Penny's Burst Appendix: Part 2
(You can find Part 1 here)
I called her pediatricians office and was able to get an appointment 30 mins later. We had all just gotten up, so I rushed and threw on the clothes I had been wearing the day before, quickly rinsed Penny off in the bath, and had the good sense to grab a spare dress for her in case she vomited again.
I carried Penny into the doctors office and willed Eloise to be cooperative, which she wasn’t. The doctor immediately suspected something was very wrong. I think he knew within minutes that her appendix had burst, but all he told me is that he was concerned about her appendix and that we needed to do a blood test.
Penny needed me to hold her and comfort her as they pricked her and tried to urge blood out of her dehydrated veins. Eloise was distraught that she couldn't be with me and a kind nurse held her while she kicked and screamed.
While we waited for the results, Penny was given pedialte to drink and Eloise was jealous, and made that known, so the nice nurses got both girls pedialte popsicles. They also tried to give Penny medicine to stop her from vomiting. But it made her vomit it up along with the contents of her first pedialight drink. Thank goodness I packed a spare outfit!
Meanwhile, Eloise enjoyed both popsicles and but got frustrated when they needed to be pushed up and shook them in her anger, covering the room in melted popsicle. Penny was still pretty unresponsive, except to request that I hold her. But Eloise was causing such a commotion that I had to keep putting Penny down to do some damage control. It looked a little something like this:
I felt like I was being pulled in two directions.
The dr came back to deliver the results. He began slowly describing what white blood cells do. Having studied health in college I had half a mind to interrupt so he could get to the part about what the problem is. It seemed to unlikely that it could really be her appendix, I expected him to say, that her white blood cells are slightly elevated, but not enough to be concerned and that we were going to have to do more tests, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Normal counts are between 5000 and 10000. And Penny’s was in the 40000’s. And we needed to get her to the ER in the hour. He called ahead so they were expecting us.
My sister-in-law was able to come pick up Eloise from the Dr’s office and Andrew left work to go meet us at the ER. I took off with Penny, still in shock, and not quite knowing how to process what what happening. I turned on the radio so Penny wouldn't hear me cry and we drove to the hospital to the tune of, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
Click to read Part 3
I called her pediatricians office and was able to get an appointment 30 mins later. We had all just gotten up, so I rushed and threw on the clothes I had been wearing the day before, quickly rinsed Penny off in the bath, and had the good sense to grab a spare dress for her in case she vomited again.
I carried Penny into the doctors office and willed Eloise to be cooperative, which she wasn’t. The doctor immediately suspected something was very wrong. I think he knew within minutes that her appendix had burst, but all he told me is that he was concerned about her appendix and that we needed to do a blood test.
Penny needed me to hold her and comfort her as they pricked her and tried to urge blood out of her dehydrated veins. Eloise was distraught that she couldn't be with me and a kind nurse held her while she kicked and screamed.
While we waited for the results, Penny was given pedialte to drink and Eloise was jealous, and made that known, so the nice nurses got both girls pedialte popsicles. They also tried to give Penny medicine to stop her from vomiting. But it made her vomit it up along with the contents of her first pedialight drink. Thank goodness I packed a spare outfit!
I felt like I was being pulled in two directions.
The dr came back to deliver the results. He began slowly describing what white blood cells do. Having studied health in college I had half a mind to interrupt so he could get to the part about what the problem is. It seemed to unlikely that it could really be her appendix, I expected him to say, that her white blood cells are slightly elevated, but not enough to be concerned and that we were going to have to do more tests, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Normal counts are between 5000 and 10000. And Penny’s was in the 40000’s. And we needed to get her to the ER in the hour. He called ahead so they were expecting us.
My sister-in-law was able to come pick up Eloise from the Dr’s office and Andrew left work to go meet us at the ER. I took off with Penny, still in shock, and not quite knowing how to process what what happening. I turned on the radio so Penny wouldn't hear me cry and we drove to the hospital to the tune of, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
Click to read Part 3
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