count your blessings

I know I suck at blogging.  I'm too busy and too tired.  but mostly, it's because I don't have a blogging app on my phone so I can't throw up a quick post while I'm waiting for my oven to preheat or something.

BUT I got out my laptop just for this so hopefully I can express my gratitude in the few minutes I have before I start nodding off and falling asleep.

this morning, Abigail seemed a little sensitive and out of sorts but nothing that created a red flag for me... she's a sensitive sort of girl in general.  then all of the sudden she started crying like crazy and clutching her stomach and telling me that her stomach hurt and it hurt to breathe.  those few minutes passed but then a little while later, it happened again.  and then it kept happening for several hours... these waves of pain would just suddenly wash over her and she was clutching her belly, doubled over in pain, and telling me through crazy tears what pain she was in.  even when these episodes of pain weren't happening, she was obviously still in pain from her stomach.  she wouldn't talk or say anything and was sniffly and sad.  I'd taken all the kids with me to Costco and she actually rode in the top child seat next to Elizabeth because she was too uncomfortable to stand or walk.  and I know I sound like a horrible mom for taking her to Costco during all of this, but it was so weird and came on so suddenly that I kind of just kept expecting it to disappear at any second.  but it didn't.  most of the way through our Costco trip (and you better believe, I've never shopped at Costco so fast, ever),  I decided that there was no chance we'd make it to sprouts so I grabbed a few produce things from Costco and hurried home.  on the way I called my mom about it (like fifty times... eventually she called me back and the first thing I said was "don't worry... no one died.") and she said I should take Abigail to the doctor to rule everything out.

getting home, I unloaded groceries and made a sandwich for Elizabeth and Brady for lunch since it was noon.  Abigail had gone straight inside and I assumed she'd gone up to her room to rest in bed and read a book.  once I put out food for Brady and Elizabeth, I went upstairs to check on Abigail... expect that I actually found her on the stairs.  asleep.  she'd made it up about three stairs and just parked herself right there for a snooze.  well, probably she was just resting and then accidentally fell asleep.  so I helped her up to bed where she could actually sleep.  then I got Brady up for quiet time and Elizabeth down for nap.  finally around 12:30, I was able to call kaiser to schedule an appointment for Abigail.  they said she could be seen at 1:30.  

at noon

12:15pm

12:45pm

I spent the next half hour trying to figure out childcare for Brady and Elizabeth which was trickier than it should have been because people were busy running errands and stuff.  eventually, I got a hold of Janel's husband and he brought his daughter over to the house to sit with the kids.  at one, I took Abigail and Andrew with me to the doctor's office to have Abigail checked out.  our doctor couldn't say for sure one way or the other about appendicitis and said we should go to the ER.  half an hour later, we showed up at children's hospital and Abigail cried and begged me to take her home so she could rest in bed.  she was just so tired.  I mean, even at the doctor's office, she'd been laying down and falling asleep during the appointment.  and crying as she told the doctor that it only hurt a little.  I think she must have been comparing it to what it was like during one of the painful episodes.

anyway, we got in to be seen at the hospital and they were worried about appendicitis.  they did a long ultrasound while Abigail watched pj masks on the tv in the room.  then they wanted to do blood work and the guy came in and turned on Moana and got some blood.  we watched the entire Moana movie.  I think it was an hour and a half.  other people came in and out, but the whole hospital experience was a lot of waiting. every time we talked to someone, they were concerned about appendicitis.  looking at it online, Abigail had all the symptoms, and when the doctors pressed in certain places and asked if it hurt, she was answering all the things that pointed to appendicitis.  EVERYTHING pointed to appendicitis and I prayed that wouldn't be what was wrong with her.  she described the pain as coming in different places during the different episodes and even not during the episodes of pain.  sometimes high or low or left or right and sometimes just a general pain all over.  they had her use to her finger and told her she had to just use one finger to point to where the pain was.  she pointed to her belly button.  I was relieved that she wasn't pointing to her lower right abdomen where the appendix is... until I looked online to find that pain around your belly button wasn't good.  ugh.  I told our main doctor that I felt like Abigail was improving a lot because she hadn't had one of those episodes of pain in over two hours (it was 3pm at the time) and that her fever was going down (it had been 102.2 just before 1pm) and she said that actually that worried her because those things described what would be the case if an appendix had already burst.  seriously, nothing was looking promising and I was trying to brace myself for bad news.  google told me best case scenario hospital stay for appendicitis was a few days and if it had already burst, it was more like 8 days. no one has time for that.  also, I was nearly in tears every time I watched Abigail writhe in pain and clutch her belly and cry while she curled up in the fetal position.  it was a little hard to take.  what wasn't hard to take was that she was so well behaved.  so polite and zero sass.  it brought out all of my compassion for this little girl that looked so broken.

