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!
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