BACK TO THE HOSPITAL WE GO

On Monday, July 9, 2012 Sydney, Jack and I are playing a game on the floor when Syd says she needs to go lie down on the couch.  She rests for a minute and says she has a pain in her right side.  I check it out and the pain is no where near her surgery site.  She begins to really start complaining about the pain and I think maybe she has pulled a muscle from starting to sit and stand by herself the previous weekend.  We put ice on it, then heat.  Anything to try and alleviate the pain.  She also says that she feels like she needs to pee but she doesn't really have to go.  She is in a lot of pain at this point and we decide she will take some Tylenol and see if it helps with the pain.  I give her the medicine and she immediately throws it up.  This begins a series of vomiting.  Now I'm on the phone to the surgeons office and her primary.  What's going on and where should I take her?  It is the end of the work day by now.  I don't hear back from anyone right away so I put her in the car and prepare to take her to urgent care.  She is begging me at this point to take her anywhere.  Just make it stop.  Brian pulls up as we are leaving and jumps in the car with us.  Her doctor's office calls as we are in route and tells us to take her to the E.R.  Brian and I debate whether to go to Children's Hospital or Grossmont.  Sydney does not want to go all the way to Children's so we decide on Grossmont.  Brian and Jack drop us off in the front and we head in.  The waiting room is FULL.  Sydney sees this and says "forget it".  She does not want to sit there for hours and just wants to go back home.  I tell her we have to get her checked out because the vomiting is making me nervous.  She and I go to the front and while I am signing her in she throws up in my hand and moans in pain.  They take her back immediately to triage and she is crying and saying she needs to lie down.  Once they work her up a nurse walks by and comments on how terrible she looks and says she will get her a bed right away.  She did look pretty bad considering she already looked frail and weak from the surgery and this made it that much worse.  We were taken to a room and they put in an I.V. and started her on fluids to get her hydrated.  We waited to see the doctor while Sydney kept asking when they would give her something to take the pain away.  They sent her to get an x-ray to help determine what was going on.  The doctor came in and said he thought she might have a kidney stone based on her symptoms.  They are rare in children but not unheard of.  He prescribed a pain killer for the nurse to give Syd for the pain.  By this time her pain had subsided quite a bit.  They were prepared to give her a narcotic but she decided she just wanted Tylenol because she was not thrilled with the idea of pain meds again.  They gave her a dose of Tylenol and it seemed to succeed in getting rid of any lingering pain.

She had an ultrasound of her kidneys but they could not see any stones.  During this time she continued to vomit despite being given anti-nausea medication.  Around 10:00 they told us that they were going to admit her and transfer us to Children's hospital.  They needed to keep her hydrated and stop the vomiting before they would release her.

Jack had come to the E.R. with us and stayed until about 8:00 when my mom came and picked him up.  He was bored and hungry.  I called to update them when we found out Syd was being admitted and he wanted to come back.  He was crying and upset and just wanted to be back at the hospital where he could know what was going on.  So my mom brought him back so he could be with us.  He and Brian went home around 11:00 because Brian had to go to work in the morning and I was going to ride in the ambulance with Syd.

 
The paramedics came and got us at the hospital around 11:30 and took us to Children's.  They were waiting for us and had a room all ready for Sydney.  The nurse got her set up and a doctor came in and asked some questions.  Around 1:30 a.m. it got quiet and we tried to get some sleep.  In the morning, Brian dropped Jack off on his way to work and the three of us hung out in the room.  They didn't do much else to Syd except take one more set of x-rays to try and see a stone.  They couldn't .  They never collected one either.  Brian came back around lunchtime.  Sydney's stomach had settled down and she was able to eat and drink a bit.  They ended up releasing us in the late afternoon.  They never were able to tell us if she definitely had a kidney stone or not.  It's very possible that she passed it when she was at home or in the E.R. in so much pain.  We were glad to be leaving the hospital (once again).

