Well, didn't see that coming
Apr. 10th, 2020 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkThorin just drove off to the ER to get checked out for appendicitis. He had been kept awake all night by intense pain on the lower right side of the abdomen, but started feeling better in the morning and then fell asleep and slept all day. So it was almost 5pm by the time he got around to mentioning it.
After I told him that's where his appendix is located, he started getting worried. He wasn't in a lot of pain, but there was still some tenderness to the touch. He looked up appendicitis online and noted that one other symptom he hadn't mentioned to me perfectly matched that diagnosis - the pain starts out near the navel, then gradually moves down and to the right. Okay, that is sounding ominous. But we took his temperature and it was a reassuring 98.0. Nonetheless, I suggested he called the Park Nicollet nurse line. Nurse talked to him for a while and then suggested that he come in to the ER. Even though I was the one who diagnosed appendicitis in the first place, I wasn't enthusiastic about the prospect of him spending a night in the Emergency Room without enough of an emergency to get anybody's attention. He may have early appendicitis, but it's obviously not on the point of rupturing. He doesn't even have a fever. Tomorrow should be fine. But he wanted to go tonight, so off he went. Since he really isn't particularly sick right now, I sent him off by himself. Now we just have to sit here and worry.
I'm not sure if I'm more worried that he will be diagnosed with appendicitis and whisked into a plague-ridden hospital for surgery or that they'll just tell him nothing is wrong and send him home. Which would just mean that he'd have sat around for hours in a plague-ridden hospital for nothing and would still probably have to go back again to get his appendicitis taken care of when it gets bad enough to be diagnosed. Because it really does sound like his appendix, doesn't it?
And how on earth did I manage to raise a child that doesn't know where his appendix is located?
After I told him that's where his appendix is located, he started getting worried. He wasn't in a lot of pain, but there was still some tenderness to the touch. He looked up appendicitis online and noted that one other symptom he hadn't mentioned to me perfectly matched that diagnosis - the pain starts out near the navel, then gradually moves down and to the right. Okay, that is sounding ominous. But we took his temperature and it was a reassuring 98.0. Nonetheless, I suggested he called the Park Nicollet nurse line. Nurse talked to him for a while and then suggested that he come in to the ER. Even though I was the one who diagnosed appendicitis in the first place, I wasn't enthusiastic about the prospect of him spending a night in the Emergency Room without enough of an emergency to get anybody's attention. He may have early appendicitis, but it's obviously not on the point of rupturing. He doesn't even have a fever. Tomorrow should be fine. But he wanted to go tonight, so off he went. Since he really isn't particularly sick right now, I sent him off by himself. Now we just have to sit here and worry.
I'm not sure if I'm more worried that he will be diagnosed with appendicitis and whisked into a plague-ridden hospital for surgery or that they'll just tell him nothing is wrong and send him home. Which would just mean that he'd have sat around for hours in a plague-ridden hospital for nothing and would still probably have to go back again to get his appendicitis taken care of when it gets bad enough to be diagnosed. Because it really does sound like his appendix, doesn't it?
And how on earth did I manage to raise a child that doesn't know where his appendix is located?
