Home Safe

Yikealo was released from Akron Childrens Wedneday evening. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and support through this emergency.

He is doing well; I told Larisa he was either going to be discharged or expelled, whichever came first :) Seriously, he was goofing off in record time following his operation, and he won over pretty much any of the hospital staff that entered his room!

 

The parents in this little family are realizing why most of you folks start raising kids in your early 20s. Us oldtimers don't bounce back from the all-nighters like we used to. Praise God we've made it through the week, and Lord willing, we'll catch up on our rest this weekend.

Several people have asked "how did you know it was appendicitis?" so I thought I'd pass along some of the conditions that made us curious. This is not a complete list by any stretch nor am I a medical doctor. This is just one dad's observations (why am I always writing about this kind of stuff anyway?):

• There was no diarrhea. We learned in the ER that the level of inflammation in the appendix ultimately shut down the peristalsis in the colon (the muscle movement used to push things along).
• The vomiting was never particularly productive, more just bile. You all know what usually happens on the first trip to the toilet to vomit, but that wasn't the case for Y. Not much came up.
• Yikealo experienced a high degree of protracted pain in his abdomen. The pain was very cyclical coming and going in fairly regular waves and often not associated with any nausea. The pain worsened when he sat up, stood or walked, and he nearly went into orbit if someone touched his abdomen. He is typically a very tough little kid: he is much more likely to cry over having his feelings hurt than over being physically hurt, so when he was keening and rocking back and forth, we were fairly certain that it was serious.
• Unlike a flu where the patient is usually happy to lay still, Yikealo couldn't get comfortable and kept writhing around and getting into different - sometimes bizarre - positions.
• He had no appetite whatsover. In previous bouts with the flu he was constantly begging for something to drink. Not this time.
• When we took him to the ER, the doctor was at first ready to give him some IV fluids and send him home ("this is the 11th case of a stomach virus that I've seen today") UNTIL...he listened to Y's abdomen and could hear absolutely no bowel sounds.

We also found out from the surgeon that it is nearly impossible to get a child who is under the age of 5 into surgery fast enough to avoid the appendix rupturing. He said that they almost always rupture so quickly that the damage is done almost before you know what's going on. Also, far more boys get appendicitis than girls. Several things made Y's hospital visit go fairly smoothly, however. First of all, his appendix was apparently "tucked away" behind his colon, so when it ruptured, the infection mainly stayed in one area, rather than spilling throughout his abdomen. Also, only the tip of his had ruptured by the time it was removed, so again, the clean-up wasn't nearly as bad as it can often be. Most children with a ruptured appendix end up in the hospital for 5-10 days after surgery, whereas Mr. Y was only there for three days following his operation. He actually quite enjoyed his stay in the hospital - he got to watch movies, play lots of games with an activities volunteer named Dan (who always let Y win), and get lots of toys and games from the hospital. He netted 5 stuffed animals, a Lego set, a puzzle, a fleece blanket, a puppet, two coloring books and some stickers - all from the hospital! Not to mention all of the wonderful cards, gifts and visitors that he has received. He asked us yesterday if it was Christmas again...

He also wanted to know when Larisa was going to "get a belly ouchie like me and Daddy?" When she told him that she hoped she never would, he replied, "Why? I will stay with you in the hospital. You don't need to be afraid, because I will hold your hand and play games with you."  She's still not convinced though.

In other news, Yikealo has taken to typing a bunch of gibberish into any document we have open and leave unattended. When asked, he tells us that he's been blogging.

Sooo... here's the first message from Y to make it off the hard drive:
jdrfkrktrljfhhfjbgyitugujrnhgmkt..hn nngfhnggghfhhfdjruthgsdnahgjrnjrghfuryrbfhuyr nghfjhhyrhtjiktkiifdkoppfv,nnd vbdrfkgjuvfnmmmbbvjbgkj,kkgjkhkkjggmjb mj