The Appendicitis Story

It has been requested that I post the story about James' appendicitis.  Why you ask?  Well, it's simply hilarious due to my actions (or lack thereof), the chaos of the whole experience and the visuals that accompany the story.  No worries, though, there is nothing gross.

It was late June 2008; I was massively pregnant with Samara.  In a few days, we were going to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary.  Before we knew we would be blessed with another baby, we booked a trip to NYC.  James had never been and I was anxious to go back because I love the City.

Our plan was that Thursday night we would drive up to KC and fly out early Friday morning.  My parents had offered to watch the boys for the extended weekend trip.  Wednesday night I came home to find James laying on couch complaining of stomach pains. Being a nurse, I automatically start asking him questions.  He said that it was a generalized pain and that there had been a pot luck at work earlier that day.  Because the pain was not centralized, I assumed that he might have eaten bad food or had really bad gas.  And since my stomach hurt continually with pregnancy, my concern for him diminished.  My advice for him was to put his butt up in the air and fart.  And if my recollection serves me right, I think I even asked him to put the boys to bed. (maybe a dose of empathy on my part would have been more appropriate!)

The next day he didn't complain of his stomach and so I didn't think too much about it.  Then around 11:30am he calls me at work (which is very unusual).  He told me that I might have to pick the boys up from daycare.  Since I normally didn't get off of work in time to make it to pick them up, I immediately asked why.  He said that he might have to have surgery. (nothing like cutting to the chase!)  He went on to say that his stomach's pain had become centralized and because we were going out of town he actually went to see the doctor...amazing!!!  Anyway, his CBC came back normal, but the doctor still wasn't convinced it wasn't appendicitis so James needed to undergo a CT scan.  Being that it's our crazy life, the CT scanner at the local hospital was broken that day so James was driving into Wichita when he called me.

After getting off of the phone with him, I immediately began to try to get a game plan.  We don't have family nearby so I needed to call a friend to see if she could be on stand-by in case I needed to drop the boys off.  For some reason, I didn't have Friend #1's phone number so I needed to call Friend #2 to get it.  I had to look up Friend #2's number online.  Because her hubby owned a business and a home in the same town, there were 2 phone listings for their family. And what are the odds that at that time, both the business and house were on the same street? Because of my stress level, I didn't think that one number could be his business. I seriously thought there were 2 guys with the same name in this small town. And I don't know the difference between North and South, East or West, so I couldn't tell by the address which one was right.  I thought I would just go for it!  I called the first number and a guy answered who sounded just like the husband, but when I told him who I was, he pretended to not know me. He asked if he could help and I politely said that I would just call the other number.  I apologized for calling the wrong number and was getting ready to hang up when he quickly said that he was just kidding and would get my friend on the phone.  I told Friend #2 that he would feel really bad for playing a prank on me when he found out why I was calling (which he did feel bad, but it just adds to the story).  I was able to get the needed phone number and Friend #1 graciously agreed to be available to babysit if needed. (Friend #2 was in the process of moving so that last thing I wanted to do was add 2 extra boys to the mix)

I rushed to the CT scan office.  James was attempting to drink the contrast when I arrived.  He was doubled over in pain; I felt horrible for him.  After the scan, we needed to wait around to hear the results before I went back to work.  I realized that I had not eaten lunch; a pregnant girl never misses a meal!  I had just placed my order at Wendy's when we received the phone call.  James needed to head back to our local hospital for immediate surgery.  The good news was that his appendix had not yet ruptured so we were thankful for that.  I followed him back to our town, but instead of going to the hospital, I picked the boys up from daycare and then drove the 40 minute round-trip to my friend's house who was going to watch them.  By the time I got to the hospital, he was already in surgery.  The surgery went without incident, but because it was early evening, he had to spend the night at the hospital for observation.  He was roomed with a man who had dementia and a horrible snoring habit. Pay-back for all of the years I put up with his snoring! Friend #2's hubby came up to the hospital to check on James; of course, I said it was to relieve his guilt from his earlier joke ;-)   Once James was settled in for the night, I drove to pick the boys up.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering, what about the trip?!? We couldn't get a refund on airfare and Broadway show tickets so I knew that I was at least still going to go.  James was adamant that he too was still going.  Thursday morning I dropped the boys at daycare and went to work for awhile.  After leaving work, I went home and loaded up the truck with our bags, picked James up from the hospital, and then got the boys from daycare and headed straight for KC.  We had to make a pit-stop at Walmart to pick up pain meds and a walking cane.  James was too sore to stand up straight and needed a little assistance with walking.  (yes, it's ok, you can chuckle at the thought of James using a cane).

Early Friday morning we made our way to the airport.  Let me tell ya, we were quite the pair.  James is hobbling with his cane and I am the big, pregnant lady who is wheeling the luggage and is loaded down with a purse, carry-on bag and James' laptop bag (plus I was starting the pregnant wobbling stage...very attractive).

It was quite the experience.  Now I'm the running joke that if you have a nursing question, my answer will be, "put your butt up in the air and fart".  My nursing instructors would be so proud.