A Thanksgiving to Remember

Well, this Thanksgiving was one for the book....for realz! One we won't soon forget. Why you ask? It all started on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving. Mere only had a half day of school, so I took the day off. I was glad I did because they rescheduled the school's awards ceremony. If you are a working mom then you know how hard it is to make these sort of events. The God's were with me on this one. After the ceremony Mere came up to us and said her belly hurt. I didn't think much of it. It was close to lunch time and figured it was her belly telling her she was hungry. I waited around for a half hour for dismissal and then Mere and I ran some errands. She was still complaining that her stomach hurt. I made her show me exactly where. Of course, she points to her RLQ (sorry medical lingo. Right lower pelvic area). Typical mom who works in the medical field ....tell her it will be better soon and cross my fingers and off to finish our errands. A couple hours later it was still hurting but she had a sleep over at a friend's that she was insistent on still going. Although, while walking in Walgreens she wouldn't let me walk fast and told me not to make her laugh. In the back of my mind I was starting to worry about her appendix. But kept nudging it out of my mind because she was ok to go to a sleepover. I told her to call me if she started to feel sicker. I messaged her before bedtime and she said she was doing ok. Then again on Wednesday morning she said she was doing ok but the pain was still there....no other symptoms. My momma intuition was in overdrive and the thought of appendicitis was growing stronger. It just wasn't a great time. I was working Wednesday day and then coming back in for a 3rd shift. Of course, the next day was Thanksgiving and Nick was working the holiday at the firehouse. I ended up calling the pediatrician who of course wanted us to come in. I tried to stall and see if we could come in Friday if she was still experiencing the pain. I wanted them to order a stat ultrasound without us coming in to save us time. Well, they wouldn't do that. (but ya'll that would have saved me some time. I knew what she needed done. ). Luckily, I was able to leave work at 1p and picked her up and went straight to the pedi office. The did a couple of things : made her jump up and down, pressed on her lower abdomen where she was having the pain, and bent her legs up and down. The doctor then looked at me and said you know what I am going to have you do. GAHHH! I mean, seriously she was only having the pain. What were the odds that it would end up being what we were all thinking. She wanted us to go straight over to the Emergency Room at Cincinnati Children's. I tried getting her to call a Children's outpatient center to just get us in for a stat ultrasound. They did try and they could not fit us in until 4:30. It was 2:30 by this point so just decided to go to the ER in the end. Poor Mere was starting to fret and get really nervous. I think deep down she knew it was appendicitis too. We are so lucky in this area that we have one of the top Children's Hospitals in this area. It literally took us 20 minutes to get there. We checked in. I expected to have to wait in the waiting room for hours but they surprised me and took us back within 10 minutes. Once we got to a room the nurse came in took some vitals and then the doctor came in and let us know she was going to order the ultrasound (yea I know). We were back in the radiology department with in a few minutes with the official diagnosis of appendicitis. Mere was such the trooper. We got back to the room in the ER they started an IV (she didn't even flinch ya'll) and drew some lab work. They admitted us to a room because surgery was going to be late in the evening. We apparently were the 3rd appendicitis of the afternoon! Yikes. Mere got teary eyed when we explained what was going to happen. But she never was dramatic, screaming and crying. Thank God. I cannot handle that . The only way you would have known she was upset with tears is if you were looking at her. I think deep down she must have felt worse than she was letting on. Nick met us in the Emergency Dept. right before they moved us to her inpatient room. It is such a odd feeling in the pit of your stomach knowing what is ahead. She looked so pitiful and scared. I wanted to take her place so bad. But I felt confidant with the doctors and the staff. They were all AMAZING!! We went to surgery that evening about 9p and were out and back in our room by midnight. Needless to say, it was a sleepless night for Mere , Nick and I. Between the IV beeping every 2 to 3 hours and us checking on her , no one slept a wink.

Thanksgiving Day came at we all were exhausted. Nick did leave around 9a and go and pick up Max. He was so upset about his Mere Mere. I was able to get cleaned up and showered and eat a little breakfast. My lunch and supper the night before consisted of coffee and animal crackers. Since I left work early I didn't eat lunch and then it was a whirlwind after. We also watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Mere was in a lot of pain but she got up and let me wash her off and brush her hair and teeth. Those small things made her feel a little better. Once Max arrived we loaded Mere up in a wheelchair and went to the play room they have for the kids (I told you this place was amazing). They had a Thanksgiving craft set up. So each of the kiddos made turkeys and painted them . Then we went to the cafeteria and had lunch. We got discharged and were home by 4 that afternoon. We had a lot to be thankful for after all that. It really makes you humble and grateful after seeing other kids that are much more sick than yours. We will take appendicitis any day over the cancers and diseases these children are fighting. We took it easy the rest of the day. I ended up going into work and working my 3rd shift that I was scheduled for. She was sore for several days and we just had a low key weekend. We normally get our Christmas tree the weekend of Thanksgiving but with all that went on we had to hold off!

Headed home!!

I am so glad we are back to normal. She can't play sports for 2 weeks which is sad . It is basketball season. But I think missing 2 games isn't so bad!!