WHAT a Day!

Man oh man. Sunday afternoons after church are always our lazy days, but yesterday was the exact opposite.

So, some of you may know that Macey has complained of her tummy hurting off and on since September. In October, her pediatrician thought she had gastritis around her bellybutton area and prescribed Zantac for a month, which really seemed to help. Well, last week the complaints started again. Then Saturday, the complaints were frequent, and she started holding her right side. I immediately thought it could be her appendix and starting Googling (bad idea). I read on multiple sites that the telltale sign of appendicitis for young kids is pain that moves from the bellybutton to the right side, and that 80% of cases in children younger than 4 end in a ruptured appendix because their symptoms are so hard to miss. I told Greg, "Well, thankfully she's not running fever or throwing up, so hopefully we're OK." I spoke too soon...

About an hour later, she felt hot (we have no reliable fevers anymore!) and then while I was downstairs feeding Easton, I heard Macey calling for me, and it wasn't the normal "mommy, mommy." I ran upstairs, and she looked strange, then started throwing up. It was pitiful. I called the doctor's office, spoke with a nurse and headed to urgent care. We got there, and after 45 minutes hadn't even been able to check in yet it was so crowded! After we heard that the wait would be more than 3 hours, we just decided to wait it out at home and if things worsened we'd go go LeBonheur. Macey slept in our bed that night because we both wanted to be RIGHT THERE in case anything happened.

In the middle of the night, I woke up sick as a dog. I was up all night with the stomach bug, which Easton and Greg also had a touch of. It was awful and obvious that we weren't going to church that morning. Macey slept really, really late the next morning, and about 45 minutes after she woke up she complained about her tummy hurting again, so we got right in the car and went to LeBonheur.

They were wonderful, and we were in a room immediately. Then we went off to do x-rays. As I was sitting in the x-ray room, I started to feel really hot and queasy. Before the x-ray started, they x-ray techs asked me to stand behind a partition. As I stood up, I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't really form the right words to tell them I was about to be sick. The next thing I know, I'm on the floor, and the x-ray techs were shaking me awake. Apparently, I had passed out and hit my head on some equipment and the floor on the way down. I can't even explain how weird I felt, but that's an entirely different story. They got me in a wheelchair, and BAM...passed out again. They wheeled me to a children's trauma room...keep in mind, now I am a patient at a children's hospital! It took a while, but they finally got fluids in me, and after I was stabilized they had to transfer me to Baptist. I don't want to be mean, but I'll just say it was TERRIBLE there. AWFUL. And I was a big fan of that hospital after having Easton there...I guess I still am, but just had a bad experience.

After 5 1/2 hours and a ridiculous amount of tests (most of which were already done at LeBonheur), I was able to go home. During this time, Macey was released from LeBonheur because (thankfully) she was perfectly fine, just the really bad stomach bug, too. They're still not sure what's been hurting for so long, but they were able to get a good look at everything, and she's great. Greg brought her to my new hospital, and traded with my mom, who took Macey to their house. Then Greg stayed with me. By the time we got home, we were beyond exhausted and very thankful for wonderful parents who had both of our children for the night. I slept GREAT and feel better this morning. Lesson for the day...if you get sick, drink lots of fluids!