A Trip to the ER...

Our week started off with a trip to the Emergency Room.

Monday morning Braxton woke up with a pain in his stomach. I told him to lay down in my bed and let me know if it gets worse. Meanwhile, I am in the front room with Landon and his physical therapist working with him. Just as we were finishing up, Braxton came in the room saying "Mom, it has gotten a lot worse." (I could tell by the look in his eyes it wasn't good). So I helped the therapist clean up and sent her on her way.

In a manner of a few minutes I came to check on Braxton and he was in extreme pain and tears. For those of you who know Braxton, he is one tough kid and hardly ever cries, so I knew something must be wrong. I called Evan at work and told him what was going on. He had me do a few tests, when I was finished he said it sounds like he has appendicitis. Bring him to the emergency room, I will meet you down there.

I packed up the car and started on my way. By this time Braxton was to the point of pain that he couldn't stand to sit up. We arrived at the ER and were called back within a manner of minutes. Evan stayed in the waiting room with the boys while the nurses did there assessment. At this point, they rushed us back into a room when they realized Braxton was at a point of pain that I had to carry him to a wheel chair. The doctors came in and did there assessments and said the same thing Evan did..."sound like it could be appendicitis, he has a lot of the same symptoms, but we need to do a few tests." The nurses put in an IV, took his blood, and finally gave him morphine for the pain.

(after, the morphine had kicked in)

Evan gave him a blessing, then he was good enough to take the boys out for lunch while Braxton and I waited for the results.

Just as the morphine was starting to kick in, they took Braxton to get an ultrasound, this was a very painful exam. By the time we got back into our room the ultrasound results were in. The doctors said that the tech couldn't get a picture of all of his appendix, but it looked like it was fine, she did find a little bit if fluid in the stomach, but it could be nothing. Shortly after this the blood tests came back. Braxton's white blood count wasn't elevated real high like it does in most cases.

The doctors said he could be in the early stages of appendicitis, so they would be admitting him. The pain continued, but didn't get worse.

(exhausted)

In the morning, they re-examined him and weren't ready to send him home yet, because he was still in some pain and really tender. Braxton was starting to get better and the pain had diminished a lot by the time the doctors did there second rounds at 4:00. They decided they would send us home, with orders to keep Braxton down for the next couple of days and keep a close eye on him.

They never really figured out what exactly was going on. Braxton is feeling a lot better now. He has some tenderness still and gets dizzy from time to time.