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5.6.13

Trusting Your Instincts

This post is quite personal.  I wasn't going to share but thought it might be useful to raise awareness.

A couple of weeks ago my son was sick.  At first I put it down to eating too many sweets. He'd been out with his friends Saturday afternoon and they came back from town clutching bags of them!  After being up with him 6 times in the night I realised it definitely wasn't the sweets and mostly likely a stomach bug.

A call to NHS Direct put my mind at rest.  He stopped being sick Sunday morning, wasn't running a temperature but had really bad stomach pains.  I put the pains down to the number of times he'd been sick and hoped he'd feel better after a good nights sleep.

When Monday morning arrived he was still in a lot of pain, he'd had hardly any sleep but was really lethargic.

As a Mother you know your child better than anyone.  Something wasn't right.  I rung the doctors and booked an appointment for later that day.  Not long after, my son work up from the sofa in a state of panic.  He was adamant someone had just broken into the house and that the lights on the Sky box were different!

*ALARM BELLS*    I'd been sitting with him the whole time.  Clearly nobody had broken in!  I rung the doctors, saw somebody straight away and within the hour we were sitting in A&E.

My son had suspected Appendicitis.   They had no way of knowing whether it had burst and he would need surgery.  I felt guilty and wish I'd brought him in sooner.

We were moved to the children's ward and given our own room.  The staff were fantastic and even provided me with a bed, which was handy seeing as we didn't go home for 4 days!

He was operated on the following morning. Gripping your childs hand as they're given an anaesthetic and watching them being wheeled into theatre was heartbreaking.  It got me thinking about the parents who go through this on a regular basis and my heart goes out to them.

After surgery we were told his appendix had burst.  Luckily they'd managed to clean everywhere and there hadn't been any complications.  It's now been two weeks and my little man has gone back to school with a really cool scar to show all his mates.



First trip out in over 7 days
I'm writing this post for two reasons: -

1)  To make you aware there are a lot more symptoms that accompany Appendicitis.  There might not necessarily be a pain on one side of your stomach for a few days.    Click here for more info

2)  As a parent you know your child the best.  If you have that 'nagging feeling' act on it.  If we'd waited for the late afternoon appointment the doctors originally gave me, my son could have suffered serious complications.  Trust your instincts.

Have you had your appendix out or had any other kind of surgery?  Or maybe been in a similar situation?  



16 comments:

  1. Yikes, I'm glad that he was seen and treated quickly and that he has made a good recovery now. x

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  2. I'm glad your son is ok now, sounds like it was a bit of a frightening time for both of you. I always think that you should trust your instincts on things like this - because if you're wrong it doesn't matter, at least you got it checked out. But if you were right, like you were, then you can prevent further damage from being done (like you did!) xx

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    1. Thanks Hannah. That's so true. If I'd been wrong no harm done, but if we'd left it too much longer things could have been a lot worse. xx

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  3. Gosh that's really scary. But really good of you to share the story to get a bit more knowledge out there - I had no idea that there were other symptoms.

    Glad the story has a happy ending :)

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    1. Thanks. I had no idea about the other symptoms either. xx

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  4. So glad he is OK now - you must have been beside yourself. Thanks for this post, knowledge is power :) x

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    1. Thank you. Yes I was fraught but I think mu coping mechanism kicked in which helped! x

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  5. I'm so glad your son is ok! Such a moving story, you're a fantastic mother! x

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    1. Thanks Lauren :) P.s Was nice to talk to you the other day. xx

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  6. I'm so pleased he's ok! I doubt I would have kept as level headed as you if I was in the same situation. Top Mum points.

    pierrelecat

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    1. Awww thank you. Luckily the rational side of my brain kicked. xx

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  7. Blimey, the poor thing. And poor you, it must be so hard as a parent to see your child go through that kind of ordeal. So happy that he is on the mend. And thank you for sharing your story. I think you're right, trust your instincts when it comes to health and get to the hospital asap.
    x

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    1. Thank you, yes it was difficult to see him in so much pain. He's on the mend now though :) x

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  8. Oy, that's awful. I'm glad that he's all better now!

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