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?