It
started out as a typical Sunday: get ready for church, go to church, come home,
fix dinner, eat dinner, do homework, go to bed. For Kourtni Rae there was
a hiccup between "go to church" and "fix dinner".
Replace it with "eat a bunch on Pringles during the young women's
portion of church and feel sick for the rest of the day". She came
home, got rid of those dastardly Pringles via the porcelain throne, and went to
bed for the rest of the day. Poor girl ~ we thought it was the flu coming
on strong. She stayed home from school on Monday and had a really bad
tummy ache. This continued Tuesday, but the pain had increased
dramatically and the only comfortable place was on the hard floor of the
bathroom. I used hot moist towels to attempt to calm the pain in her
abdomen, but it offered little relief. Ibuprofen had been her friend
since Sunday and I was really not too happy to continue to give it to her.
I did though ~ her pain was much too intense not to. Wednesday came
and I called our family doctor. We got her in that afternoon but the
doctor said her pain was very inconsistent with flu symptoms. She
gingerly pressed on Kourtni's abdomen (this HURT), she had her hop on one foot
(this HURT), and she told us that we needed to get a scan of her belly to rule
appendicitis out.
Wow.
Alarm
set in.
I
thought she had the flu.
(Insert
Mom of the Year award).
She
had the cat scan after downing an enormous amount of diet 7up with medicine in
it. An hour later, we were headed to the hospital to have emergency
appendectomy surgery. I was surprised at how calm I was and how
everything simply fit together to ensure my classroom and my other 2 children
were taken care of. The way people rallied together for us was phenomenal
and has taught me more about compassion and service than I thought I already
knew.
At
8:30 she was taken to the O.R. and, in typical Kourtni fashion, and with a few
drugs in her system, she was joking around with the nurse anesthetist and
radiologist as we parted ways. An hour later, the surgeon came into the
waiting room and informed us that she had a perforated appendix and that it had
ruptured 2 days before.
Applause
all around for the Mom of the Year!!!
We
ended up staying from Wednesday to Friday in the hospital while she received
intravenous antibiotics and recovered from the trauma of a perforated appendix.
She was literally overwhelmed with the number of people who came to visit
her and deliver her goodies. It was very kind and we were very grateful
for the support shown by so many of our friends.
Upon
discharge from the hospital I was shown the correct way to empty the drain tube
that was attached to her insides and carried out the gunk from her abdomen.
Piece of cake! My status of failed Mother of the Year was gradually
creeping back to a good status...But don't get excited and happy yet. (That was
an example of foreshadowing.)
On
Tuesday, I took her to the surgeon's office where the drain was pulled.
Yep. Literally pulled out of her. Don't worry. She had
deep breaths to help her. (Yikes) We went home and Kourtni was
feeling much better to have her little "friend" safely in the garbage
can at the medical office.
I
raced inside to see what was going on and a horrible smell met my nose.
It was an acrid smell of soot, ash, and burned food. I went into
panic mode (typical for me), and quickly found out that the girls were ok, but,
due to my inattention to stove cleanliness, the cookies Lindsay had been baking
had caught on fire while being baked in a dirty oven.
The
fire department had to be called and not one, but THREE fire trucks were
dispatched to our home, as well as every neighbor who was home and had ears to
hear the loud wails of the fire trucks. The girls were OK, but they were
shaken up a bit and will probably learn a valuable lesson about keeping their
future kitchens clean.
When
Alyssa came home on Thursday, Kourtni wasn't doing too well. She couldn't
keep anything down and was in severe abdominal distress. I basically told
her to suck it up and be positive about getting better. Attitude is
everything, right? (Even when you're in extreme distress and uncontrolled
pain and nausea???) She couldn't keep down her meds, didn't have any
appetite, couldn't find a comfortable position, and was basically a miserable
young lady. I made several calls to my PA brother-in-law and to the
doctor on call. My brother-in-law was helpful. The doctor on call
was definitely NOT. We got a prescription for nausea meds the next day,
but they wouldn't stay down and were of no help in Kourtni's nausea at all.
By Saturday, she was in so much pain and discomfort that we decided to
take her to the ER. Her stomach was hard and distended and she looked
like she could have been about 4 or 5 months pregnant. Right then and
there, we loaded up and headed to the hospital.
After
sitting in the hospital room on some less-than-pain-killing drugs, Kourtni had
yet another CAT scan and what the results showed definitely made me the Pullitzer
Prize winning, Nobel award recipient, Grammy nominated, Emmy Award winning
Mother of the Year!
My
dear sweet 17 year old formerly totally healthy daughter had a volleyball sized
abscess in her pelvis.
(I
would like to thank all those who made this award possible: The
inattentive doctor on call, the nurse who told Kourtni not to "chop
wood" when she went home, and the lack of information the hospital gave us
when we were released last Friday. Thank you. Thank you.)
An
emergency procedure would need to be performed. One that would help drain
the huge abscess and help her feel some relief. To perform this
procedure, Kourtni would need to be inserted into the CAT scan machine while
the radiologist looked at the x-ray. He would then find an air pocket in
her belly, make an X on her skin, make an incision on the X, position the
largest tube drain he had and insert the tube into her belly. Voila!
750cc (that's a liter, people) of pus and blood immediately exited her
pelvis and gave her ravaged body a bit of relief. There was so much
infection in her belly that it had displaced her uterus and bladder.
This
Christmas was a bit different than all the past 23 Christmases we've enjoyed as
a family. We made it work, however. Flying Pie delivers!
Alyssa went grocery shopping for us! Friends visited! Our
Christmas will be delayed this year until we can get Kourtni well enough to go
home. Hopefully that won't be too long now, but, appendixes are real
bitties and they leave a nasty legacy in their absence.
Merry
Christmas from St. Luke's Hospital! Enjoy a few pictures of our Holiday Season:
