It started out like any normal Thursday. Brad was awake and leaving the house at 5:30am to go play racquetball with some friends/co-workers. After munchkin and I were awake and happy, we give Brad a call at work to say good morning and wish him a good day.
But at 9am, Brad casually mentions that he's not feeling so great. No big deal, just some digestive issues, which he's had in the past, and that I shouldn't worry. So I say a short prayer for him to feel better, and don't worry.
Around lunch time, Brad webcams home during his lunch hour to say hi to munchkin (typical for days when he plays racquetball and leaves the house before munchkin wakes up) and mentions that he's feelings really bad, that he went to the store to buy some antacids during his lunch break, and may come home early. Still, I'm thinking (and he's reassuring me), "it's not a big deal. This has happened 5 or 6 times before. It'll last for a couple days, then go away." Munchkin and I say a short prayer that he'll feel better as soon as possible.
Only at 1:30pm, Brad calls me and sounds like he's in a LOT of pain and is asking me where the nearest urgent care center is (as he's driving home from work). Having the internet is awesome in moments like this. I pull up a local map and search for urgent care centers between his work and our house and give him directions to the one closest to where he said he was on the route home. He gets there, and I tell him to call as soon as he can. he calls back 10 minutes later-- apparently urgent care centers don't take cases of abdominal pain and told him to see his regular doctor or go to the ER. He's on his way home, grumpy and frustrated. I call his (soon-to-be) doctor and ask if they can see him, but since he's never been seen there before they can't see him (talk about a catch-22!) (I had called the office a week previous to set up a "new patient" appointment and establish Brad with a regular doctor, and the earliest appointment was 2 weeks away, so because he had not seen the doctor yet, he couldn't go to the office for a 'same-day' call-in appointment.)
We'd been told before that it was likely a stomach ulcer-- when he'd had these episodes before they were at times of high stress. They would last 2-3 days and Brad described it as lots of pressure from inside that occasionally moved. He'd feel it in his back on the right side, then in the front on his left side, then in the groin. I thought, for the first time, it might be a kidney stone (after looking up his symptoms on the trusted webMD.com). Brad gets home and he's in a "low-pain" moment. The pain came in waves of severe pain and dull pain. I explain the situation and tell him we can go to the ER. We have insurance now, unlike all the times previous, so if it was really unbearable we could go. He says, "It's not the worst pain I've ever felt in my life, and I think I can imagine worse pain. But I do want to know what it is and I'm sick of feel like this and the stomach ulcer meds never work! Let's go to the ER." We pack up munchkin and some lunch (since naomi had been napping and i hadn't eaten yet) and go to the ER that's only a mile away from our apartment. We get in pretty quickly-- abdominal pain is taken pretty seriously in the ER, apparently.
Brad describes his symptoms multiple times to nurses, physicians, and doctors that all come in and out of the room before they order some blood work. All along, munchkin is making friends with all the nurses and other patients and their families, and learning how everything works... buttons, tubes, and everything a toddler can find interesting in a hospital (which is pretty much everything). When they come in to put Brad on an IV, I call some friends to see if they can pick up the munchkin because she's getting to be a bit of a handful and my very tired and very pregnant self can't seem to keep her under control anymore. They can, and it's no big deal-- I tell them it'll prolly just be a couple hours before they send Brad home with either some meds and/or tell him it's a kidney stone and he needs to tough it out. Thanks so much Becky and Tim!
The nurses come back, letting us know the blood work came back "inconclusive," but that his white count was "slightly elevated" suggesting a "minor infection of some kind." So they are going to do an ultrasound. that's also "inconclusive." So they are ordering a CT scan of his abdomen. He drinks some orange Gatorade with added iodine for contrast and an hour later, they are taking him to get scanned. He comes back, eager to relieve himself of all that Gatorade. ;-) And the nurse says they are reading the scans and we should hear from the doctor in about 45 minutes to an hour.
When the doctor comes in, he asks, "So, what's your favorite food?" Apperently, it's fried chicken... I don't know why I don't know this...
My mind starts racing...What's Brad eating that's causing this pain?
Is he about to put our family on some weird diet because Brad's got some funky allergy,
or his diet has too much of whatever causes kidney stones?