in the car, she'd been crying that she was too sleepy and wanted to go home to rest in a bed.  I told her the hospital would have a bed for her to sleep in.  I know she didn't believe me.  but you better believe when I told her she could lay down on this bed, she crawled right up and fell asleep.  

hallelujah for nursing... I wasn't planning on being gone for seven hours and was glad, as always, to know that I had plenty of food on hand (on chest... sorry, couldn't resist the cheesy joke) for Andrew.

she was too tired and in too much pain to walk so the nurse carried Andrew's carseat while I carried Abigail to and from the ultrasound room.

watching pj masks.

always curled up in fetal position

thank goodness for this guy's easygoing nature.  with the exception of when I took him out to nurse him for ten minutes, he was in his carseat from 10am (when we went to Costco) until 7:30pm when we returned home.  he just slept and hung out.

watching Moana

the internet wasn't giving me much hope.  but then again, neither were any of the doctors.  thank goodness for this little miracle that nothing was truly wrong with Abigail.

eventually, a new doctor came in with our regular doctor and said that the ultrasound results looked really positive... they could see her appendix! woohoo!  but her bloodworm came back that there was definitely some sort of infection going on (which would explain the fever that she'd had... even though it was coming down in the past couple hours).  he asked Abigail about her appetite... "what's your favorite food?" [sad, crying mumbles from Abigail]... repeat question and answer again.  then he was all "what? shrimp?" ha.  "if I had a big plate of shrimp right here, would you want to eat it?" haha.  she said yes but stated for the fiftieth time that actually she was just sooo thirsty.  they gave her a zofran and then ten or fifteen minutes later gave her Motrin and gatorade that she could have one tablespoon of every five minutes.  then our main doctor came in again and asked her more questions (I mean, a million people did over those several hours we were there... so many people and so many questions) and said that she could have apple juice and didn't need to measure her fluids anymore.  it was an amazing transformation.  within a half hour of getting those meds, she was acting like her usual self.  well, almost.  she was still really polite but she was also chatty and actually standing up and walking around!  the final diagnosis guess was that she had some sort of viral infection that was causing severe abdominal cramping.  so the zofran and painkiller took care of the nausea and fever and basically the girl was healed.  I was so glad to be walking out of there with a daughter who was yapping away about who knows what instead of the lifeless daughter I'd walked in with. the daughter that kept falling asleep four seconds after she put her head down and feet up.  hallelujah.

kambryn had watched the kids until five when I had Sarah come over to drop off Jane and take kambryn home for me.  I'm so thankful for good friends that are so willing to help me out and lend their daughters.  I mean, they offered to do so much more, but really, the daughters were the best and it eased my mind that I knew my kids were just fine playing at home until Christopher could get there at 6.  Abigail and Andrew and I got home around 7:30 and Abigail was acting 99% normal.  I have a feeling that Christopher probably thinks this ER trip (and bill) was a little unnecessary, but honestly, if I were him, I probably would think so too. such a transformation.  what a precious miracle for us... even when I was so lacking in faith.

so here I am, just nodding off right now, but hoping to capture this little story.  my heart is full of gratitude to have all four of my kids, happy and healthy and peacefully sleeping in their own little beds tonight.

man, it's been a long day.