How we spent our tax refund check.

When it rains, it pours.
AFTER THE GAME After a wild ballgame Thursday night, Sire came up in a bit of pain saying he had "strained his vocal cords". He had some discomfort in his lower abdomen, needed to go to the bathroom and was chuckling about how strange this was. It quickly progressed into something very serious. He couldn't stand up straight. DH and Cobb went to get the car. Sire had to lay down right there in the arena (no one really noticed) until he could walk to the elevator. When we got out of the elevator and by the exit door, I said I'd get a chair for him to sit in, but he took off outside and leaned over the garbage can. DH was on his way down the parking structure. I told Sack that she and I would have to get in the very back of the van so sire could lay down in the middle section. He said he might throw up, so I got a paper bag.
THE TRIP HOME He didn't lay down in the van, he was on his knees with his upper half on the seat. He was writhing around in pain and we kept asking him if he was going to throw up, if he was hot, when did it start, what hurts, etc. The whole way I was thinking that it was something serious but DH was saying he just needed to go home and get in his bed and we'd give him some Phenergan. Cobb was in the front seat and looked at me and mouthed as loud as she could, "He needs to go to the emergency room!" I mouthed back to her, "I know!"
AT HOME When we got home, Sire got out of the van before we got in the garage because it's a straight shot from the van to the door to the house so it's quicker that way. We assumed he'd go to his room. Cobb got a bowl and a piece of paper and wrote, "BARF BOWL" on it and dashed up to his room but he wasn't there. He was on the floor in our room. He got up and fell onto the bed but that didn't help. I ran for the bathroom to get the thermometer and he was in so much pain, he couldn't hold it in there. Even if I had tried to keep it in his mouth, it wouldn't have worked. I called m.i.l. and said I thought we should go to the ER but DH said he'd be okay. She said to go. I got off the phone with her and DH expressed his disappointment in me for calling her but then Sire said his boy parts (that's NOT what we call them) were hurting, so we called Dr. Urologist. I was afraid DH would not paint as bad a picture as it really was for Dr. U. so I interjected that Sire said his pain level was a number 9. He handed the phone to Sire and DH said Dr. U. said we needed to go to the hospital and that it sounded like he might need a surgical procedure. Sire talked to Dr. U. in the most polite voice he could with a pain level 9 and handed the phone back to DH. During this time, Sack was upset because she still had "Time for Kids" homework to do and we weren't helping her with it. I explained that Sire had serious pain going on and to not worry about that and that she probably wouldn't be going to school the next day anyway. I called m.i.l. and we tried to work out her or b.i.l. coming to stay with the girls while we went to the hospital but then the girls said they wanted to go, so m.i.l. and b.i.l. said they'd meet us up there.
THE TRIP TO THE HOSPITAL Sire went with DH in a separate car. Sack cried most of the way there because she was still upset about the lack of attention given to her at home and the alleged lack of concern for her homework. Cobb was a great big sister and comforted her even while her little sister verbally assaulted her with the same words she gave to me. While driving to the hospital during a tornado warning (yes, I said warning), 2 fire trucks left their station on Fairview and headed up Lehman and the By-Pass, right next to where we were sitting at the light. I was on the phone with my mom telling her everything that was happening. She even heard the sirens. Of course, the loud sirens didn't help Sack's mood. Not to mention the fact that I wasn't talking to her. DH went straight down the By-Pass and I turned on Lehman to get to the hospital. Therefore, we arrived on opposite sides of the ER building.
