one of these kids spent most of the day in the ER...

I thought he was entitled to ice cream for dinner.





(the sister just gets it for being the sister, lucky girl!)
(and okay, I told them they could have ice cream for dinner, but did end up following up with making them eat offering them cheese/taco meat quesadillas -cinco de mayo!- and applesauce. so no turning me into the parent police.)

So... anyone else think it's ironic that I found that ultrasound picture yesterday and showed it to Sawyer and we had a very drawn out talk about not only how cool it is that that's what he (or any baby) looks like before they're born, but also a lot about how ultrasound works and how cool is it that they can see and take pictures of the inside of your body...
and then we turn around today and Sawyer is in the ER getting an ultrasound of his own abdomen??!?

Yesterday Sawyer was complaining about pain under his belly when he moved. It was just a casual mention starting off the day, that it hurt there (showing me way down low under his belly button) when he sat down or bent over or sneezed. I didn't think much of it... until, as the morning went on, he stopped being his normal active self and basically wouldn't get off the couch because it was bothering him. Fast forward to lunchtime and he had grown more lethargic and eventually, additionally, spiked a fever of 102.5°. Hmmm.
Now, I am not one to run my kids into the dr's office for a simple fever. I don't worry about the usual ailments of childhood... it takes either a lot or a long time of sick for me to call the doc. My kids are pretty healthy and pretty good at kicking illness in the butt themselves, given time. But this time? With the strange pain first (and not a tummy ache or sick stomach, but pain way down low) and then a fever... I was a little concerned.
So I took him in and after ruling out a bladder infection, the dr wasn't sure what was wrong... possibly the beginning of appendicitis? She checked all the usuals as to rule out any other possibilities... ears, throat, chest all looked good... and ran a strep culture just in case... which came out just on the slightest side of positive. She showed me the strip and I couldn't even really make out the blue line but she said she'd treat it as positive -maybe we just caught it super early so it wasn't showing up real well- and gave us antibiotics for that. Still kind of puzzled though as to the abdominal pain -again, that it was not belly pain, but rather so low and radiating- so said to keep an eye on it getting worse, moving to just the right side, etc, just in case it was coincidentally appendicitis.

Well, last evening it got worse. His fever was stubborn in coming down, he'd moved on to no appetite, frequent bathroom trips, and more pain; by bedtime he'd hardly let us touch him. I felt like more than anything it was the fever making him so miserable and breathed half a sigh of relief when we did get it down enough to feel at least halfway comfortable letting him go to bed. To then sit around all night and debate on whether we should take him in.
His fever and pain stayed at an even keel overnight, but in the morning I decided enough was enough and finally took him in to the ER as soon as Savannah was off to school.














They scoped him out for appendicitis right away... I was surprised at how relatively quickly they got us in they had him in the ultrasound room and then has his urine and bloodwork underway.














Vanderbilt Children's was great! But then of course the waiting for results. What seemed like hours later...















Turned out no appendicitis. Yay! But definitely the strep and actually the strep had caused lots of swelling and inflamation in the lymph nodes in his bowel area; hence the pain and tenderness. I had no idea there were lymph nodes in your lower abdomen and even less of an idea that they would flare up with strep throat!! Seriously... no sore throat, but fever and appendicitis type pain?!? Crazy.

They gave him an all-in-one dose of antibiotic shot in the butt... so we don't even have to worry about meds here at home and supposedly he'll feel better faster than the traditional 10 day dose. Hopefully.

We made it home just in time for me to dose him up with more Motrin, tuck him in bed for a much-needed nap, and welcome Savannah home off the bus. So yeah, basically spent our whole day at the hospital, just to confirm he had strep like our dr told us the day before. :)

He's doing better this afternoon... but of course been still doped up on Motrin.
Oh, and now he says his throat is hurting. Of course, now.

I think we'll be home from school tomorrow. He's been on antibiotics for over 24 hrs already, so he's not contagious, but I'm thinking he won't be up to it.
And that's saying a lot if you know Sawyer, poor kid...

Get well soon buddy!