Oh what a night...or two, or three

This morning, my son and I will be checking out of what was an unexpected stay at the hospital.
It's been a crazy couple of days.

Friday night, the 4 of us went out for dinner....we all ordered something different: Sushi for Princess Petunia and myself, Pad Thai for G and General Gau's chicken for my son.

On the way home, he says to me "mom, I feel nauseous..." Funny thing is - I did too.  So I told him he was probably just a little carsick from the ride, he'd feel better if he went in and laid down.  I thought for sure my stomach was going to bother me, but while it felt odd....nothing ever came of it.  We all went to bed early.

At 5 a.m. my son comes in the room, high fever, headache and ready to throw up.  So clearly, I tell him he's got a stomach bug and let's get some Tylenol/Motrin in his system and some rest.  That will do the trick.  Not so much.... without getting into all the details, by Sunday morning I knew this wasn't just a stomach bug.  I couldn't get his fever to break...he was too lethargic, and he had abdominal pain.  I call the pediatrician and off to the ER we go....

We spend a good part of the day there, because he has signs of appendecitis.  But after a bag of IV and some antinausea medicine, he feels better so they send us home.  Two hours later, the symptoms return with a vengence.  By 9pm that night, his stomach pain is worse than it was that morning and you can imagine, I'm now thinking that his appendix might rupture and that would be a nightmare.  So back to the ER we go.

The doctors examine him, and now they're really convinced it's his appendix and we're talking about potential surgery.  So they put him on IV, antinausea medicine and prep him for a CT Scan.  In case anyone has never had an abdominal CT, they make you drink this liquid in 4 cups - one cup every 40 minutes.  So in pain, exhausted, uncomfortable and nauseous my poor son tries to choke it down.  By 3a.m. they fortunately decided that he had enough in his system to have the CT performed and off we go.  Excited that we're nearing the end, but frightened that surgery was around the corner...

At 5:30 a.m.  they come in to tell me that we're being admitted; his CT came back showing that it is not appendicitis -  but colitis.  Not ulcerative colitis - but a colitis attack, due to infection.  The doctor said they were shocked, he had every single clinical symptom of needing his appendix out but the CT showed otherwise.  Such incredible relief that my little guy didn't need surgery.  He was nervous, I was nervous - G and Princess Petunia were wrecks. 

6:30 a.m. yesterday we were finally admitted to a room - and we are awaiting discharge later this morning.  We can't wait to go home....

Few things are scarier than when your child is sick...and it's not the normal run-of-the-mill type of illness.  I don't know what would've happened if I didn't bring him back to the ER; maybe nothing...but I didn't want to take that chance. 

We were both up for over 36 hours...and I spent two nights away from home, but it's all a part of being Mom. (there's an "S" on my chest hidden under my clothes.  All of us who are a good Mom have one, it's like being in a secret club!)  But I certainly hope to not have too many more nights like this in my future!