ARRIVING AT THE HOSPITAL We parked and ran through the strong winds and the little bit of rain to the ER door. DH's car was parked at the door. Sire was in a wheelchair and DH told me to go move his car. I had the girls stay by the door while I moved his car. When I got back, I found Cobb and Sack trying to keep from crying standing away from the door and noticed the ER waiting room was deserted as was the ER front desk. Right next to the girls was the "Quiet Room" for families who, I guess, have someone who is about to die or already died and they need a quiet room. I had been in there once before when I took my dad up there and he insisted on laying down flat on his back because of back pain and the hospital employees didn't think it looked good for him to be in this position in the waiting room. So, we went in there and they told me the story of what had happened while they bawled. While I was moving DH's car, one of the nurses had told them they couldn't stand near the door or the windows because of the tornado warning. Instead of saying, "Girls, let's move you away from the window because of the tornado warning", she said, "Oh, no, you girls are not standing this close to the door and windows! There is a tornado warning and you must move away!" And she whisked them away. So, this quiet room was where we camped for a couple of hours while Sire was being evaluated.
IN THE ER DH came out a few minutes later and told me what room Sire was in and by this time, m.i.l. had come so I went to see him. He was in a gown, standing up, upper half on the bed and writhing in pain. The nurse was documenting everything imaginable into the computer and intermittently writing things down and asking questions. It seemed like there needed to be 2 nurses: 1 to nurse her patient and 1 to get the details entered in. But anyway, that's another story. Initially, Dr. U. had said he would meet us in the ER, but what he meant was that his partner would meet us there because he himself wasn't on call and that he would alert the ER staff of this critical emergency so that the ER doctor would take him immediately. It was very fortunate for us to have friends in high places because otherwise, we would've had to wait for an ER doctor and then wait for a urologist on call. The ER doctor's initial assessment was right on: testicular torsion and a hernia. Yes, a double whammy. Given the state of pain Sire was in, it was extremely painful for him to lie down on the bed not mention trying to examine him. The ER doc did a great job trying. The nurse also did a great job inserting Sire's I.V. while he was standing/leaning! He got some morphine and was able to lie down on the bed. They had a mobile ultrasound unit and tech come in to try to see if there was blood flow to the "boy part" in question. They couldn't even find that part. During the scan, m.i.l. switched places with DH. The tech didn't look like much but she was great because of how diligent yet careful she was. At the end she asked, "Is there anything else I can do to help?" That touched me, for some reason. Dr. U. #2 came in and was gentle as well. He explained what testicular torsion is and said that he'd have to get him asleep to further examine the boy parts, that they had called in a surgeon, Dr. S. to come take care of the hernia and that if the boy part in question didn't pink up, they'd have to remove it. Sire had 5 morphine doses in the ER. I signed a few different forms saying I agreed to what they would/might do because "the patient" wasn't able to.
GOING TO SURGERY Cobb, Sack, m.i.l. and b.i.l. all went to see Sire and Sack wrote him a note to have during surgery. Sire was in much less pain and they let us go with him upstairs to surgery area. Meanwhile, the girls and the in-laws were in the waiting area above the ER. They put a hair net on Sire and we signed more forms and listened to more explanations. This nurse was a guy and so was the nurse who took him back. They weren't CNA's, either, they were RN's. The nurse anesthetist was a guy, too. So nice to see men being alert, observant and caring for patients. So, we said our goodbyes and went to the waiting area. We saw a man who looked like he could be a doctor come out of the stairwell and walk toward the surgery area. We thought that it might be our Dr. S.
