Denali appendix

One afternoon Denali and I had worked on his game all day and when dad got home from work, he got really sick. That night he slept with his dad, and I slept with the other kids. He said that his stomach just hurt really bad. That Sunday, he only made it to sacrament. I made an appointment for Monday morning with the doctor, but he got up and said he still hurt a little but was feeling better. Canceled the doctor appointment. Tuesday, we left for Idaho. He still did not feel 100% but after you have been sick for 2 days, we thought he just needed time to recover. While in Idaho he would play but then come and just lay on the couch, wiped out.  Every 4 to 6 hours we would give him pain meds because he still just hurts. He hiked twice and swam. Did not play a ton of games and was one of the first kids in bed every night.  That Sunday we gave Denali a blessing, because just not really getting better. The blessing was very blunt, seek medical attention. This is going to be a hard but fast recovery. Monday morning at about 2 am he came to us really hurting again. He started to throw up and had a fever. I slept in the living room with him. We slept for about 3 hours. When Greg got up at 7 Denali was still super sick and throwing up yellow. Greg said we have to leave now, we were out by 9, on the way home. I knew we had to make it home. Denali just layed in the back seat. We got home about 10:30 and he was in the ER by 11. His appendix had burst and had been leaking for a week. (the Friday he was sick and slept with dad) he was septic. They had to move him to a Children’s Hospital, and they would not let me drive him. They made an ambulance come and transport him. Why waiting for the ambulance he wanted a blanket, I got him a hot one, but he wished it was cold, only in Arizona. We got to the children’s Hospital about 3AM and got him all hooked up. I was able to sleep for 90 minutes before doctors invaded the room. They took him into surgery and did not take out his appendix, they put in a drain. His body had made a “tumor” around the leaking infection. Greg and I would take turns, days and nights in the hospital.  Denali was never a lone and the kids at home spent time with each parent.  (Greg was able to get family medical leave). Every day we brought the siblings over to say HI, for the “changing of the guards”. I took Colvin and Azalyn to 5 below. They each got something, but it was super important to them that Denali got something too.

The first shower Denali got, (it had been about 4 days) was a process. We had to tape up his drain and all around his drain. Then he was having a hard time standing up, so we had to hurry. Feeling clean is so nice.

The issue we had at day 6 and 7 was he stopped wanting to eat or drink because it was making his stomach work, and it hurt.  I pushed the water like a crazy person. We played a game and if I could make him laugh, he had to take a bite of something and have a drink. However, I was really good at that game, and he started to hurt. Our biggest challenge in the hospital was pain management.

He had to go back on IVs for 24 hours since his blood count would not stabilize. Day 7 I broke down in the Hospital lobby while Greg was walking me to the car. At some point you have to: brake, breathe, pull yourself back together and carry on.

There were and are so many blessings. The lord knows what is going to happen, there are no coincidences: Greg got me a new lab top. I really wanted one, but I was just going to wait for Christmas. The lab top was invaluable why Denali was in the hospital. Moving hurt and there was nothing on TV. We would just turn on movies or YouTube and he would just listen to them. When he started feeling better it was something that kept him entertained. He had a hard time walking, and he could not play with the x-box they brought in because he had an IV the whole time (minus maybe 24 hours). The lord is in charge, if we would of gotten the Texas job we would have been moving right as this was happening and who knows if he would of received help fast enough.   The last drain count was over 300ML, that is 1.3 cups of infection.

AUG 5^th Denali was able to leave the hospital!!  We picked up the kids from school. Colvin opened the door, saw Denali in the front shut it then opened it again and gave him a huge hug. Video below, sorry bookers. Having the whole family under one roof was a feeling of happiness I cannot describe.  Everyone home and recovering!!