Superman

Okay, now time to tell about the "fun" mentioned in the last post. After we had lunch in Bear World on Sunday, Ryan started complaining about some tummy pain. We both just assumed it was an impending bowel movement. We had a four hour drive from Rexburg to get home, and the whole way home, I witnessed Ryan getting more and more uncomfortable. I offered to drive several times, but he kept saying he was fine...I could tell he wasn't fine.

It wasn't until we stopped for gas that he finally caved and asked me to finish the short drive home. Ryan's not one to complain about his pain, and mostly just sucks it up in silence, so I knew something was wrong when he asked me to drive. When we got home, he unloaded the car while I started laundry, changed Miss Poopy-pants, and helped my mom with dinner. After unloading the car, he excused himself to our room, and wasn't seen again. Right as we were finishing up dinner, I got a text from him, saying that he thought something was wrong. He was dry-heaving, had a fever, and the pain in his lower right abdomen was getting worse. We decided not to risk it, and took him straight to the ER. The suspicion was appendicitis, but I was hoping for something less dramatic like constipation or side effects from his new medication.

They drugged him up with a few doses of morphine (I won't lie, I was super jealous. I LOVE morphine, and after how sore my body was from the trip and all the hiking, I would have killed for some), then took him for a CATscan. I was a little bummed when they did this, because as I was sitting in his room, waiting for them to bring him back from the CATscan, for the first time, I was able to watch the babies kicking from the outside. I so wished Ryan was with me to experience it, but instead, he was off getting tested to make sure he wasn't dying.

By this point, we had already sent out the S-O-S to Ryan's parents to come and visit and give him a blessing. I felt badly, since they, too, had just finished the same long drive we had, and getting to the hospital meant another 45 minute drive. Just then, the doctor came in and gave the affirmative that it was indeed appendicitis, and that Ryan would need to have surgery that night. Talk about a total unexpected way to spend your evening. Kevin, Jan, and Christian showed up, gave Ryan a blessing, said a quick good bye and get well soon, and then Ryan was wheeled off to surgery.

Ryan didn't get out of surgery until about 11:00. That's when Ryan's parents went home, and I went up to his recovery room to wait for him. They didn't bring him up until 12:30. He was wide awake and looked fine. He seems to handle anesthesia much better than I do, that's for sure. I peeked at his tummy, and all that was there were three Band-aids. I bid farewell, gave him a kiss, and promised to be back first thing in the morning with Dr. Yay-yay. We live literally 2 blocks away. Man, was I happy to see my bed that night.

The next morning, as soon as Lilly was awake, we went over to visit daddy. He told me about how the nurses got him up to walk around 2 AM, and he passed out on them. All he remembered was that they had to smack him in the face several times to get him to come to. The poor guy looked like a ghost from how pale he was. Lilly tucked him in with blankie and Bear-bear, and I'm sure he felt much better after that. We practiced walking the hall for a bit, made him eat some breakfast, and then he was discharged. For the past week, I've been nurse Nanny. His tummy went from normal-looking to oh-my-gosh graphic from how bruised it got. For a while, I was worried that he had some internal bleeding from how bloated it got and how severely red and purple it was getting so rapidly. It's since started to yellow, so I'm not worried anymore.

He's not allowed to lift anything over 15 pounds for about a month, which means both of us aren't allowed to lift heavy objects, most important of which is our little Lilly. Thank goodness we have my mom to help. And help she has! She has been picking up the slack where I am quick to forget certain things, or just can't take great care of Lilly AND Ryan at the same time. Ryan seems to be slowly getting better. He still can't bend or walk very fast, laughing doesn't seem very fun because of how much pain it causes him, and he doesn't have much of an appetite. And, tonight, while trying to climb up onto the couch to read a book with daddy, Lilly accidentally stuck a finger right into one of his incisions, causing him to scream bloody murder and scare the heck out of Lilly and I. I still think he has a lot of healing to do. I'm trying my hardest to do anything and everything for him, but it's hard when I feel like I'm too sore and tired most of the time to even put on my own pants. Ha! Lilly seems to be fascinated with his bruise, because about 20 times a day, she says "let me see your owie, daddy!" and then stares at it and says "oooooh.....yeah...."

We both just want to send out a huge thank you to all of the family and friends that have helped us and sent their prayers. Right now Ryan and I are Mr. & Mrs. Gimpy, competing for who is more crippled (he's currently winning), and having the extra support has been so needed. In hindsight, it's pretty amazing to think about all of the tiny miracles that happened. That "feeling" that we just needed to go home early. Not having the appendix burst while driving, etc, etc. I can only imagine having to get Ryan airlifted to Idaho Falls, while I was to make the long car trip home with Lilly. We were truly blessed. Here's to a quick recovery...

The initial check-up when we first got there

They had a monitor that filled in family in the waiting room with the patient's status. It was a nice feature.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Keeping his ring safe

Looking at daddy's owie and saying "ooooh"

Called dibs on daddy's bed while we walked

Hospital timeout

I wonder if this had anything to do with why his appendix gave out...

WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO

I won't ever be able to look at Ryan's belly button the same way again. And they shaved my hairy man's tummy, but only half, so about halfway up his tummy, it gets all hairy again. It makes me chuckle.