Hospital #2: Richard

So, I had been home from Rebecca's surgery for 2 days when Richard started complaining that his stomach hurt.  He really started complaining while we were at Cub Scouts on Tuesday night.  I could tell he wasn't really sick, but his tummy sure hurt.

Richard had been sick quite a bit during January.  He had a pretty bad sinus infection.  After the course of  antibiotics were finished, his neck swelled and the infection had gone to his lymph nodes in his neck.  We did two different antibiotics with the lymph node infection that were in different families from the first antibiotic used for the sinus infection.  The poor guys system was a wreck.  So, I wasn't greatly surprised that his tummy hurt.

By Wednesday morning( February 18), his tummy was really hurting.  It was acting a lot like when Robert had his appendicitis.  I decided to take Richard to Urgent Care in Boerne.  The Dr. at Urgent Care was great.  He suspected an appendicitis.  He sent us on to Methodist Children's Hospital.  We got to the ER around 10 a.m.  Then the wait began.  They did a CT scan and couldn't find his appendix.  No shock there.  The twins do not have enough body fat for the CT scan to react with and thus no appendix.  (The same thing happened with Robert's)  The hospital decided to keep Richard for observation.  I came home when Robert got out of school and Mark stayed at the hospital with Richard.

The next day we were still waiting.  After getting Robert to school, I went to the hospital.  The surgeon finally met with us and decided to operate.  It was a mixture of exploratory and appendicitis.  Not all of they symptoms Richard presented were caused by appendicitis's.

waiting for the anesthesiologist and surgeon 

The surgery lasted a little longer than they told us it would.  Richard appendix was definitely not happy.  The surgeon told us the lymph nodes in the groin area were swollen and had possibly cut off the blood supply of the appendix, thus causing it to become inflamed and mad.  Our pediatrician thinks the lymph nodes were swollen from the previous infection.  Who really knows?

Waiting for Richard to wake up after his surgery

We were in the hospital for 3 days.  Richard was in quite a bit of pain from the surgery, but he handled it quite well.  After Richard's surgery, Mark left for Utah to visit his Mom and siblings.  They were having a get together for Helen's (Mark's mom) 70th birthday.  I had also trained to do a half-marathon with my brother Michael and my Dad that weekend.  I did not get to participate in the half-marathon but I will try again next year.  

three little tiny incisions

Richard had to walk laps around the nurses station every couple of hours

playing the wii in the playroom at the hospital

We were blessed to receive the medical care needed to help Richard.  

The twin's birthday was that weekend.  I did not have time to get anything ready for their bday.  My friend's husband came over and watched the boys the day Richard came home from the hospital so that I could go get cake ingredients and gifts for the boys.