Because of the jetlag, yesterday morning I woke up full of energy at 4:30am. I went down to my office and started making a to-do list for the day. Read scriptures, send some email, work on a window display, run some errands and blog. A very doable list. I started with the scriptures, wrote a few emails and then started thinking of where to start with my blog post. One of the things that I came back from Portugal with is a strong desire to blog again. No more cryptic monthly updates. I am ready to be more consistent. I wrote down a few things and decided that it was time to wake the children to get ready for school. Everything was running smoothly. My plan was to take the children to school, run the errands and then come back home to finish my post.
And then I heard Sam say, "My stomach hurts and I'm feeling really nauseated." In a house with six children this is not an uncommon thing to hear in the morning before school. 99% of the time it simply means that the child does not want to go to school. This was clearly a case of the other 1%. So after dropping the other children off at school we headed to the doctor's office without an appointment, but with a mother's hunch. There I heard the words that I was expecting, "I suspect appendicitis." I've heard them before, Drew last February, and Kensie last March.
We were sent straight to the hospital for a blood draw and to begin preparing for a diagnostic CT scan. After the blood was drawn they sent us home for two hours for Sam to drink barium. This was awful, it is think and chalky and I think would be difficult to drink on a good day. But trying to drink it while already nauseated was terrible. He did manage to get it all down. And thankfully it stayed down. I cannot imagine having to start that all over again. The test only took about 10 minutes to complete and when they walked him back out to me the look on the face of the technician told me what I already knew. He wouldn't tell me anything but he didn't need to. I heard our surgeon's name being paged overhead and within minutes he was there telling us to walk down to surgery check in. From there things moved quickly. I called Ryan to tell him to come to the hospital. By the time that he arrived Sam was already out of surgery and was in the recovery room. His appendix was very inflamed but thankfully had not burst. When they brought him into his hospital room he said that he was already feeling better and wanted to eat.
I am so thankful that this happened yesterday and not last week. It would have been unbearable to not have been here for him during all of this. He is home now, resting peacefully and all is well.
As for me, I decided not to make a to-do list for today. ;)
