ER escapade

I'm home now, after spending four and a half hours in the local emergency room. My 11 year old, Donny, was experiencing bad abdominal pain in addition to plentiful throwing up and diarrhea (which I'm sure he's thrilled I'm sharing with the blog-world). Normally, I would just think he had a stomach bug and leave it at that, but the abdominal pain was worrying me, and he really seemed to be hurting. It doesn't take much to get me worried, so off we went to the ER.

I'm no stranger to ER visits, having scored dozens of sojourns myself as a child and adult, as well as multiple stays with my own children. This was our first time in this hospital though, since we moved here eight months ago. Most ER's are very busy and you can expect to spend a few hours depending on what's going on. I was prepared with my purse bag full of books, sudoku puzzle books, an iPod, my phone charger, etc. I wished I'd grabbed a bite to eat as well, but since I had just woken up, I pretty much threw clothes on and went.

Anyway, while in the waiting room, poor Donny had to make several visits to the bathroom for more of the above-mentioned bodily expulsions. It took a long time just to get called back to the ER. Once there though, they put him on an IV and some anti-nausea meds, took a pee sample and blood. We then sat in the room for four hours doing nothing.

However, there were some entertaining highlights I will share. Once Donny started feeling better, we turned on the TV and discovered a hilarious show called Women of Ninja Warrior, a Japanese show with English subtitles. It consisted of female Japanese atheletes who had trained for this obstacle course that had areas called the log jam, balance bridge, flying pillar, and my favorite, the hop rocket. The obstacle course was super challenging, and we laughed non-stop while constestant after contestant ended up falling into the muddy water below. The commentary was hilarious as well, due to the Japanese host trying his best to be witty and to keep talking no matter what.

At one point, we heard some loud arguing from the hallway outside our room. A female nurse yelled loudly, "It wasn't my fault!" and a huge commotion seemed to be underway. We never found out the full story, but we were pretty sure it wasn't Donny's nurse. Mostly sure. yikes.

We continued to watch TV, catching the end of Wayne's World 2 and The Incredibles (one of my favorite movies!). A very interesting commercial popped up for Kinoki foot pads, which you have to check out. Wild. I'm not sure I buy it...

Finally, after four and half hours, Donny was discharged with a diagnosis of "possible appendicitis" or "stomach bug." His white blood cell count wasn't raised, he had no fever and the pain was mostly gone, so they didn't do a CT scan. However, if he develops a fever or the pain gets worse, we'll have to go back. I'm really hoping it isn't his appendix, because his dad had a really weird appendix that wasn't in the right place, requiring big surgery and crisis. I'm hoping Donny's is in the right place (lower right side).

Just FYI, the appendix has been thought to have no function but new research suggests it might have purpose after all as a safe haven for good bacteria to hang out until you need it. Interesting.

What a way to begin Spring Break!