Sam's 1st Surgery

Well last Monday June 29Th I got up and got ready to go into the office for work. As usual Sam was very tired and said she didn't want to go to school, not unusual, however she said she didn't feel good and her "hip" hurt. I had no idea what that meant I just figured she was really tired from a long weekend of being at the beach. I took her to summer daycare and I went into work, luckily my mom works at the school Samantha goes to so she was there to keep a eye on her. Well about a hour, if that, later my mom called from the school letting me know Sam threw-up and she was not feeling well. I finished what I was doing and went to pick her up. I figured with her fever and nausea she had the flu so I put her into bed and turned the TV on.
I kept going into the bedroom to check on her and she had continued to throw-up and her fever was still rising. I was in feeling her head and I went to move her by rolling her over and I touched and right side and she was in a lot of pain, again complaining about her "hip". I pushed and pushed on the left side of her stomach and NO pain, barley touching on the right side and LOTS of pain. I called her DR and they told us to go to the ER.

They got us right into a room in the ER around noon and they just monitored her thinking she had the flu, however I wanted them to do more. Mark's family has a history of bad appendix' and I was going with my "mom's intuition" on this one. They hooked her up to her first IV and gave her fluids and took blood.

They did a ultrasound and said everything was in-conclusive yet her fever continued to rise. By the time they were discharging us it was at 103. I was VERY unhappy. The ER Dr told us to come back 1st thing in the morning or go and see her pediatrician. We went home but our journey was far from over.

The next morning we woke up and she was SO happy, she felt so good. But when I asked her to tell me the truth she said her "hip" still hurt. After many questions I figured out to her the pain she was feeling was just near her hip. I called her DR and she saw us she felt like it was 50-50 if it was her appendix, but she called in a favor to a surgeon down at children's hospital and he told her "send them down I will take a look". We drove very quickly down to children's where he was waiting for us and sent us down to radiology for a CAT-Scan. We arrived and they had to start another IV in order to put the contrast into her for the scan. Needless to say she was NOT thrilled with having a second IV.

She did great with her scan, held still and did really good. They were so good down there they gave her a barbie and LOTS of stickers for being such a good girl and we sat and waited in a back room while they sent the results to the DR.

After what seemed like FOREVER a phone rang in our room and the nurse asked me to pick it up, she DR said "your daughter" and I really thought he would say is fine, but he said "needs her appendix out tonight, and I will see you in the operating room in a few minutes". WOW REALLY! I started to FREAK out, I was so nervous, I was most nervous to tell her. I started making phone calls and working things out, but Sam was wondering when we were going home. :) Finally they took us to a room and had her read a book about operations, which she refused to hear :). They wheeled her down the hall and we were getting ready for surgery. Her DR was SO nice and SO sweet, and really made us feel better, but all of a sudden it was time for her to walk away. And off she went into surgery. Mark and I walked the other way :(

About a hour later they let us know she was done and she did GREAT. We went into recovery to see her.
She was very sleepy but really good, not in too much pain. They wheeled her back into her room and stayed asleep all night.
After a long night she woke up and felt much better, she walked the hallways,
played in the game room, and had LOTS of visitors. She LOVED the hospital, she loved having room service, Popsicles in the middle of the night and of course all her adoring fans.

2 days later we went home where her adoring friends continued to visit and send gifts. All in all it was a great experience and I am very VERY proud of my little trooper, and now I PRAY we NEVER EVER EVER have to go back to a Children's Hospital.