finley's appendectomy

 On Friday, May 2nd, Finley woke up complaining of a tummy ache.  He thought he might need to throw up, but nothing happened.  He was shivery & shaky, but didn't have a fever.  So I kept him home from school & worked from home.  He went most of the day without any other symptoms, but started having a slight temperature around 4:30 pm.  He & Kenton stayed home from a get-together with our small group from church for Cedar's birthday.  When we returned, Kenton went to the store to get some snacks that Finn could eat if he started feeling better.  While Kenton was at the store, Finley started pointing out pain in the lower right side of his abdomen.  Having had my appendix removed myself, I instantly started a google search for symptoms.  It didn't reassure me.  When Kenton returned, I started asking Finn more specific questions & had him to try to stand up straight to walk.  When he couldn't really do it, we decided that Kenton should take him to the ER, just in case.  I honestly thought we were over reacting.

The check in process went fairly quickly & Kenton had a feeling (based on the reactions of the medical staff) that our suspicions were correct.  So Kenton's parents came to our house to stay with the sleeping Elsa & Cedar (it was about midnight by now) while I headed to the hospital to meet up with Kenton & Finn.

After a blood test that didn't reveal anything, they did an ultrasound & found a stool stone stuck in his appendix.  When the doctor told us that it was, in fact, appendicitis, I was shocked!  He's so young!  Just 7 years old.  Poor guy.  But we caught it very early & we could wait until the morning to do the surgery.  I went home to stay with the little ones while Kenton & Finley got checked into a hospital room.  The next morning, I dropped Elsa & Cedar off with Kenton's parents & met up with the boys at the hospital.

 They do a good job in the pediatric unit at Riverbend.  He got to keep his hand made pillow case & was given a toy too!  

The hardest part of the hospital stay was the waiting.  Finley hadn't eaten much on Friday & was not allowed to eat or drink anything before surgery!  He was so thirsty & hungry!  It was hard to not be able to help him out.  :(  The one thing that always cheered him up was the heated blankets!  :P

Elsa & Cedar came to the hospital with Kenton's parents & my parents joined us as well.  We ate lunch while Finn was in surgery, but it was so fast that we didn't have much time to kill!  They only took about 30 minutes in the operating room & then a bit more time in the recovery room while he woke up.

 Out of surgery & he's finally able to have something to eat & drink!  Yay!

 Kenton & Finley stayed one more night in the hospital.  They were discharged around noon on Sunday morning.

Home again & sitting up!  We're so proud of our first born.  What a trooper!

We were supposed to have our family party for Cedar on Sunday morning, so we had to reschedule.  Cedar didn't really notice & was just happy to have his big brother home.