WAITING ROOM Usually this place is bustling with family members of people in surgery and people waiting to go to the pain clinic but now it was deserted. We had the place to ourselves! I even turned out the lights but the vending machines gave us light to see. We set up camp here while our first born was being put to sleep, had a big tube put down his throat to help him breathe and was being cut open in 3 places to have 3 things repaired. It was midnight. I'd be in my bed in 3 hours. B.i.l. went to get some food for us. Well, he got McDonald's. I just wanted saltine crackers to go with my tap water. The girls were satisfied but I went hungry (normally I'm in bed at this hour and don't know I'm hungry) but I knew I had enough muscle on my body to get energy from. And the girls soon went to sleep in the chairs. We talked about the events of the previous hours and joked around about different things. I'm telling you, at 2AM, my m.i.l. still has it! She really does! If you want someone to joke around with in the middle of the night, she's your woman. When we weren't making jokes, I snooped around the front desk and, all around actually, except for the men's restroom. There is a huge computer monitor on the wall to let you know where your loved one is in the process of surgery: either in surgery or in recovery. Usually it's filled with patient numbers and their status but tonight it just had ghosts of patients, one of whom we were convinced was Sire: Patient #57785-IN surgery, NOT in recovery. It was the only patient in surgery on the board. We waited and waited and waited. There was even a real, working computer that you could use to surf the net while waiting. So, I looked up the doctors who were exploring my son's insides. There was Dr. U. and Dr. S. As I was showing my m.i.l., Dr. S. sneaked up behind me to let me know the outcome of the surgery! I had been caught "stalking"! I looked at him and then back at the computer monitor and said, "Oh, is this you?" He looked and said, "Yeah, that's me!" See? A sense of humor can still be had in the middle of the night. DH and b.i.l. quickly came over and Dr. S. told us all about it. He said it was a hernia, just like they expected and that it was all better now and said something about restrictions and all that. We were just glad he was okay. He said Dr. U. would be out to talk to us soon. After he left, we sat back down to wait for the 2nd report. Dr. U. showed up a few minutes later and said the boy part pinked back up and he "tacked down" both boy parts inside their sac so they would never twist again. He said he needed to stay until on into the morning to make sure he's okay. I was glad about that. I didn't really want to go home and be a nurse in the middle of the night. After some more talk about it, we sat back down to wait for a recovery nurse to call.
RECOVERY We waited much longer than we thought we'd have to so we went to the recovery door and pressed the button. A nice nurse came and we asked what was going on. She said she had talked to Sire and he was real friendly and that she'd call us in a few minutes. We told her we'd just meet him in his room when they called. DH and b.i.l. went to check out his new room away from home and to see if DH would have a bed to sleep on. They said someone else was wanting a bed and they'd do their best. We went back to the girls and m.i.l. and sat back down and discussed what we would do, who would go to his room, where the girls would go, etc. and we changed our minds and went back and told the nice nurse that we'd like for them to call us when they take him to the room. A few minutes later, the phone rang and we all dashed up the hall to see him. I asked if he knew what had happened and he said no and I announced, "It was a boy!" Everyone, including the 2 techies, chuckled. DH went with Sire and the rest of us left to go home and try to sort out the evening's events and maybe get some sleep. DH slept in a hard, straight back chair with his upper half leaned over the air conditioner unit. I wonder who he learned that position from? Meanwhile, "patient #57785" was still in surgery!
TRYING TO SLEEP The girls and I all got in my king-sized bed to try to sleep. I told them they wouldn't go to school the next day until late and to just sleep until they woke up. I fell asleep sometime and was awakened at 7 by DH's alarm clock that was still set to come on. I went back to sleep and was awakened at 9 by DH's text to call him.
FRIDAY I called DH and he said both doctors had come in and one of them said Sire needed to stay until Saturday morning. He had breakfast, lunch and supper and didn't complain about hardly anything except when something hurt. I went up and stayed a few hours while DH got lunch for the girls, took them to school and went home to try to nap. I came home, ate lunch and took Cobb to church because she was leaving for a Leadership Weekend in Hendersonville and then we went back up to the hospital. We had the Chili Supper at Sack's school at 6. We had a much less stressful day considering what had happened 12 hours earlier. We went to the Chili Supper, played games, won a cake at the cake walk, bidded on some silent auction items, browsed books, brought home extra chili, explained Sire's ordeal in as little detail as possible so as to not embarrass people, and went back up to check on him and to put linens on DH's new "bed" they brought him.
SATURDAY Sire came home, sat on the couch, we waited on him and re-grouped. Sack & I went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe mostly because I had 2 students in it but also because Sack really wanted to see it. WKU played on t.v. so m.i.l., b.i.l. and 2 friends came to our house to watch it. Sack and I came home around 8:45 to watch the final minutes of the loss. Soon it was time to pick up Cobb at church and she said she had felt sick all day. Sure enough, she woke up Sunday morning with a fever of 102.1. When it rains, it pours. And then you clean up the water.