Seth Doesn't Need His Appendix Anymore

If you ever need to go to a Children's Hospital, Denver is a great place!! Seth was moaning and groaning and throwing up all night then about 5 he stopped and slept. Then he started throwing up again about 10. At 2 we decided to take him into Instacare. They didn't have any equipment so they told us to go to the hospital. After being at the hospital for 3 or 4 hours they transferred us by ambulance the Children's Hospital about 20 minutes away from Lyssa's house.

You can tell by this picture, Seth does not look well! Even after the surgery for a few days he made me nervous because he just didn't look like himself. They did a blood test that said he had a high white blood cell count which means infection, but he was also positive for strep so that could account for that. They then did an ultra sound which was super painful to push down hard all over his abdomen and that test was inconclusive. They then did a CT scan which also was not clear if it was his appendix. They decided since all signs pointed to that they would do the surgery and see with their eyes if it was the appendix.

His surgery was scheduled for midnight but because of surgeries ahead of him it ended up being 2 am. Not a fun night. Seth mostly slept with strong medication but I was stressed out so I couldn't. Jon decided to go to Lyssa's and sleep with the kids and I would nap the next day. The nurse called me when the surgery was done and said the appendix was out and everything went well. Then she mentioned that it had perforated which meant we needed to stay 5 more days to give Seth strong antibiotics. That's when I couldn't hold it together any longer. I felt bad for Seth plus we were far from home plus it was 3 in the morning. I burst into tears!

 Right after surgery. Looks better but not a lot better. He didn't want to eat for a couple more days. The Drs just wanted to make sure he drank a lot.

Everyone came to see Seth before getting on the train to go home. It was sad to see them all leave without us. At least Peter, Lyssa, and Thomas made it fun for us. I'm so glad we had family close by.

 This Hospital was amazing! They had a replica of the hospital made out of legos, a clown and other guests that would come visit, a marble run machine to watch for entertainment and great nurses.
 We were on the very top floor, the 15th I think because they had 5 appendectomies the night Seth got his which was very rare.

They used lapriscopy which was so nice and pulled his appendix out his bellybutton. Pretty cool.

 I decided to wash Seth's hair while we were there, it was long overdue.  They had a cap that had shampoo in it that you put on and rubbed his hair and then it was clean and smelled good. It's called rinse less shampoo cap. I wish you could buy these in the store for camping.

The last day in the hospital I could tell he felt better. Here he's playing with a straw.

The cousins made him a get well poster with lots of famous people signing it that Seth loved. It was funny.

 I was so happy when they took this out. It had a tube that went almost to his heart. It was a very fast way to give him the antibiotics everyday. I'm grateful for it but it looked painful.

Lyssa's family came everyday and brought us good food and walked around the grounds with us. This was a huge model train set up in the lobby for one day.

 Back home at Lyssa's house holding a corn dog. Yay!

 This picture was taken when we first arrived in Denver. The cousins turned on the hose and had a great time jumping and getting wet. (Katie was in Peru doing Humanitarian work. We missed her!) Thanks to Lyssa and Peter for everything they did for us for this trip. It ended up being an extended vacation with a lot of extra work for them.