"Sitting on a hot appi"

We had a pretty unexpectedly crazy series of events on Thursday - Friday.  Thursday morning, G woke up with a fever of about 102.  An hour later it had jumped up to 105 and she was complaining of belly pain.  After some tylenol her fever came down to 102 and she had fallen asleep on the sofa watching Toy Story.  By 2:00 she was back over 105 and periodically waking up and crying while grabbing the lower right side of her belly.  She seemed to miraculously rally on the trip to the pediatrician and was singing and laughing in the back seat.  After bloodwork and urine cultures, the Dr. came in and told us that she was concerned about appendicitis because of G's belly pain complaints and her elevated white blood cell counts.  She sent us over to the nearest Emergency Department for an ultrasound.  Upon arrival to the ED, G got a "tubey" and fluid bolus as well as more bloodwork and another urine sample.  

     

The ED doctor was also concerned that we were "sitting on a hot appi" and gave her some morphine for pain and ibuprofen to bring down her temperature which had begun to rise again.  However, that ED did not have a pediatric ultrasound tech so we waited in the ED until about 0930 to be transferred via ambulance to a nearby Children's ED where we could have the ultrasound which would either confirm appendicitis or be inconclusive, in which case we would have to decide whether to move forward with an abdominal CT which would expose G to a significant amount of radiation with possibly no clearer diagnosis confirmation.

Thankfully, G slept through most of the ambulance ride while I watched her on the tv monitor from the front and Michael followed behind.  By the time we made it to the Children's ED around 10pm, we were all pretty tired, but G had no fever and no pain (morphine, maybe?).  As long as no medical professionals were around, G was tired and grouchy but seemed to be doing better.  Michael even got some giggles out of her as she was dozing off.  She just kept asking to go home...and for water, which we couldn't give her since they made her NPO (she couldn't eat or drink anything) in the event that she would need an appendectomy that evening.

Around midnight, G got her abdominal ultrasound and unfortunately, they couldn't visualize her appendix which meant we still had no definitive diagnosis.  This was pretty much my worst case scenario because, with my oncology background, I absolutely did NOT want G exposed to any radiation unless it was absolutely imperative.  Thankfully, the doctors at the children's ED felt the same way and decided that the best course of action was to admit her for observation to watch her pain and other symptoms overnight.  They also decided it was okay for G to have something to drink and she downed two apple juices and a tall glass of water in about 5 minutes. We arrived to our room on the pediatric floor around 2am and were all able to doze off by 3am.

Three hours later, G was awake, still afebrile and ready to eat...and play.  G hit the playroom as soon as it opened and was singing and dancing up the halls while pushing one of the baby dolls around in a stroller.  

Around 10am, one of the doctors popped into the playroom and asked if we wanted to met them in the room so they could round on us and discharge us since G "does not look like a child with appendicitis."  We took our crown making craft back to the room with us and the doctors took one more look at her before letting us know that we would be able to go home soon.

The verdict was that G had some sort of GI virus which accounted for her elevated temperatures.  The ultrasound had shown some lymph nodes which they said are not unusual to be seen in the event of a viral infection.  The belly pain they think was attributed to some constipation.  Pain does not come and go with appendicitis and the fact that G was feeling good enough to run around all morning was a reassuring sign that she did not have appendicitis.

Today we are still recovering from our long night on Thursday and trying to catch up on a little extra sleep.  G is still complaining that her belly hurts on some occasions but her temperature has been down and she is even more active than she was yesterday.  Overall we are grateful that the G did not have to have surgery nor did she need the abdominal CT.  Here is hoping that we won't have any nights like that in our future...