Boy. Am I beat.
Okay, so here is the story. Ever since Harry was about a year old, Kile has had a real bad umbilical hernia. Harry was a chunky baby to end all chunky babies. And hauling him around in the “baby bucket” and then struggling to swing him into the middle of the backseat of our dinky Dodge Neon just did a number on poor Kile. (an aside: this whole carseat situation was one of our big motivators to buy a minivan in the first place) It started small and once upon a time, he visited a doctor about it. This doctor told him there wasn’t much to worry about and if he would lose weight and exercise more, then it would resolve on it’s own.
Well, you know what? It didn’t.
I started to pester him to get it looked at again, but there was always a reason to put it off (in his eyes). It drove me nuts. Because I could tell it was getting bigger and he would rub at it, which told me it bothered him at times. And I knew he was self-conscious about it because it would show under his clothes. He never felt he could just wear a bathing suit and not worry about it. But still. He put it off.
I noticed him rubbing at it more and more this last week. I reminded him again that he needed to get in to see a doctor about it. He promised he would. It was a crazy week though and it just wasn’t going to happen in the immediate future. Or was it?
So we’re in Elko, visiting with his family. Our niece got married on Saturday night, which was very exciting. Our plans included staying through most of this week, including celebrating his birthday (which is tomorrow!) here with family. He was looking forward to taking a week off of work and relaxing.
Sunday morning, everyone rolled out of bed early so we could meet up at a casino downtown for breakfast together. There were a lot of out of town relatives visiting who were leaving that morning so this was a way to get everyone together one last time. I swear, we filled up an entire corner of the restaurant with our crowd. Kile wasn’t feeling very good, however, and excused himself right away to go to the bathroom. He made it back to the table just in time to order a small plate of eggs and hashed browns. And then he had to get up and move around. He told me that his hernia was bothering him and told me not to mention it to his mother since she was entertaining family. Sort of joking, I mentioned that maybe we’d have to take him to the hospital. He said that we just might have to. GULP.
This time, he didn’t come back for a long time. I started to worry so I told his mother that he was feeling bad. Being his mom, she worried and sent his dad to go find him. He finally tracked him down to our van where he was reclining and trying to get comfortable. The pain was getting worse. When Kile’s dad returned to the restaurant, I went out to assess the situation. Yes, it was bad. Yes, he wanted to go to the hospital. Well that told me all we needed to know. If he was (finally) wanting to get it taken care of, it must be bad.
Thank GOD for Kile’s family. His brother and sister in law stepped in and offered to take the two boys out to their house. They would keep them for us overnight. Don’t worry about it. You know what a relief that is? His sister and brother in law offered to take our dogs (we have dogs? I’d forgotten) too. Then his sister offered to drive to the hospital so that Kile could recline in the backseat and since I didn’t know much about the wheres and hows of the hospital here. Plus, once there she could hold Evie while I took care of business with Kile.
There weren’t many people in the ER, but it was a Sunday so they were short-staffed and there had just been a seven-person accident just that morning that was keeping them on their toes. They called him back to triage and then he came back out and laid on the seats in the waiting room, trying to take his mind off the pain. We only waited a couple hours, which isn’t so bad, but it felt like an eternity with him in so much pain. Finally, they got a bed for him and he went back.
It wasn’t long from there before he was seen by the doctor and the doctor called in the surgical team. Papers were signed, consents given, gowns were donned. Before too long, Kile’s mom and I were following the gurney back towards the surgical suite and shown the waiting room. The rest of his family joined us back there and we had the place to ourselves (it WAS a slow day, after all). I tried not to think about things. It was a routine surgery, after all.
Still.
FINALLY, the doctor came in to tell us it had all gone great. The hole in his belly had been about the size of a silver dollar, but nothing was strangulated (yet) and they were able to tuck it back in. Thank goodness. He was in recovery and would soon move upstairs into a room. They would be keeping him overnight since the surgery had taken place so late in the day (it was about 4 or later by this point). We moved upstairs to see him not long after that and he looked pale, but relieved.
After we were sure that he was in one piece, we left to go have some dinner at his sister’s house. We didn’t stay long and Kile’s mom and I went back to the hospital afterward to visit with him for a while. He was looking perkier, had eaten a liquid diet dinner and was hungry for more. This was, as far as I was concerned, a good sign. He hadn’t been up to walk yet, but was looking forward to trying. We left after a while, confident that he was doing well. I was wishing I could have stayed with him, but with Evie, there was no way I could have.
I pretty much got home and passed out. What a day.
Today has been busy, busy, busy. Kile was released shortly before lunch and that was also when his sister in law dropped Liam and Harry back off. I feel like I spent the day running. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so busy. It’s not over yet. It’s taken me forever to write this post (I’m sorry it’s getting up so late!), as there is so much I need to do. As soon as I publish this, there about five different things I need to do.
Tired? You betcha.
Thank you EVERYONE for all your well wishes. Both I and Kile really appreciate it. It really is fortunate that this did happen while we were here because the support system is in place. I’m not having to shoulder everything on my own, which is awesome. I’m not sure when we’ll be going back to Reno. There’s talks of staying through Father’s Day at least. I’m thinking Kile won’t be going back to work next week, what do you think?
So that’s what’s going on here. Pardon me while I go shoot up some caffeine.
