The Whirlwind Adventure

Nina and I arrived home last Thursday evening after a whirlwind week. Our schedule while in Denver consisted of:

Sunday: Drive 7 hours through the worst storm of the season, check into the hotel, praise the chain restaurant gods that a Red Lobster was across the parking lot, eat, swim, go to bed.

Monday: Go to the doctor's appointment at 9, have an impromptu ultrasound while we're there. Go to the Museum of Nature & Science (AWESOME), eat at the mall food court, walk around the mall, swim, go to bed.

Tuesday: Go to the American Girl store (an entire post in itself). Meet my college roommate for lunch. Begin the "cleanse" for the procedure the next day. Don't venture further than 5 feet away from a toilet. Clean up both puke and poop from the cleanse. Go to bed.

Wednesday: Let the very-cleansed kiddo sleep in a bit. Work out and eat breakfast on the sly so as not to tempt the kid. Brave rush-hour downtown traffic to report to the hospital by 10AM. Kiss the kid as she goes under. Knit to keep your hands busy while you wait. Meet with the doctor, watch your kid come out of anesthesia. Get a CT scheduled for the next morning since the endoscopy and colonoscopy were both clear. Learn how to flush an IV so we can keep it in overnight. Find sushi for the brave kid. Snuggle in bed. Watch her sleep.

Thursday: Get up bright and early to pack up, eat breakfast, and get back downtown to the hospital by 8:30. Find out that the kid does, in fact, have to drink contrast. Watch her swallow a piece of gum in a desperate attempt to camouflage the taste of the contrast. Hold her hand while they do the CT. Wait around for the doc to get results. Find out that he suspects what you've suspected all along. Get the IV removed. Eat lunch at the hospital cafeteria. Drive 6 hours to be able to eat dinner at home. Go to bed.


Nina's doc suspects that she has chronic appendicitis. It presents very similarly to acute appendicitis, but over a much longer time frame. He felt like, because she was not in the midst of an episode, we did not have the strongest case to present to the surgeons for immediate surgery. He sent us home with a medicine for IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) that she is to take 3 times per day for the foreseeable future. If she has no more episodes, we know it's IBS and treat it as such. However, he feels very strongly that she will have another episode, and that we will have a very strong case at that point to remove her appendix.


It was a relief for her to have a doctor take her seriously and believe her. It was a relief for me to have answers and a plan.