And the Award goes to...!

It's 10:30 pm.
I'm at home with 3 children minus 1 daughter and a husband.

Don't worry, they're fine.
But I get Worst Mom of the Year Award.

Daphne got to feeling kind of sick after lunch on Tuesday and ended up throwing up in the movie theater that night. We rushed home and got her some pain and fever medicine, which she proceeded to immediately throw up, and then didn't sleep well that night.

We don't have a pediatrician or even a regular family doctor. NOR do we have insurance (a whole other blog topic in and of itself). We very rarely have to go to the doctor because my kids don't get sick that often and when they do it's not for long. I'm not a pill-popper and therefore, when my kids get sick I'm not the kind of mom that rushes out and gets a doctor to prescribe an antibiotic. I believe this is the main reason my children do not become ill, or at least will not be ill for very long, when most of the other children in their class are coming down with all kinds of ugly viruses that keep them down for days on end.

There is a terrible virus going around right now. People have described it as "violent". When Daphne complained all the next day of stomach cramps and was vomiting all day, I assumed it was "The Bug".
So, I didn't take her in (Nomination #1), even though when I asked her about her pains and symptoms they all pointed toward an appendicitis.
I blew it off (Nomination #2) and excused her pain with thoughts like... "My daughter wouldn't have an appendicitis if she has diarrhea, too" or "The pain wouldn't move around like she says it does if it was an appendicitis".

Yesterday, however, her fever broke and she began to feel better (classic sign of a ruptured appendix, by the way. Nomination #3!). She even got up and moved downstairs to watch TV with her siblings, but got sick upon the smell of popcorn and food and went back to bed shortly thereafter.

But this morning, when I forced her to get out of bed and walk around all hunched over, crying and in pain, to eat something, which she immediately threw up, (And the award goes to...!), I decided to take her in.

Daphne had her appendix rupture sometime yesterday (probably when her fever broke) and is in the hospital with Jonathan right now. The infection was mainly contained by the intestines which, oddly enough, folded themselves over the ruptured appendix and contained most of the leaking septic fluid. But because of this, she will probably have a longer recovery period as there was a considerable amount of pus that had hardened and was rotting.

"I'd like to thank myself for being able to achieve this award. It was because of me and me only that I have come this far. Just imagine, I wouldn't be here if I had listened to my gut instincts. I am only a few steps away from becoming the mom who gives her child a stick to bite down on and tells them to suck it up, it's only a broken femur!"
[Waves while exiting stage left.]

But really, the story isn't all bad. She did have a virus which ended up being a blessing in disguise. The virus gave her diarrhea which, had she not had, would have made the pain she was experiencing worse and made the complications with the ruptured appendix more severe. It was because she was able to pass stool around the blockage she already had that her complications did not become dangerous.

Daphne sits in the recovery room, anesthesia wearing off, with her dad watching some boring TV show that she will have no clue was even on by morning. She has a death grip on the cup of ice chips the nurse gave her and if you try to take it away from her she scowls at you. She wiggles her finger and stares at the red light on the finger pulse monitor that seems to mesmerize her. She answers the questions she feels like answering and no more. She's not in any pain right now.

She will be tomorrow.

But for now, here are some pictures of her in recovery.

(Discovering the light on her finger pulse monitor. lol!)

(She would tear up for no reason and when you'd ask if she was ok, she'd act like you were crazy for asking such a question. Poor thing!)
Ready to have you home, babe! See you in the morning!