Mom My Stomach Hurts

Poor Mariah! She was sooo excited for Mother's Day and woke up before the sun with a pretty bad stomach ache. She didn't want to ruin Mother's Day so she was really sucking it up. We didn't know just how well she was sucking it up because this is a highly unusual M.O. for our youngest. Usually, she is playing it for all it's worth. In fact, that kind of gets alot of her complaining "the eyebrow" and the "so go take care of it yourself" treatment because if you give her too much attention it feeds the fire if you know what I mean.

Around 10:45 p.m. Sunday, I remembered Mariah left before dinner because she didn't feel up to eating. She had a burst of improvement around 3:30 and had a smoothie but then she went back to bad. She hadn't been seen since. I thought about Mariah and the things we had discussed during the day as to what could be causing her problem. Because I had a stomach virus on Tuesday it was a concern. Because she could possibly be joining the ranks of Womanhood, that was a possibility. However, a word came to my mind that sent chills through me: Appendicitis. I froze for about 30 seconds. Then I thought, it's been hours since she first complained, if it's the appendix we don't have until morning. As I went upstairs to check on her, I considered that she should would either be better or at least we should know exactly the cause of complaint.

I found her huddled in bed in serious pain with tears in her eyes. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't get comfortable. She was too hot then too cold. I asked a bunch of questions and poked her tummy which of course hurt. She hadn't had ibuprofen in awhile so I went and got more and told her to drink some water. I bet in retrospect she wishes she had taken more than a sip! I went back downstairs to google the appendix thing, starting to get seriously worried now. I got some good info and went back and poked and prodded her alot harder this time checking for rebound pain. I thumped her kidneys which hurt on the right and checked left and right sides of her stomach. No pain at all on left, but definitely in the middle and travelling right. (After seeing how gently the ER people touched it, I'm pretty sure I was manhandling her waaaay too hard!) Once I checked the symptoms online one last time, I decided we just could take the chance that might be the real deal, and we were 16-18 hrs into it! Putting it off until we could see her regular doc might be a horrible mistake. With dread, I told Mike I thought we'd better go to the E.R.

Once at the E.R. they pretty much knew immediately what they had on their hands. A C.T. scan, blood work, and other lab tests confirmed it - the appendix had to come out. If we had come in before 10 pm she would have had the surgery that night, but unfortunately, she had to wait for the next morning. I tried not to make too many jokes because that made Mariah laugh which hurt, but I can't help it. The voice of the CT scan was waay too funny not to comment about and imitate at least 3 or 4 times at odd times; and calling Mariah "Octogirl" (my variation of Octomom) because we had missed the appendix symptoms thinking she might be getting ready to you know.....and that what, was she fixin' to pop out like 8 eggs at a time or what?! On the one hand, if anyone has to stay up ALL NIGHT in a boring ER room, staying with me - a person who gets funnier and giddier the sleepier I get is rather amusing. But when you can't laugh without pain, it probably is...well, painful.

Seconds into her first IV dose of morphine. See?! She still loves me.

That put a smile on her face. Aaaah, to be out of pain. Sadly, no water for the duration. Turns out it was about another 12-14 hrs without water to drink. That, combined with the pain, was the worst for Mariah! Luckily, I had a lip smoothie in my purse which I think really saved the day for us. It was grape flavored and felt wonderful on her chapped lips.

Despite the numerous IV bags and subsequent trips to the bathroom, she was just parched from the morphine administered every 3 hrs. Even brushing teeth didn't make her feel any better. At one point a nurse allowed her to swish her mouth if she promised to spit it out. I was sooo nervous the reflex after so long without drinking would be to swallow it, but Mariah was a champ and only gargled.

Finally the surgeon arrived and the appendix was taken out! That only took 30 minutes. It's kind of frustrating watching your child suffer for 14 hrs for a 30 minute surgical procedure. At last it was done though. I got a call while they were still finishing the operation from the OR nurse and later the dr came in before Mariah was out of recovery with his report and the nifty photos. They are kind of interesting, but I know it isn't for everyone, but I think the cinnamon rolls Gib and I made were way more disgusting to look at than this.

Warning! These Aren't Your Momma's Cinnamon Rolls

Clockwise from Top Left: The white thingy is the inflamed, but not leaking or about to rupture appendix (yay!); Top Right: The surgeon is pointing to the appendix which is surrounded above by some googy looking (reminiscent of pre-cooked cinnamon roll) meza-whatver - a kind of "apron" action that happens when inflammation happens in the intestines. It rises up and covers the area of inflammation. I referred to it as the "she's gonna blow!" shielding; Bottom Left pictures a squiggly reverse "S" which is where everything used to be and is now stitched up; Bottom Right - not for the faint of heart is the dissected appendix. Now THAT'S gross.

Flowers from her BFF


Get Well Balloon and Puppy from Grammy
(after returning from surgery. she slept with the super soft puppy..awww!)
Mariah is now home and resting. I was forbidden to take a photo of her in the pink nightie Grammy found for her to replace the backflap surgical gown she was hating yesterday. I could've gotten a great shot of her and her daddy walking the hospital hallway with her IV stand. The nightgown was like manna from heaven when it arrived - compared to the hated hospital gown that didn't fit. One nurse said we could change, then Mean Nurse Nell said NO. I almost had to take on Nurse Nell Ratchet to get our way so Mariah could sleep in it, but nice won out in the end. Whew!

And now we're at today with all the objections of photos of her in a pink nightie appear on the blog. You can tell how much better she feels by the degrees of teenager that keep emerging. It's a wonderful thing to see happen. (Unless you're Gib. Whom she threatened to have thrown out of her hospital room when the morphine was running low. She still maintains he had it coming because of all the stuff he dishes out on a daily basis to her!)

We're thankful for modern medicine, the prayers said over Mariah and on our behalf, and especially for God's promptings and blessings.