Did Brad eat something strange? no, that would have been the toddler, right?...
He goes on to offer me a sandwich (it's now after 7pm and I barely ate lunch as we came to the ER 5 hours ago, so i'm very grateful). He says that the scans were "unusual and inconclusive." His appendix looked "a little strange, maybe inflamed" and his bladder was "extremely full." So in cases like this, they call in a 'tie-breaker' or specialist. Well, Brad reassured the Dr that his bladder was no long "extremely full" and we all had a good laugh.
Another 30-45 minutes later, Dr. Hudzik comes in to ask Brad to describe his symptoms. He looks really confused by Brad's symptoms, explains a bit of digestive anatomy to us and lists a few things it could be. His symptoms don't sound anything like appendicitis like the nurses told him they think it was-- most patients with appendicitis are doubled over in pain and can't move, but Brad was sitting there pretty content (apparently the IV had a non-narcotic pain medicine to reduce swelling and it was working pretty well). He said that he could, but it was HIGHLY unlikely, have "chronic appendicitis." He had seen only 1 case of it ever before, but that guy had a 1 in 10 anatomical anomaly. It was his practice to talk to the patient before looking at test results, so he said that he was going to look at the CT scans and blood work, then come talk to us about our options. 15 minutes later he comes back with a smile on his face, and informs us that against most odds, it turns out Brad has this 1 in 10 anomaly called a "retro-secal appendix" (I know I probably spelled that wrong!) where the appendix, instead of kinda free-floating in front of the colon, was tucked behind and beneath his colon, neatly protected and in an ideal position to allow a case of chronic appendicitis. He says we can wait to see if the pain goes away like the previous 5 or 6 times, or we can just removed the appendix. He also told us that he's not 100% sure it's appendicits because Brad's symptoms as he describes them seem so unlike typical appendicits, but that the CT scan looks pretty convincing and his white count is "really high" suggesting a "raging infection." (At this point, I ask myself... what happened to "slightly elevated" and "minor infection" that the nurse mentioned!??! Which is it?!)
We decide to opt for the surgery, and the doctor says he'll inspect a couple things while in there to make sure it's not something else causing the strange symptoms. the surgery team should be ready in about an hour. We call Brad's family, my family, and text a couple friends to ask for prayers. We call a friend to ask for a blessing (the same friend who was watching munchkin, and they offer to let her spend the night since I'll be at the hospital late) and he comes with the bishop of our ward to give a blessing. I'm sure it was a good blessing, but i wouldn't know-- it had every interruption there could possibly be-- seconds after it started, alarms started going off, my phone rang, and nurses tried to come in. I'm so grateful for blessings of the Priesthood-- it helped to keep both Brad and I calm.
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| in the ER waiting to go to surgery |
Dr. Hudzik comes out a few minutes later to let me know that it was indeed appendicitis and we made the right choice to get it removed when we did. he didn't find anything else to be concerned about; the surgery went great with no problems; they were waking him up in the recovery room right now and he should be going upstairs in 20 minutes or so; and to make sure Brad rests and takes it easy and some other things to know as Brad recovers.
A little while later, I meet the nurses and Brad on his wheely-bed in the hall to go up to his room. He's pretty groggy and keeps asking, "They didn't put a catheter in, did they? They better not. I told them not to put a catheter in!" The nurses just smile and laugh. By the time we get to the room, he's turned paler than the bed sheets. He says he's feeling like he might throw up, and then starts repeating, "I can make it. I haven't thrown up since I was 10. I'm not going to break my record. I can't break my record. I'm not going to throw up." Eventually, his color comes back and he says he's fine and does a tiny celebration for keeping his never-throwing-up record going strong. :-)
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| Shortly after surgery. Yay for not throwing up! |
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| Munchkin and Daddy enjoying breakfast :-) |
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| Get well NOW, Daddy! |
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| A few hours before going home, feeling better. |
In the end, we're so grateful for: (including but not limited to, and not necessarily in this order)
insurance!super nice nurses that don't get bother by munchkin
caring doctors
a great surgeon (who we found out last week lives in the apartment building next door!)
modern medicine
prayer
Priesthood blessings
family and friends
our health
not having to go on some funky diet :-)
We feel so blessed!
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