We had been looking forward to this beach trip with the Dorough family for quite sometime. It was going to be so good to get away for a week and see the rest of the fam and of course relax by the pool and catch some rays.
Well, unfortunately the week prior to us leaving offered a few challenges. We had celebrated our second anniversary that Tuesday by strolling down to our favorite restaurant, Park Cafe for a nice quiet dinner without the tinky - Amy was sweet enough to come over and watch him as we went out to celebrate. We had a great dinner and we stumbled the six blocks back home in the heavy humid evening and quickly passed out after checking in on the little man.
The next morning I awoke with some heartburn like pain that just didn't seem to go away. It was annoying more than anything else and I kept popping pepcid ac and chugging down the pepto to no avail. We had our baptism class that evening and things seemed to be getting better. But by the time we were crawling into bed that evening, the pain almost immediately migrated from my stomach to my right side. Katie was of course worried, but being the typical stubborn male that I am, I thought that I could just "sleep it off" and be fine in the morning.
Thank God for Katie - she insisted that we go to the hospital just in case. So we got our next door neighbor to come over and watch Charlie until Lolly showed up to spell him. We got to St. Thomas and the pain was getting much worse. I was glad we decided to go. The ER was quite crowded for a Wednesday night and Katie suggested that I feign chest pains in order to speed up my admission. Luckily our wait was only about an hour and a half.
We got back to a room and the doc told me that I was describing a classic case of appendicitis. So he mixed up some of the magic glow juice to illuminate my insides (mixed with crystal light - which was much appreciated) and I waited for my CT scan and surgery which was scheduled for 6am that morning.
I told Katie to go back home - and she wanted to stay, but there wasn't anything she could do for me. So she came back in time to see my belly hairs getting shaved off which in comparison to my hairy chest made it look like someone had lit a garbage fire on my belly. After that I was wheeled off into the operating room and within seconds it was lights out.
I awoke a little sore and just ready to get home. I've never been a big fan of hospitals. Luckily since the operations was laproscopic, my recovery was going to be pretty quick. So we were released later that afternoon after I proved that I could whizz a few ounces in a cup (sorry ladies).
The next part would be better told by Katie, so I will let her take the wheel...
HELLO FOLKS!! before i take the wheel, let me just say that i totally misjudged this appendix thing all day...after having MY loins ripped open and a preschooler pulled out, i don't have much sympathy for a little "gassy tummy"...or so i thought it was. i kept telling him, "go to the bathroom for pete's sake and quit your belly achin'!" but that night, when he rolled over and said to me, "babe, the pain is really bad...", i knew it had to be something, b/c he has a pretty high pain tolerance. i have to say.....both of us having had surgeries about 8 weeks apart has pulled pretty hard on the ole heart strings. chris looked so vulnerable laying there on that stretcher, and as they wheeled him away, a piece of my heart went with him. i don't like the thought of my loved ones going under.......
HIS BELLY LOOKed HIL-ARIOUS!! when he says they shaved him bald, that tech must have had a bad night the night before...b/c she spared NO MERCY on him. i mean, they made 3 tiny incisions and she shaved off the whole darn thing! they wouldn't let me be back there for this (which i thought was kind of weird), but she must have known i would have tried to stop her.
the night after the surgery, chris was very sick to his stomach. it was time to take matters in to my own hands at this point. i called the doctor to let him know he had forgotten to give him something for nausea. he called in some fenergen suppositories for him, so i raced to the local walgreens to pick them up. well, the next part is what i call "my rock bottom moment". i was so tired, and just plain over all the stuff we have been going through. so when the guy told me that it would be about 45 minutes until it was ready, i did what any girl with no shoes on and just a wallet would do.....i headed to target on white bridge road. i must have looked like an escapee from a local nut bin, b/c people didn't even think to question my appearance. i had been crying (out of mere exhaustion) and so mascara was good and running down my face. my hair was in big huge puff ball pig tails, i was wearing work out clothes, and i didn't have on any shoes..........one of the target employees (the one that street preachers on the corner of white bridge and woodmont), asked me if i needed help finding anything (like maybe some shoes?). i didn't. i just needed to walk around, cry to a few good friends, ask a total stranger if he was single for my single gal pals, and get the heck out of there...i did manage to get a bathing suit, some sunscreen, and bottles for the Charlie man.
i left target and headed to walgreens, where the suppositories were ready. i headed home to tell chris what i had for him, and he was like, WHAT?!?!?! i said yup.......it's what you think pal! and the rest is behind us....pardon the pun....
amazingly enough, we were able to leave for the beach 2 days later, and chris headed down the road to a wonderful recovery........
at that point, little charlie was 10 weeks old, able to laugh, hold his head up somewhat, and deal with his crazy parents. see pics below! i got my mommy do finally!!
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