The Second Time I Spent the Night in the Hospital with Maggie

Last weekend started as a typical weekend.  Maggie had some birthday gift cards she wanted to spend.  So we went to Target and Sam’s Club, hoping to make a lunch of samples (there was only one sample out, so had to come up with another idea for lunch).  Maggie picked out a password journal that she had been wanting for sometime.  As soon as we got home, she got Rocky to get some batteries for it.  But not too long after we got home, she had an accident.  Then she started complaining that her stomach hurt.  The last time she complained about it, she ended up in the Emergency Room with a urinary tract infection.  So, we decided that we’d take her to SameDay Care and hopefully catch it early, and hopefully not end up in the emergency room.

So, off Maggie & I went to the hospital.  We spent about 2 hours in SameDay Care where they took urine and blood.  Her blood work showed a very high white blood cell count, so they sent us over to the ED to have a CT scan completed.  Maggie thought the CT scan was pretty cool.  We ended up waiting a very long time for the results.  And unfortunately, she couldn’t eat or drink anything in case it was her appendix.  She did sleep a little bit.  Finally, after consulting with the pediatrician on call and the surgeon on call, the ED physician decided it would be best to admit Maggie and have her observed overnight as the CT scan was inconclusive.  I got a phone from the ED nurse and called Rocky.  We got Nikki to bring us a bag and Maggie’s Girl Scout Bear.  We had a room on the 2nd floor.  Even after getting upstairs, a lot more waiting started.

Maggie was very brave through everything – she had to get an IV, and the nurse was nice enough to wrap Beehive’s arm as well.  The surgeon, Dr. Hancock, stopped by to see us as well to let us know what his thoughts were.  He prescribed IV antibiotics and would have Maggie’s blood drawn in the morning to see if her white blood cell count was down. So, we settled in for the night.  I’m not sure how Maggie slept, but I got a few hours of sleep.  Of course, the nurses were in several time throughout the night.  We were awoken around 5:15 a.m. by the phlebotomist to take Maggie’s blood.  Dr. Hancock was in soon after, but the blood results were, unfortunately, not back yet.  So we settled in for more waiting.  Rocky & Jessie  came over around 7 to wait with us.  We spent a lot of time walking around the hospital, looking at the fish, waiting for Dr. Hancock to return.  Which, unfortunately, wasn’t until almost 10:30.  Maggie’s white blood cell count was still high and he felt the best thing to do was to operate and take out Maggie’s appendix.

We had to wait a little bit for the on call surgery team to come in, so her surgery didn’t start until around noon.  Which gave Nikki & Becca time to come in Jessie. And of course, the one time I don’t take my phone, they came soon after to get Maggie.  They did wait for me to get up there before taking her back.  She was so scared, but was being very very brave.  The staff even let Maggie take Beehive back with her and Beehive came back with a bandage on her tummy too!  The surgery didn’t take long at all.  Dr. Hancock came out to talk to us less than an hour later and said it was definitely her appendix.  And it wasn’t long before we were back in Maggie’s room.  She slept a bit, slowly coming out of anesthesia.  We watched a lot of Cartoon Network (and a little football).  Miss Jeanne & Ellie came to visit as did some of the older girls from church who watch the girls during choir and babysit sometimes.  Kailey brought Maggie the largest gecko balloon I’ve ever seen (it even scared Rusty a little). Maggie ate some popsicles and drank some juice and started looking like herself fairly quickly – amazingly.  I had thought for sure we’d be spending another night in the hospital.  Once she peed, the nurse started working on her discharge paperwork.  I’m still amazed that we were home by 6 p.m.

The staff was great, really going above and beyond by taking care of Maggie’s bear.  Maggie was so brave through the entire process.  I was so proud of her.  I was also surprised at how calm I was through the whole thing.  I tried to take time to consciously pray a couple of times, but my prayers were basic to just keep her safe, keep her whole and my prayers were confident.  I knew the Lord would heal her.  And she was back in school by Tuesday.  And back to her old self, bouncing back quicker than I could ever have imagined.  Praise the Lord for modern medicine.