Appendicitis

Our latest medical adventure took us by surprise – appendicitis! These are the details:

Wednesday 5.1.2013 Muggy accompanied his classmates on a field trip to The Magic House, and had a great time. The next day, as soon as he finished eating breakfast (his mom had made him an egg and cheese snack wrap with mild salsa), he started vomiting. We figured it was either one of two things:

1.  He picked up some kind of bug during the trip to The Magic House, or

2.  Perhaps the breakfast made him ill – a bad egg, or maybe the salsa had gone off? We didn’t know, but after a few hours of vomiting (the poor guy puked about 15 times that day) we ruled out the breakfast: Mom had eaten the same thing and was fine.

So I took him to the Urgent Care in Eureka, where they figured the same thing: probably viral gastroenteritis, picked up from TMH filed trip, so they prescribed Zofran, which we had used before with great success in stopping nausea during a previous illness. It worked this time, too. When we got home, he was sleepy from the Zofran, but no longer vomiting. He napped for about an hour (really rare for him, he NEVER naps during the day) but woke up complaining of pain in his side, right where the appendix is located. Alarm bells went off in my head and I loaded him up and headed to the hospital.

At SSM St. Clare Hospital, they took blood samples and gave him a CAT scan, and around 6pm had their diagnosis: appendicitis, and the appendix needed to come out soon. Also, this may have been going on for some time, as his white blood cell count was elevated. Here he is playing Angry Birds while waiting for the test results:

The decision was made to transport him to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, where they would perform the surgery. They loaded him into an ambulance, and I rode with him with Mom following in her car. Here he is in the ambulance:

The paramedics were cool, they turned on the lights for him when we got to CG so he could check it out:

Here he is, rolling into the ER at Cardinal Glennon (you may notice he was in a great mood the entire time – he is just a great kid, and Mom and I are very proud of him) :

So after a fairly sleepless night for Mom and I (Muggy did ok in his bed, but trying to sleep on a fold-out futon and a chair is NOT recommended) he had the surgery Friday morning at around 9:00 am. Here he is later that day, recovering nicely:

So we might try a half school day tomorrow (Monday) if he feels up to it :). I just want to thank everyone involved with his diagnosis and surgery and recovery: you all did an outstanding job, and we deeply appreciate everything!