My Unhappy Guy

I'm not usually someone who sits and talks about our trials and looks for sympathy, I've always been a very independent person and always thought that I could and should do it all on my own. Well this experience with Kaden has been an interesting one for sure, having to ask for a lot of help with Lincoln , and then having to ask for other peoples thoughts and prayers has also been something that I've really never had to do. I've learned that people are willing to help in any way possible and I will always be thankful for those people in my life who do show true compassion and do teach me what it's like. I really want to document this experience and right now this is the best way I know how.

I have never felt more helpless in my life watching my sweet little boy vomiting everything that went into his belly and watching him roll over in pain because his belly hurt so bad. It started Friday night when he started complaining about his belly hurting, we didn't think much about it because he'll complain all the time about his belly hurting and 10 min later he's back to his normal self. He threw up once that night and then he was fine. My thought was he was getting the flu. Saturday comes around and he's doing more complaining of his belly hurting, not as bad because he's doing a little playing, but he's also throwing up a little too. He didn't have a fever so I didn't know what was going on, if it was the flu, or just him getting something bad out of his system, but at that point we knew we were going to take him to the doctors Monday morning. Sunday comes around and he's not acting good at all. He's doing a lot of vomiting and still complaining. Sunday night a fever starts and he can not hold anything down. His eyes start to get dark circles around them and he can barley walk because he's in so much pain. At this point we're ready to take him to the ER but he is not wanting anything to do with anything that means going to see a doctor. So we thought maybe we'll just try and wait till morning to take him to his pediatrician. 3:30 in the morning it's done, he is hurting so bad Dan puts a jacket on him and takes him to the AF ER.

I stayed at home with Lincoln and obviously I couldn't sleep at all, so I'm sitting there waiting for updates from Dan and how he's doing. I'm calm just patiently waiting. I get the first text from Dan that says "Blood work and a CT scan so far", they started an IV on him because he was so dehydrated and also to give him some morphine and something for his nausea. And then we just wait. later I get a text that says "he was a champ when they set the IV up. Dr is very worried that it's appendicitis." I start to get a little worried because in the back of mind I kept thinking that that could be what it is. Then about 45 min later I get another text that says "it's not looking good...you might want to start trying to get one of your sisters over to the house, so you can be here." I immediately called my mom and started to cry. Her and my sister came over just in time for my father in-law to pick me up and take me over to the ER. By that time I had found out that Kaden's appendix had ruptured and all I could think about was the worst. I get to the ER just before they load him up and he did not look good. He had lost all color in his face, his eyes were black and had sunk in. It was a picture that no mother would ever want to see of their child. I got there right as they were loading him in the back of an ambulance to take him to Primary Children Hospital. I was able to ride with him. He was so tired and all he wanted to do was sleep, but the ambulance ride was so bouncy, he didn't get much sleep in there.

We arrived at the hospital and he's put into a room where we just wait to find out what's going on. The first thing they do is just make sure he's comfortable, try and lower his fever, and that he has enough morphine so he doesn't feel any pain. Kaden was so good. Then a nurse comes in and lets us know what is going on and that Kaden would be in the hospital for at lease 4 days, she was amazing, she told us everything we needed to know about appendicitis and the surgery. Later the surgeon came in and told us what he's going to do and about 45 min later Kaden was in surgery. They told us that the surgery was going to be about an hour. About an hour and a half later the surgeon comes in to tell us that everything went well. He said that they spent most of the time just cleaning out his abdomen because it got so contaminated when his appendix ruptured, also that Kaden will more than likely be in the hospital for 7 days. My first thought was "how am I going to entertain a 4 year old in the hospital for 7 days." Well, Kaden has been amazing. He slept until about 6:00 that evening and has been playing on the computer, watching lots of movies, and falling in and out of sleep.

He's still having a hard time, he can not eat or drink anything at all until his bowels start moving. The only thing in this world that he wants right now is a drink of water. It really does break my heart seeing him so uncomfortable, and so confused at what's going on, and not being able to be his normal, spirited self, but he is doing good. His vitals have been great and he really has been a champ. Our family and friends have been so amazing through this in helping us, thank you so much. We would appreciate all the thoughts and prayers Kaden's way. He is such a wonderful little guy and I am so grateful that we caught it when we did and that he is going to make a full recovery. Thank you for all the prayers our way. Today so far he isn't having much to do with what the nurses are asking of him, he just wants to be left alone, but other than that he's been amazing. I'll keep everyone posted on Kaden, and thanks again to everyone.