Thursday evening I was at school to pick Ally up. There was an art show and she had a picture on display so I got there before her to check it out. Ally went with her volleyball team to watch the varsity play in their league championship game at a school 45 minutes away.
I texted her to see how she was doing and whether she wanted to stay and watch the school play. She said she felt pretty crummy. Her stomach hurt, like cramps but it wasn’t cramps and her back hurt. It started after lunch and had been getting worse since then.
We got home at 715pm and I asked more questions and found out her pain was only on right side and she had a fever! Right away I thought appendix. I called the on call service for her pediatrician to confirm we should go to ER.
They said yes and told us to go to our local Hospital.
So we did. Pain was really bad then like a 9 out of 10. Ally had a very hard time waiting at the ER until they brought us back and got her a bed. They did a quick evaluation, gave her some medicine in an IV for the pain and ordered ultrasound for appendix. One of the nurses told me he suspected it might be gallbladder because he thought Ally looked a little jaundiced. The doctor told us then they no longer operate on kids at this hospital so would need to transfer us. They started right away looking for a new hospital for her.
At the ultrasound the appendix was clear but the tech at my request swiped up and checked gallbladder, then called and got a new order to look at gallbladder. She did a full ultrasound of gallbladder and said this is really rare. No stones visible but it needs to come out.
Doctors confirmed. The official diagnosis is cholecystitis. Which is swelling and irritation in the gallbladder.
The doctors again explained they don’t operate on pediatric patients at this hospital and we would need to transfer.
Winchester hospital was nearest place that would take us. Children's was at capacity and so was MGH.
So we rode in an ambulance to Winchester Hospital got there about 12am. At 230am we were admitted.
All day Friday we waited for surgery which was at 5pm. Then spent Friday night at hospital and came home Saturday around noon.
Here are our photos:
Waiting for the ambulance.
Loaded on the stretcher for transport.
Getting loaded into the ambulance. I rode in the back with Ally. It was an uneventful ride, the most challenging part was that I started to get nauseous from the ride because I was sitting backwards.
When we finally got to a room at the new hospital Ally was tickled when she saw the monitor. She laughed and said “look I’m dead” because of the flat line on the monitor! Clearly she has watched too much Gray’s Anatomy. She rested and I emailed her school and tried to stay awake while we waited to be admitted.
Finally we got a room and I was so relieved it had a cot set up next to Ally’s bed for me to sleep in. It was scary for us both and I spent the rest of the night holding Ally’s hand thru the guardrail of her bed while we both slept.
In the morning we met the surgeon who confirmed that Ally needed surgery and said unfortunately they were very booked and Ally would not get operated on until 5pm. And no food or drink until then.
The hospital said Becky could come and be with us so she brought us clean clothes and hung out with us for the day.
At one point Ally said it would help if we cuddled and watched a movie. Her choice of a movie was the horror flick The Conjuring. So there were are sharing her hospital bed watching a horror movie.
It was hard. Ally was so hungry. The irony of not being able to eat was not lost on us.
One bright spot was learning that someone sent Ally flowers:
Our neighbor and friend Angelita walked Cloey for us and texted us this picture of flowers that were delivered. They were from Ally’s school, wishing her a speedy recovery.
Finally it came time for surgery. They again let both Becky and I go down to pre-op with Ally. We spoke with the surgical team and the anesthesiologist. Signed the paperwork (one of which was a special waiver for Ally’s cartilage piercing to stay in), and tried to keep Ally calm and relaxed.
Then she had surgery. It was laparoscopic so they cut 3 small incisions along her rib cage on the right side and a 4th incision in her bellybutton to pull the gallbladder out.
It took about an hour for the surgery and another hour in post op before we could see her again. It was a long hard two hour wait.
But Ally was in good spirits afterwards and was thrilled she could eat again! Some saltines, then Italian ice and some fruit loops. She was so happy.
It was a rough night. Ally was having quite a bit of pain and her IV needed to be replaced. But she persevered, we utilized a lot of her coping techniques to get through it and get to sleep.
In the morning everything was better. Clean clothes, some more fruit loops and we were discharged!
Huge thank you to Beth who went grocery shopping for us and brought Ally flowers and balloons from
Grandma & Poppy.
The trip home was exhausting to Ally. She wanted to settle on the 3rd floor and walked up all the stairs and crashed. She took a long nap, ate took her medicine and played some PS5 with Becky. She wanted to sleep up there and we said ok. Becky and Cloey slept on the other couch up there with her.
Sunday was time for a shower. Ally was nervous and scared and eventually asked for my help. I got her hair washed and she showered pretty quick. We were very happy for the bench in our shower.
One of her old gymnastics teammates stopped by with flowers and a spa gift set. It was nice to see friends.
After they left it was lunchtime and more PS5.
After several hours of playing Ally was too tired to stay awake any longer.
Zonked.
But she rallied after her nap to watch some TV, eat a pretty good dinner and get to sleep in her own bed in her room.
