appendicitis

Sooo BB’s in the ER with appendicitis.

Saturday morning he was totally fine. We read books together; he swung on his trampoline bar and played with blocks and asked me to draw a sandcastle; I taught him to play hide-and-seek. By late morning he was winding down, and he had an early nap at noon, a bit unusual. After he woke up, we went to the kitchen and I picked him up so he could see what Grandma was cooking on the stove, and he vomited all over my hoodie sleeve and the kitchen floor.

Then the whole afternoon was miserable. He couldn’t hold anything down. He was clearly dehydrated and kept asking for “a cup of water,” but give him a few spoonfuls of water and he’d vomit it up minutes later. He was crying, listless, nothing was right. He didn’t want to be read books or watch youtube videos. What he wanted was for Mommy (ONLY Mommy) to carry him all afternoon while he squirmed and flopped. Tough times for a tired mom who was hoping for a free afternoon to get stuff done around the house.

We all thought it was a stomach flu, the latest bug making the daycare circuit. At around 7 pm, brother called urgent care. They expected they’d be consigned to triage hell, but instead the nurse advised bringing BB straight to the ER. So they did. Around 2 am the diagnosis of appendicitis was made. Looks like 2026 is quite a year for everyone, huh.

(Kinda scary being a kid and not being able to express what’s wrong. Though even if he had reported abdominal pain, we would’ve chalked it up to a stomach bug; appendicitis wasn’t on our radar. Another issue was he wasn’t able to pee because his engorged appendix was, like, pushing the tube shut. We noticed he hadn’t peed since morning, but thought it was because he threw up every bit of moisture he took in—but a scan at the hospital showed his bladder super full. Poor little guy.)

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edit (4/19): Surgery was Sunday at around 10 am. It went well. We visited him in the hospital in the afternoon and he seemed to be recovering. He woke up briefly and was able to tell us about a BIG bubble (earlier, there was a children’s worker in the ward blowing bubbles to entertain the kids) and point out a leaf carved into the woodwork where the wall met the ceiling (toddlers are so observant). Then he fell back asleep. Hoping for a speedy recovery for little guy.