It all started with a tummy ache. Not a terribly bad tummy ache — enough to miss school — but not enough to worry me just yet.
A little later on, I turned to Facebook for advice instead of commiseration:
At this point, everyone (myself included) thought she was the victim of a particularly nasty strain of gastrointestinal virus. I proceeded to sanitize all surfaces and began washing my hands compulsively to prevent the spread of infection.
We were seen by the triage nurse, and my worst fears were confirmed.
By the next day, however, she was running a fever (40C) and I took her to our family physician. She still had abdominal pain but it wasn’t severe and was mostly located on her left side, so our doctor felt it wasn’t likely appendicitis, although she couldn’t absolutely rule it out. I brought her back home with instructions to keep her hydrated and head to the emergency ward at the Alberta Children’s Hospital if her condition worsened.
In the meantime, her older sister began to run a low-grade fever and I made bad jokes.
I was 100% certain our home had been invaded by norovirus and I was doing all I could to avoid getting it myself. I had already missed two days of work and was determined not to miss a third.
Obviously I was frustrated, but I still didn’t think it was serious.
And yet a little later on that same day, when I looked at my little girl, I knew something was very, very wrong. Her skin was waxy and yellowish, her eyes were glassy and sunken in big dark bowls, the skin on her hands and feet was mottled. I have sat vigil at the bedside of a dying loved one, and I thought, I know that look.
Certainly nobody thought it was her appendix. She didn’t have any of the telltale signs of appendicitis.
When I realized that, I became truly frightened for the first time. I picked her up and gingerly placed her in the car. I drove with shaking hands to the hospital. I carried her in to the waiting room and put her name on the triage list. All the while I was rationalizing. Telling myself she was just very dehydrated and just needed an IV. Steeling myself for a long wait. Denying what my eyes and heart were telling me.
It was only a few minutes before we were seen by the triage nurse, and my worst fears were confirmed. With dangerously low blood pressure and a dangerously high heart rate, my girl was rushed into a room and hooked up immediately to two IVs, an ECG, oxygen and blood pressure monitors. Doctors rushed in and asked questions, prodded her tummy, looked at the monitors and creased their brows with worry and consternation.
“She’s the sickest child we have in Emergency right now, and what worries us most is that we don’t know why she’s so sick,” said the doctor. Surgeons were consulted. There were ultrasounds and X-rays and still no indication why my little girl was lying on a stretcher, dying. Possibilities were discussed, investigated and eliminated: severe kidney infection, perforated bowel, meningitis.
Certainly nobody thought it was her appendix. She didn’t have any of the telltale signs of appendicitis: no pain in the lower right abdomen, no rebound pain, not even an elevated white blood cell count. She did, however, have a list of other life-threatening problems, and was quickly hooked up to more and more monitors and tubes. After a few hours she was stable enough to be taken for a CT scan, the results of which finally confirmed what nobody had thought possible before:
Next post:
What happens to your insides when you live for several days with a perforated appendix is not funny. Not even a little.
Very nice article! Thank you for sharing!
I do feel for you, not knowing what is wrong and never thinking it could lead to loosing her. That shocking moment when you realize this. The reality hit me was AFTER i knew she was in a grave situation. A tun of bricks it me and nobody could tell me why this was happening to her. I watched her in CCU struggling to breath. Week and gray coloring. I felt helpless, scared, confused and numb. I also felt guilty for feeling the way i did, because she felt 10x worse.
My 23 year old has Crohn’s Disease, she had abdominal pain……………………………. Ah, it is just a Crohn’s flare up the E.R. said. Give her anti inflammatory and antibiotics and go home. 7 days later back to the E.R, with abdominal pain, back pain, chest pain and shortness of breath. Ah, its a Crohn’s flare up. We see nothing but WBC (White Blood Cell Count) is raised. Keep taking antibiotics and go home. 2 days later, back to E.R excruciating back pain, excruciating chest pain, barley can breath. Ah, i guess we will admit her, but still see nothing wrong. Next day in CCU with pericardial effusion (water around the heart). Her heart was being compressed by the water that it was barley beating. Also two partially collapsed lungs.
She needed to have a pericardial window opened in the sack around her heart and 3 chest tubes to drain the fluid in her heart and lungs. The day prior to the surgery is when those Bricks hit me and hard.
Ya, know these are the times you start talking to GOD again. (I should do more often) I was in the hospital chapel at 1:00am crying the hardest and loudest I even have cried in my life, kneeling in front of the alter. I wrote in the visitors book.
” Dear Lord, My baby is broken and nobody can find the missing piece. Please help her and bring her back to us” I felt as if I was dying with her every minute.
After surgery: I thanked the Lord for bringing her the talented thoracic surgeon that saved my baby. I also thank the surgeon. (I read once a doctor stated …7 hour of surgery and GOD get the thanks). I made sure I thanked the surgeon. 5 month of being home bound and she is back to work. She still has issue to get past, but I have her in my life. I would not have survived myself without her. This one is a twin, I do not want to be in a world without the both of these kids. They are my world.
So, I understand what you felt no matter what age they are. I am so happy you daughter and my daughter get another chance. My heart aches for the parents that are not as lucky.
(btw some how she was able to take a selfie in CCU with a breathing mask, IV, and heart monitors…strange..lol)
ugh! sometimes the simplest answer is the right answer. i feel sick for you. taking her to people that should be able to help her because you literally can’t and have them miss this is a gut punch.
i hope the next post isn’t as bad as i think it is. thinking of her…
So sorry this happened.
I hope everyone has told you that this could have happened to ANYONE. You didn’t miss signs, you didn’t neglect to care for your daughter; you did the best with you could with the information you had at the time. Which we all do. None of us rush our kids to the doctor as soon as illness presents itself, which is the only thing that could have made this situation any better.
Thanks for sharing. Hope she gets better really, really soon.
wow so scary. This is proof when you gut tells you something is wrong… go with your gut instinct. Sending positive healthy thoughts
The poor little thing! And poor mom. This was DEFINITELY a roller coaster.
Such a scary ordeal for all of you! So thankful you are writing this with her safely back at home! 🙂
This is terrifying. Just reading it gives me chills. You dealt with it so well, though!
So terrifying. I know the outcome but reading this still makes me feel ill. I would have done the same as you in this situation. Just dealing with it and hoping it got better. Hugs all around.
It was scary, but at the same time there was so much going on that there wasn’t really time to “lose it”. But I’m like you, in a crisis my approach is to “deal with it and hope it gets better” – you expressed it perfectly.
Wow, Kath. That is seriously scary. I hope everything is okay now?
Yes Alice she is okay now (btw how are we not FB friends already…must fix that somehow…) She did spend 15 days in the hospital though – it was a pretty rough slog but she’s home now and we’re definitely through the worst of it 🙂