On the Mend

For those of you who did not know Tim had acute appendicitis with an appendectomy on Saturday. He is doing much better now and we are in hopes he gets to come home today. Now backing up to tell the story. He started feeling a little bad on the prior Monday. We both thought it was from the wonderful supper Granna had cooked. She and ChopChop brought us supper on Sunday. It was a good ol' country meal. Everything cooked in lard, fat, butter, etc.... you get the picture. It was absolutely wonderful. We knew we would pay the price for eating it later because Tim and I are not used to eating like that. Anyway on Monday both of our stomachs did not feel the best. On Tuesday I was better and Tim still had a little upset stomach. We thought he was getting a little stomach bug or something. Thursday he started visiting the bathroom a little more. On Friday he did not feel good at all. He had N/V/D. But he still had to go to work and do a case at DCH. When I got home from picking Ben up from Mom's morning out Tim was in the bed. That is very unusual for Tim. I knew he was sick then. It had gotten so bad a good friend of ours gave us some IV fluids and medicine for him. I gave him 2 liters of fluid and the medicine without any relief. Friday night was a very long night. Then Saturday morning he said he needed to go to the hospital. So I packed everyone a bag and out the door we went at 5am. We headed to Tuscaloosa to drop the kids off at MeMe's and PawPaw's. Then to DCH we went. The ER did all the normal lab and x-rays. His WBC was 16.0 so they decided to do a ABD CT. That's when we found out. Not only did he had acute appendicitis but that is appendix had ruptured and he had a paralytic ilius. Oh boy, I thought to myself. But I knew I had to strong for Tim. This could be a very difficult and long recovery. But Dr. Gross thank goodness, was able to do the procedure laproscopic. He has 2 trocar sites and about a 2inch incision under his belly button. He also had to have a drain for all the pus in his gut. He is on 3 major IV antibiotics. Strong enough to kill anything. He is on a Morphine pump for the pain. He made it out of surgery in time to watch over half of the Alabama game not that is was anything to brag about. Now we had to focus on the recovery and letting his gut rest and start waking up from the paralytic ilius. That was one of our worries along with the possibility of becoming septic. On Monday night his bowels started rumbling. He looked at me and said "I think my bowels are waking up go get a stethoscope". And sure enough they were. Prayers answered. He has been walking the halls several times a day building up his strength. Trying not to have to use his pain pump. On Tuesday when Dr. Gross made rounds he said if your bowels will move and everything else goes okay you can go home tomorrow. Well with the help of some magnesium that has happened and then some. So we are just waiting on rounds today and the word go.
His parents will be bringing him home because Brooke had her biweekly PT today. So I had to come home. She is doing absolutely wonderful. PT thinks she should be sitting independently in the next month. Her hamstrings are much more loose. Good job Brooke. I will post some pictures later.She was 7mths old on Friday. My how time flys. Got to go she is waking up from her nap after therapy. Thanks to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. All the visits and phone calls. Thanks to the grandparents for keeping the kids. You guys are a lifesaver.