Blog Entry
Posted by Loren Alldrin on July 02, 2010 to Family Life blog
A day-long tummy ache turned into a late-night appendectomy.
(click any image to enlarge)
Naomi Just Before Surgery
Naomi gets ready for her appendectomy.
They're Both Fine
You know it's a slow night in the OR when the bear comes back with a heart-shaped bandage (to match Naomi's), a hair net and wrist band. They both resurfaced nicely after the general anesthesia.
In the Pediatric Room
The whole family comes to visit Naomi after her surgery. The younger ones were jealous of her sorbet breakfast and back-to-back movies.
A Get-well Kiss
Samuel gives his sister a kiss to make her feel better. I think it worked for all of us.
Matching Bandages
To say that Mercy Medical went above-and-beyond for Naomi would be an understatement.
Home and Feeling Better
Though her tummy is still sore, Naomi is feeling much better. She has to take it easy for a few weeks until her incision heals.
When Naomi woke up on Thursday complaining about a tummy ache, we assumed it was a flu bug. She perked up mid-morning, then began feeling bad again around lunch. A fever picked up during the afternoon, and vomiting started. Her behavior, and the fact that her stomach was tender to the touch, made Kristen wonder if something bigger was brewing.
A 4:45pm phone call to a pediatrician became a 5:15pm visit to a walk-in clinic. The doctor there sent Kristen and Naomi straight to the emergency room, where an ultrasound confirmed our suspicions. The surgeon on call was to the hospital by about 8pm, and Naomi was in surgery by 9pm. The 15-minute surgery was "easy" according to the doctor, and he removed an inflamed (but not yet ruptured) appendix. Naomi is so thin that he didn't even bother doing a laproscopic surgery, as the three insicisions would have been larger than the one he really needed.
Was all of this a bummer? Sure it was--but just wait until we tell you how faithful and powerful our God proved to be in setting up the situation. We saw His hand everywhere, moving in ways that can't be brushed off as mere coincidence.
- A friend who was in our Ethiopia travel group had just posted to her Facebook page about her son going in for an appendectomy that very morning. Her description of his symptoms were fresh in Kristen's mind when Naomi began complaining about her tummy.
- The surgeon on-call was familiar and greatly liked by our family—he has operated on Kristen twice and her father once. Several nurses said how "lucky" we were that he was on call. He's the best.
- (Back story: two days ago we bumped into a homeschooling friend in front of Baskin-Robbins, and she got to meet the new kids for the first time.) On the way up to the operating room, Kristen asked the nurse if we were going to like the anethesiologist. She assured us we would, and she was right—it was the husband of the homeschooling friend we had just seen at ice cream! He recognized our name and said his wife had mentioned meeting up with us just days before. He turned out to be a wonderful, gentle, and very competent doctor.
- It was an uncharacteristically slow night at the emergency room and operating room. Things moved along quickly for us, and Naomi enjoyed some special care.
- The timing for the appendectomy was "perfect" according to the doctor. The appendix had revealed itself to be having problems, but had not yet ruptured. A ruptured appendix complicates the surgery and slows down the recovery process.
- Naomi's appendicitis could have easily ended her life if it had happened in Ethiopia. Praise God for His timing, that it happened here and not there.
- We were planning to leave the next day for Lake Almanor, and this could have happened there. They likely have a decent hospital in Chester, but it's always so much easier to deal with a sickness or surgery in your own town.
Thanks to everyone who prayed for Naomi and the doctors. She came through with the best-possible outcome!
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