at Primary Children’s and discuss the blood work, just to make sure that they also felt it was ok, which they did.

THANKFULLY, the next day, after his fever went up the whole day, about 6:00 pm when he woke from a nap, his fever was going down and he was acting like he was feeling better. Whew! That would NOT have been fun to have another stay. I called and talked to our friends April and Jake, since he just had his appendix out in the last few months. He said his didn’t even hurt when he had an abscess, after he had gotten home. But he just had flu-like symptoms. So that was kind of scaring me. But he had to stay LONGER the second time around. So I was very thankful. It was just crazy, the timing of it.

I actually don’t think it was strep, because Carson was also tested for it a couple days later because of a sore throat, and actually had an ear infection that he hadn’t even noticed. So I think it must have been some virus.

SO, to sum up my thoughts. Obviously, as with Bailey’s surgery, it could have been so much worse. For example, the little 9 year old boy next to us had appendicitis, but the day we left, he had been there for 35 days. His had ruptured as well, but then they had complications with the IV’s and so they actually had to cut him open 10 inches on his stomach to let all the fluids drain. It was a horrible picture to see. His poor mom. She said she thought he had the stomach flu and so kept him home for 4 days, so it made it get really infected so they had to do the 4 inch cut above his appendix rather than the 3 little ones, like Dev got. She had 4 children, and was always with her son in the hospital. He wasn’t even expected to be able to sit up until January. Wow. So sad. So I’m so thankful that it was an easy recovery for Dev and the hard part wasn’t long at all.

A few of my little crying parties were gratitude tears. Crying for all the peaceful feelings I was blessed with, for the blessings Devon and I got while there, and a lot of tears for the wonderful people who dedicate their life to serving others. I am SO thankful for those people. They were so amazing there. I just can’t say enough about that hospital. It is simply wonderful.

PS, sorry about the paragraph breaks not working in some places. That kinda drives me crazy!