Making the Rounds

Andy visited both the Cache Valley Specialty and Logan Regional E.R.s while we were visiting over the holidays.

Not exactly what you would call ideal.

His first visit was due to what is called an intussusception. It's basically when part of the intestine slides into an adjacent part of the intestine, kind of like a telescope. You can read more about it here.

It happened on Christmas Eve. I had originally planned to go up to the Beav for a half-day of skiing, but last minute changed my mind. I felt like I should just stay home with the kids and let Brig go. So I did. And in hindsight I am so glad that I followed that feeling.

Andy was doing completely fine, acting normal, having fun, but then around 10:00ish he stopped and started holding his stomach saying, "Tummy hurt. Ow." And things like that. The pain seemed to subside for awhile but then it would start up again. And it kept getting worse.

Of course I hadn't gotten ready for the day yet, so I hurried and made myself presentable and then took him to the Cache Valley Specialty E.R. with my dad who had just gotten home. Sitting next to him in the car while he wailed in pain and yelled for me to hold him was one of the hardest things as a mother I've had to do. Somehow I managed to hold it together throughout the whole process.

When the pain would subside it was almost as if he was "checking out." He was lethargic and would fall asleep easily. Definitely not his happy and energetic self.

Once we arrived at the hospital my Uncle Matt and cousins Nick and Christian met us there and gave Andy a blessing. There is just something calming about priesthood blessings.

After the blessing they did an x-ray to try and figure out what was wrong with Andy. My dad grabbed a picture of Andy in the x-ray contraption. Saddest picture ever.

The results of the x-ray were inconclusive so they did an ultrasound as well, which came back inconclusive also.

They had narrowed down his pain to either an erupted appendix, a twisted bowel or the intussusception. We decided to do what is called a contrast enema, which is basically a live x-ray while they inject dye into the intestines through a catheter. The dye helps them to see the intestines in the x-ray a lot more clearly.

(Brigham had returned from skiing, got the message that we were at the hospital and arrived at the E.R. by this point.)

It was during this process that they found the intussusception and were able to push the intestine back out with the dye. If they hadn't been able to reduce it with the dye Andy would have had to have surgery.

His recovery was almost instant. We got back to our E.R. bed from the x-ray room and Andy was no longer lethargic but saying, "Tummy better" and he was starving. He was eating anything and everything we gave him.

They discharged us from the hospital around 3ish and we went home. We put Andy down for a short afternoon nap after giving him more to eat and then I took a shower. I was so exhausted. It is so crazy how tired one can get after an ordeal like that.

Anyway, that was visit number 1.

Visit number 2 was the following Sunday. We had just dropped Andy off at the nursery in my parents' ward and were sitting in Sunday school when someone came in asking for Chelsea Hicken. I got up and went out and there was Sister Frodsham holding a convulsing Andy. My heart gets nervous just thinking about it.

I wasn't sure at first glance what was wrong. I thought he was choking at first. I ran back into the room and got my dad. He came out and took Andy. By this point we had 911 on the phone and I was trying to get the story out of Sister Frodsham. Shortly after getting my dad I realized I should probably go back in and get Brigham too. My poor mom and Talon were still sitting in there wondering what in the world was going on. They didn't come out until someone whispered to my mom from across the room that there was an ambulance outside.

So what happened was that Andy had a febrile seizure, which is a seizure brought on by a fever. You can read about it here. And I encourage you to do so. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. I wish I would have known about the possibility of this happening, because febrile seizures are not indicators of epilepsy or any other neurological disease. It's just a very scary indicator that your child has a fever.

Thankfully Dr. Nordell Brown was in the building at the time. He's a pediatrician. And a good one at that.

He came over to see what the matter was and talked through everything with me. I am so glad that he was there. He was a blessing to me that day. Having a physician there that I trusted and that specialized in children was exactly what I needed. I was able to ask him my questions and get the information that I was craving at that moment.

The emergency responders were there as well and it was they who confirmed that Andy had a fever, and so we were able to know that the seizure was in fact a febrile seizure.

Well, the way our insurance works with Tricare is if there is anything like this it is just better to take them to the E.R. Otherwise we have to call and get authorization for an office visit and it just gets complicated. So we took him to the Logan Regional E.R. this time, since that's where the ambulance came from. We drove Andy ourself though. I didn't want to incur the fee that comes with an ambulance ride.

Andy had to get another x-ray at the hospital. He wasn't as keen to get in to the "saddle" this time round. After the x-ray they diagnosed Andy with viral pneumonia, but gave us an antibiotic just in case it was bacterial. And then we were discharged and went home exhausted and drained again.

So, there you have it. Two E.R. visits within a week of each other at different hospitals. I would say that I hope to never see an ER again, but I know that the chances of that with 2 boys and Brigham as a husband are highly unlikely, so here's to hoping that the next time goes smoothly!