Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Ouchies are No Fun!

The last couple of weeks have turned into some kind of interesting.


When I started this post, I was sitting in a room in Baptist Saint Anthony's hospital with Richard. 
 
Here's how this all transpired. 
 
Monday night Richard starts complaining his stomach is hurting.  He says it feels like he's got to go to the bathroom...kinda crampy and icky.  But, he didn't feel so bad he wasn't able or willing to take care of one of the babies that night, so I really didn't think much of it. 
 
Tuesday morning he got up and still wasn't feeling well and I could tell it had gotten worse.  Again, he tried anything to make it better to no avail. 
 
He had to deliver some fertilizer East of town, and on his way back through and on to the office, he stopped by the house to see if he could try the bathroom one more time.  I actually teased him about not going back to work because I would have loved to have him home with us for the day! 
 
Little did I know just how much time we would be spending together.  I would rather he could have gone on to work! 
 
Tuesday he started going downhill really quickly.  He ended up spending all of the morning and most of the afternoon on the floor in the bathroom vomiting.  I still had two babies to take care of, so I would occasionally go in our bedroom/bathroom to check on him and make sure he was at least still breathing. 
 
About 2:30 the twins were down for a nap in the nursery and I heard a loud thud.  I ran to the bathroom to find McH totally out of it.  He had vomited for the umpteenth time and proceeded to pass out. 
 
That was it.  I insisted we go to the doctor right then, but apparently he had called them and was told the next walk-in time was 5:00 p.m, a whole 2 1/2 hours later.  This wouldn't work.
 
The next thing I knew, I was on the phone asking his mom to come stay with the babies while I took him to the ER.  His dad met us there a few minutes after we arrived.
 
We finally got into a room in ER and to make a very long, and frustrating story, as short as possible, labs and an Xray were ordered.  The labs revealed an elevated white blood cell count, which obviously indicated some kind of infection.  When I asked the on-call doctor (Rich's regular doctor was on a medical missions trip to Honduras) about where the infection might be or what was causing it, I got no answer.  "Oh, it's just an infection...blah, blah, blah...etc..."  Hence the letter to the board.  During all of this wait in the ER, Rich was doubled over in pain.  I've never seen him like this in the 10 years I've known him and I have to say, it scared the bajeebies out of me!  He was nauseated and had an excruciating pain down the middle of his belly.  And all that was done was labs and an XRAY!  An X-Ray?  I'm not medically trained, but even I know he should have had a CT scan right then.  And don't even get me started on how every time I tried to give some information to the doctor, because Rich was in way too much pain to think or even speak, he would interrupt and talk right over me, like I wasn't even there.  He was making diagnoses based on a few minor details. 
 
Anywho, we were told he would have to be in the hospital for the next 23 hours on antibiotics to get rid of this "mysterious" infection. 
 
He was put into a room, and were told he would feel much better in 23 hours.  The next day, after lots of frustration and miscommunication, we were told he would be transferred to Amarillo.

His mom and I threw some things together, got the babies ready and headed that way. It was a chaotic afternoon, to say the least. But through ALL of it, God showed up in so many humbling ways.


He ended up being airlifted to BSA in Amarillo and by the time he got there, his appendix had already ruptured and stool was leaking into his abdomen.  The infection had spread and was actually pretty bad.

My mom's best friend lives in Amarillo, and she is like an aunt to me.  She called me while we were at the hospital and said she was headed out of state for a few days and offered her home to us so we didn't have to stay in a hotel.  She lives two exits from the hospital, and we were able to take care of her animals and plants so she could save money on a house sitter.  See how BIG God is?  It worked perfectly!  We left the day before she came home.  Rich's dad stayed in the hospital with him so I could stay with his mom and the babies during the night. 

When we got there, he was a very sick man.  The surgeon told us he should have been in the hospital two days earlier.  Sheesh.

Anyway, he had his appendix removed and spent 4 days in the hospital until he finally started to turn a corner and the infection was coming under control.  He was still very, very sore and tired and needed help himself, so he was obviously not going to be able to help me with the babies at all. 

I have to say, the people and facilities at Baptist Saint Anthony's hospital were phenomenal and amazing!  What a blessing they were to us!  And of course, the babies caused quite the stir when we would take them.  They couldn't see Richard, but we could stay in the waiting areas and the dining center with them as we traded off visiting with Rich. 

So, we stayed at his parents' house for a few days until he was stronger. 

We got home day before yesterday and then yesterday headed to Amarillo for his follow-up appointment, where he was released completely.  His incision was fine and all looked good.

We are so fortunate for our family and friends who, once again, showed up as the hands and feet of Jesus. 
Here are some pictures from our time at BSA. 

Reese sound asleep.  Papa was holding her like this and the sweet baby just fell sound asleep just like this.  This is the night of Richard's surgery, after we had rushed around packing the babies up and finally made our way the hour and forty five minutes to Amarillo from Childress.  This pretty much sums up the way we all felt when that day was finally over and we knew his surgery went well and he was okay.  

Every day we were there, we would call and ask Rich if he felt like meeting us in the waiting room on the floor where his room was, and he always said no.  We knew he was getting better when he requested to see the babies and could actually walk down the hall to meet us there.  Here is Nonni laughing with Reese while we were visiting with Daddy. 

Reese wore this outfit just for Daddy.  Truett had one on that said, Daddy is My Hero.  Nonni bought those for them at Target the day before. 

Here is Rich with the babies.  He was so happy to see them!!

This is my FAVORITE picture of Truett so far!  I just love how he's looking right at the camera and those huge, beautiful blue eyes are bright and alert!  I could eat him up all day!  I love that boy more than life itself! 


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6 comments:

  1. I'm so glad he's ok! That must have been scary! I'm still shocked that they didn't think appendix right away because it seems a bit obvious on that one, or that they didn't at least try to rule it out.

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  2. Oh no! I know how you felt, girl. D had to have his removed back in '09. Although, it didn't take them 4 days to figure out what the deal was, thank the Lord.
    Glad to know that he is alright, and everyone else is doing good, too!!! :) So happy friends and family are right there with y'all!

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  3. Oh man what an adventure!! Glad he's ok :) Those sweet babies are getting so big and are cute as ever ;)

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  4. I am so glad he is okay now. What a scary couple of weeks you have had. Thank you, God, for holding this family in your hands.

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  5. Bless your heart! And his! How scary. thankful he is on the mend!!!

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  6. char, this is the craziest story. i am so so glad richard is ok, i cannot imagine how freaked out you were. those twins are edible - love these new photos!

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