Back to the ER

I love the swing!

Owen has been recovering really well from his surgery, and he's back to his happy self. It's been a week and a half since his hospital stay, and I got a call from daycare this afternoon that Owen was upset and won't sleep. I asked the standard list of questions to judge the severity, but being this upset at daycare is definitely unlike him. He was still eating well and not vomiting or showing any other signs of sickness. Nevertheless, I called Nick to establish a game plan.

Our plan was to take him in to see the pediatrician before elevating anything to ER status. Nick made the calls while I brought Owen home. Nick met us at home and we did our own check for signs and symptoms. He was obviously in pain or at least discomfort, and then Nick and I discovered he was swollen again in his abdomen. According to the docs, he was not supposed to swell anymore. The offices were closed for the pediatrician, so we quickly packed up for another ER visit. On the way, I called the hospital number for post-surgery questions, and they confirmed he should be brought in right away. They said a doctor would be ready to see him when he arrived. Oh no...here we go.

Owen had calmed a bit and fell asleep in the car. I wasn't sure if I should try to keep him awake, but I kept a close eye on him to make sure he was OK. I expected this ER experience to be much quicker and more focused. We called ahead, and he already had a history; diagnosis should be easy, right? It was a lot of hurry up and wait, much like the first trip to the ER. He didn't have to get poked or pumped this time, just an ultrasound and a few different doctors' examinations. Owen's mood had improved considerably after an hour or so, and the swelling had gone down almost completely. It started to feel like we just overreacted and we both imagined a problem. Still, Owen used to swell all the time before the first surgery and it never caused him pain. We couldn't afford to "miss" something again. This had to be something.

After a few hours, the surgeon's assistant came to check him out and assured us that it could not be a hernia. She could not, however, explain why we saw swelling in the area. Before being discharged from the ER, we had a chance to speak with the on-call surgeon, and he confirmed the exact opposite: Owen had a hernia on the right side. His left side had been fixed by surgery and was doing well. The right side had not healed the way we thought it had. At this point the bowel was not stuck, so emergency surgery was not necessary. The surgeon recommended scheduling elective surgery to take care of the issue before it escalated to an incarcerated hernia.

So, now we wait. The surgery is scheduled for September 18th. This time, it will be out patient and Owen should bounce back within the day. Our instructions were to avoid "excessive crying" since any pressure and pushing on the abdominal wall could cause the bowel to get stuck. Of course, excessive crying is easy to avoid in teething babies. *sigh*