When we returned home Sydney was understandably worried for a few days that the pain would return.  It slowed her down a bit and whatever appetite she had regained since the surgery was gone.  She was down nine pounds since the surgery.  That is a lot on her little frame.  It took five days or so for her to trust that the pain was gone for good.  It has not returned and she has had no more problems.  We're speculating that the kidney stone (if there was one) was caused by her inactivity as well as not being as hydrated as she normally is.  Now that she is eating and drinking as well as moving around regularly we are hopeful there will be no more.  That's enough excitement for one summer!

THE FIRST THREE WEEKS HOME

The first couple weeks of being home after the surgery were a little rough.  We decided that Sydney and I would camp out in our family room at night so that she could sleep on the couch and I would be near by on the inflatable bed. Neither one of us got much sleep during that time because she had a difficult time getting comfortable.  She was still unable to move by herself and needed me to help every time.  There was a lot of switching from one side to the other and trying anything to get in a comfortable position.  The first week or two it was like having a newborn in the house.  She needed us to do everything for her and she didn't sleep at night!

During the day she wasn't any more comfortable but there was more activity to keep her distracted.  Friends and family continued to stop by and we went on a lot of car rides just for a change of scenery.  We did have a few outings early on that surprised me.  She wanted to go to Subway eight days after surgery so she got dressed and we went.  Considering a few days prior to this she was barely awake from all of the medication, I was impressed and encouraged.

We also stopped by a friends house during one of our car rides and she got out and talked with her friend while sitting and lying on their couch.  One thing that made Brian and I laugh was one night, early on, Jack went to the movies with a friend.  While he was gone Brian, Sydney and I were watching a movie. Syd and I were lying on the inflatable bed that is really low to the ground.  When Jack got home he, Brian, and I were standing in our garage talking to our friend that took him to the movies.  We were only out there for three minutes or so and all of the sudden the door from the house opens and Sydney is standing there.  Up to this point, she had been unable and afraid to sit up on her own or get to a standing position from the couch.  Somehow she managed to sit up and stand all the way from practically down on the ground.  Brian and I just looked at each other because that is so classic Sydney.  If she thinks she is missing out on something she will do whatever it takes to get herself there.  I knew then that her social and determined personality and need to be going at all times would serve her well in her recovery.  She definitely doesn't want to miss more than she has to.

When they sent us home she was taking a narcotic painkiller and some anti-nausea medication to ease her stomach.  She still was not eating much at all.  Something would sound good to her and then she would only take a bite or two and be done.  She did not like taking the narcotic because she was having some negative side-effects.  On one hand, it was helping to dull her pain but on the other it was making her feel worse.  One day she decided she didn't want to take it any more.  This was only about two days after we got home.  I was concerned about this because I wanted to stay on top of the pain and not let it get out of control.  I consulted with nurse Amy and she said that it's not common for people to get off the meds that early but we have to go by her pain level and tolerance.  That day she switched to Tylenol.  That night was rough.  She was up most of the night and while not in a tremendous amount of pain she was uncomfortable enough to keep her (and me) up all night.  She decided to stick with the narcotic a little while longer.  After another week she was done for good and took Tylenol for a couple days and then nothing.  By the time we had been home for two weeks she was off of everything.

Something that made me feel very good is when Sydney said to me out of the blue, "Mom, when I think back about everything I don't really have any regrets except all of the worrying I did before the surgery".  She had just given me the greatest gift and she didn't even know it.  The fact that she felt this way even while she was still in the midst of pain and recovery reassured me that we had made the right decision for her. 

After being home for about a week and a half she started to venture out a little more.  At her two week check-up she was still moving very slow but she got the okay to go in the pool. 

 
So over the fourth of July week she did some swimming which was great for her.  She still got worn out very easily and spent a lot of her time at home lying on the couch or in her bed.  She was starting to push herself more while we were out and she even went to a couple of Little League all-star games to cheer on friends.  She sat on the hard bleachers the whole time and didn't want to leave. 

 
The weekend of July 7th she started to get to a sitting position by herself.  Until then she would need to have one of us help her to sit up when she was lying down.  Now she was sitting up by herself which was major progress.  She was no longer dependent on anyone to get off of the couch.  We were on our way!  And then...back to the hospital we go.