Can We Have Your Liver, Then?

Here's a record of last night's adventures, compiled from hazy memory, after-the-fact analysis, text messages, and phone pictures:

2:00pm: Tasha comes home from school exhausted, has nap

5:00pm: Goes to swim class; stops due to pain in stomach, back

6:00pm: falls asleep again

7:00pm: refuses dinner, greatly alarming parents

8:00pm: temperature of 103.3 deg F; call nurse, take to hospital.

9:00pm: get seen by nurse

9:30pm: seen by doctor, diagnoses possible appendicitis

10:00pm: she gets IV tube

"Bear" also gets an IV

11:13pm: hospital computer network crashes and stays down for five hours

12:00am: urine/blood tests

1:00am: I send Heidi home to sleep

1:45am: no urine infection, blood tests show raised WBC count.

2:15am: finally get ultrasound, can't see appendix.

What's on TV?

3:00am: still sore in RLQ, lymph nodes slightly swollen. Haven't identified cause of fever yet. Doc recommends CT scan, going to find out if it can be done more quickly by skipping the drink they make you take

3:10am: nurse says she needs to do drink, then wait an hour for CT

3:15am: Guy comes in with two huge 12oz cups of iodine-laced jungle juice... have to keep awake to drink as much of it as possible in the next hour

3:30am: potty trip... Misses mummy

4:10am: keeps falling asleep; slowing down on the drinking

4:15am: nearly finished first cup of what apparently tastes like "red pee"

4:16am: fully asleep

4:18am: snoring lightly


4:27am: CT tech returns, says we need to finish at least 1.5 cups... "wake her up"

4:30am: finally finished first cup. Not using straw for second cup, using smaller cup so it's less intimidating

4:38am: nurse talked to tech; he's got 300lbs paraplegic right now; we're next and wants her to drink at least another half cup.

4:45am: sitting up... Drinking from cup. 2/3 way thru, tech back and said "ok". Go to CT scan.



4:46am: Tech remarks that he likes the drink, and often partakes while at work. Also mentions that adults have to drink three full cups, plus get an enema with it. Hopefully it's not recycled.

(l to r) CT machine, Cliffy, Tasha

4:58am: Did you know that a GE LightSpeed CT scanner talks to kids in the voice of Mickey Mouse?

Tasha and Cliffy in the "washing machine"

5:00am: back from scan. Results take 30 mins.

5:45am: CT results: "appendix not optimially seen". Go home; come back if she vomits/shits blood or seems in pain. Paperwork gets lost.

6:10am: Paperwork found, signed; head home.

6:30am: Wake Alex up for school, crash in bed, Heidi takes over

10:00am: awakened by Heidi yelling; run/stumble/crawl to bathroom where Tasha has passed out with 104 deg fever

10:02am: Heidi drives Tasha to local clinic

11:30am: diagnosis: viral infection. WTF? Tenderness in stomach has gone. First bit of good news since this began

2:00pm: wake up, start day.


Reviewing this now, events between 3:15am and 4:18am strangely mirror a typical Saturday night for me in the early 1990s. :-)