On Saturday night around 1am, Cullen woke us up because he had a pain in his stomach. I poked around and he hurt on his right side so I took him to the loo in case it was a full bladder and he went back to sleep. Around Saturday morning at 10am he complained about his right side and then started throwing up so Warren took him to the pediatrician who suspected appendicitis and sent them to the ER for a CT scan.
I jumped into the shower and got Jordan ready and met them at the ER. Cullen wasn't well at all and soon they had an IV in and got the CT scan done.
Warren entertained the crowd by making surgical glove puppet which made Cullen smile.
Both anesthetist and surgeon were already at the hospital so within an hour Cullen was transported upstairs to the OR area to get prepped for surgery.
He got the 'happy drug' from the anesthetist and was good to go. The surgery took an hour and they had to go through his belly button which has left him with scars on his left and middle (nothing on the right where the appendix is).
They tied off the enlarged and pus-smeared appendix and enclosed it in a bag (to prevent further infection) before pulling it out of the hole in his belly button. He was very dehydrated and as a result his heartbeat was fast so they pu a catheter in and fed him lots of fluids through his IV.
Warren, Jordan and I were taken to the OR waiting room which had a flatscreen TV. I was fine until I saw this picture on the wall and then I lost it. The 3 of us sat together and prayed for Cullen before settling into the waiting game. An hour later the surgeon phoned us in the waiting room to let us know that the op had gone well. Ralph, Genevieve & Bayleigh were in the area and came to see us. They brought Cullen a little bear to cheer him up.
Cullen took a while to come around and I sat with him until he woke up. They wheeled him to his room in the children's ward and the staff took really good care of us so I was very impressed. I stayed the night in a 'cot' which had a plastic covered mattress which made me sweat but I would have slept on the floor if I had to. Cullen did really well during the night and didn't budge from his initial position after falling asleep.
We stayed in the hospital until 8 pm on Sunday night. He was released once the staff were happy that he was comfortable and able to walk without too much pain. He slept well and didn't wake up which surprised me - I thought I'd be up to administer pain meds during the night.
So although he's been shuffling around the house, he's much better and will no doubt recover fully from this. He has great 'war wounds' to show his mates at school too.