Surgery and a Setback

It was finally time to get Nolan's pesky appendix removed, so we headed to American Family Children's Hospital down in Madison for the laparoscopic surgery and to put an end to this chapter.  Brigid invited us to stay the night before, which worked out great since we had to be at the hospital very early the next morning.  They did great calming Nolan's nerves and had the IV in with no complications.  I even got to get dressed and walk him to the operating room.  The actual procedure only took about 30 minutes.  We got updates via a pager.  Little buddy recovered from the anesthesia quickly and didn't have any pain to speak of.  Because they were short on hospital beds and he was doing so well, they didn't have us stay overnight as planned.  So we headed back to Brigid's just to be close in case we needed anything.  The next day we headed home to Rhinelander and we thought we were done with the appendix saga.  We were wrong.

A few days after we got home, Nolan started complaning of not feeling well.  He had a bit of a stomach ache and a headache.  I took his temperature and saw he had a fever.  I called the Children's Hospital and they instructed me to take him to the Emergency Room in Rhinelander to be evaluated.  The doctor there was wonderful and did her best to work with Nolan's team from the Children's Hospital.  She updated them on her findings and they felt that he was fine to go home.  Looking back, I think she was uncomfortable with this, but deferred to them as they were the experts in this instance.  I felt uncomfortable too, but again, tried to trust that the experts had it in hand.  I left with strict instructions from her to bring him back in if he got worse or started vomiting.  

Less than 24 hours later, he woke me up in the middle of the night because he had vomited.  I called the Rhinelander ER, trying to see if that same Dr was working and when I heard she was there, I took him in right away.  She got him started on diagnostic testing - CT scan, bloodwork, etc.  His White Blood Count and Inflammation markers were high, indicating a post-op infection.  However, given that Rhinelander has NO pediatric surgeons, we wanted him to get transferred to Madison just as soon as was possible.  This meant that we couldn't be admitted to the Rhinelander hospital and we had to stay in the tiny ER room for over 36 hours while we waited for a bed to open up in Madison.  Nolan was very sick by this point, spiking a 103+ fever and more vomiting.  He even got delirius and one point and stopped responding.  It was terrifying. And to make matters worse, I developed a terrible upper respiratory infection, and felt terrible myself.  Our doctor continued our vigilant care, trying to pressure Madison into making room for us.  She even brought him in a bunch of toys, fidgets, and activity books that she raided from her own kids to brighten his day.  At this point, he was on IV antibiotics so we couldn't even drive him to Madison on our own.  He needed to be taken by ambulance.  

Finally, we got news that a bed opened up and that we would be heading to Madison early that morning.  The EMTs were actually the flight crew from the helicopter, and they did such a good job getting us there safely and comfortably.  Our room in Madison was beautiful with perfect sunset views.  However, with it being such a large facility, and a teaching one at that, we had VERY little face time with the doctors.  This led to so much confusion about the diagnosis and the plan going forward.  It took hours, even days, to get all the diagnostic scans ran.  I was getting more and more frustrated.  The attending came in and told us he was going to need another surgery and then I didn't seem him again for 2 days!  Nolan was NPO in preparation of a surgery we knew nothing about.  No one was able to answer my questions.  Finally on Saturday morning, a different attending came in and said they were  wrong about what the scan showed and that he didn't need surgery after all and he could be discharged that morning.  He had a post-op infection of some sort, but the IV antibiotics remedied it and he didn't need further care, aside from oral antibiotics. The whiplash was staggering and quite frankly, upsetting.  I felt unsure about leaving - what if there really was still something wrong?  The other attending said he needed surgery!  I got no updates in 48 hours! It was so scary.

We ended up staying in Madison one more night at a hotel, just in case he didn't transition well to the oral antibiotic.  I was very nervous.  But, Nolan appeared to do well, and it was time to head home.  We were very fortunate during our stay to have the help of a few special people - Brigid brought me snacks and supplies to the hospital, and ended up driving us to Stevens Point where we could meet Eric who brought us home the rest of the way.  My Uncle Todd is the chef at Blackhawk Country Club and he brought me some delicious meals after I found out the hospital food wasn't so good.  And, our Rhinelander doctor, Dr. Gehrmann, was such an advocate for us.  She believed me, listened to me, and was so compassionate toward Nolan...I was so thankful to have been in her service.  

Fortunately, the Madison doctors were right and Nolan ended up being ok.  However, it definitely made us thankful we haven't had to spend much time in hospitals before and that all the he faced was curable.  It was a long and rocky road, but we are so glad to have a healthy and thriving Nolan back at home.