Two Weeks, Two Scary Moments

Two things have happened recently that got my heart beating a little faster than I'd like. I don't remember the last time I've been so scared.

The first one was about two weeks ago. I was at home with my little one, and we were in my room. I had just gotten a phone call on my cell phone from some telemarketer, and for some reason this guy was not understanding that I was not interested in whatever it was he was selling. Suddenly, Andrew started crying, and I used that ask an excuse to be rude (it's hard for me to just hang up on people..but the baby was crying so I had to!). I hung up and put my attention to Andrew. Did he hurt himself with one of the toys we had there on the bed? Nope. Did he have a dirty diaper that was bothering him? Nope, clean diaper. I wasn't sure exactly what was wrong with him, but he would not stop crying. So I cradled my little angel, and he would not sit still. So I figured, stomach ache. I laid him on his stomach, and rubbed his back. But he just kept crying louder and louder. I did not understand what was wrong! He turned from his stomach to his back, and back to his stomach, then back to his back. Suddenly, I noticed he was starting to lose color in his face and lips. That was when I freaked. I called my husband right away to tell him, and he said without hesitation that he's on his way home. Thankfully he works a little less than 5 miles away from home. He was home in 4 minutes, although it felt like an eternity! We got Andrews things, and took off to Loma Linda Emergency room (which is also like 5 miles away, thank the Lord!). The whole way there I was in the backseat with Andrew, and boy, did he scare me during that ride! He was hardly responsive and kept trying to close his eyes and lay his head against the car seat head rest. I, in tears, kept yelling for him to "look at mama". It worked a little bit. As we arrived to the emergency room, he started heaving, and vomited. I unstrapped him and jumped out of the car with him while Mike looked for a parking spot.
You could imagine my frustration at that moment, while trying to explain what happened to the nurses, and them responding as calmly as though nothing were wrong (I know, they need to be calm, but in that moment, I needed to feel a sense of urgency from them for my son!). They took his vitals in the back, and since everything seemed normal, asked us to wait in the lobby till we were called in.

We waited about 15 minutes (felt more like 15 hours though!), and then we were taken to our room/bed. They did some things to check him, and decided to put him on an IV because he was becoming dehydrated. Then they did an ultrasound and x-ray, which is how they found out what was wrong with him.

Turns out, Andrew had what they called Intussusception, which is basically when the small intestine somehow sucks itself into the large intestine, and causes a blockage. They said this affects (other than the obvious intestinal obstruction) blood and oxygen supply, and could potentially be fatal. They explained what they would have to do. The first step would be to do something similar to an enema. They would fill his colon with water (pressurized) to see if that will cause the small intestine to pop out and back to place. If that did not work, then they would have to do surgery. Thankfully, it popped out. It was heartbreaking during the process. They had Andrew strapped in with his arms strapped back above his head so that he could not move anything. The machine they strapped him on turned in a circle, so at one point my poor baby was hanging face down, parallel to the table, crying loudly. After the whole procedure was done, and they saw that his intestinal tract was normal again, we still had to stay overnight so that they could monitor him (the chances of it recurring were about 10%). I was so relieved to see that he was back to his happy, rambunctious self after the procedure was done. I am thankful that it was not something more serious, but I would never want to go through that again with my precious little boy.

The second scare occurred just a couple of days ago, on Friday. I got a phone call from my dad saying that he was in the emergency room after having what he called a "minor heart attack". He had to get off the phone right after that, but said he would call me back. My heart dropped at that moment. I could not believe what I had just heard. You hear about things like this happening all the time, but I never really thought about it occurring to my own dad. He's only 49, and in seemingly good health. I called my husband in tears to tell him. His first response was to say that he's leaving work (my wonderful guy), but I stopped him and told him I'd prefer he just be on standby until I got into contact with my dad again. I didn't even know where he was taken, anyway. I got off the phone with him, and noticed I had a missed call on my cell phone. It was a number I did not recognize, but they left a message, so I checked it out. It was my dad calling from the hospital. The message was brief and somewhat comical. He said he had a heart attack, and was picked up by the ambulance but he doesn't know where he was brought to at that moment (not the comical part)..then in the background I heard a nurse saying something along the lines of "you just had a heart attack and should not be on the phone; plus this is MY phone you are using. You can't use MY phone". At that moment it was not comical, I got so frustrated and wanted to find out who that nurse was so I could go punch her in the face (I would not have really done that..but at that moment I wanted to because she was keeping my dad from telling me he was fine). Suddenly the message ended, so I assumed that he hung up right at that moment. I called that number back, and sure enough, it was the hospital he was at. I spoke to the attendant in the emergency room, and she told me that he was there, and the room number. She would not give me any other information, and told me they did not have phones for patients to use. I'm getting frustrated at this point, but decided to call my aunt (his sister) with whom he had been staying with those last few days. Thankfully she was there at the hospital with him, so I was informed on everything that was happening. He was there for a few hours, and then he had to transfer to the closest hospital for his health care provider. He ended up staying overnight, and the following morning they did a stress test on him (he had to run on a treadmill). A little after noon, he was released but told to take it easy and not get stressed or angry. I am so thankful that he is okay, and that it did not turn out worse than it did.

So yeah, those are probably the two scariest moments I have had in a VERY VERY VERY long time. I do not look forward to any other scary occurrences. This did open my eyes though. I realized I need to be a little more grateful for the people in my life. They may not always be around.