It was a hectic day on Saturday. We were baking, Shaun had Ice Hockey lessons, Rob was doing some handy-man work for my dad and there were tons of errands to run. During all of this Sabreena was silently suffering with some belly pains.

The kids and I were heading out to a Cookie Exchange and #FlatoutHolidayFun Party but our plans kinda crumbled. Our cookies and brownies along with yogurt and leftover spaghetti ended up being our dinner. Soon after that Sabreena mentioned that her stomach was still hurting; in fact the pains were getting worse. After she showed me exactly where she was hurting I knew we needed to head to the hospital. Her pain was localized right behind her belly button and some movement to the right.

We showed up at the hospital about 9pm Saturday night to a room full of patients; not a promising scene. After a check-in, elementary triage and the same questions asked 353 times we were told that just based on her description of her pain and touch of her belly it was a safe assumption it was appendicitis. At 11pm she was in a treatment room, donning a lovely floral hospital gown and ready to throw down with the nurse that dared approach her with a needle. She had a hellish meltdown complete with tears, screams, STOOOOOOOOPs and having to be held down. I’m not really sure where this came from but she scared her nurse, we never saw her again.

At midnight we were told she was going to be sent for a CAT scan. I called my mom and asked if she could relieve Rob at home so he could come to the hospital. Sabreena’s been writhing in pain this whole time, explaining to the docs and nurses that her pain was at an 8 or 9 the whole time. At 1am she was given a Barium swallow then told it would be 2 more hours till the CAT Scan. She dozed, received some pain meds and antibiotics and just waited. After her CAT Scan we were told to wait another hour for results.

Results came in and guess what, they see inflammation and fluid around the appendix. DUH, that’s why I brought her there. But here’s the catch, the surgeoun on duty that night refused to operate on Sabreena because he doesn’t do pediatric surgery. UGH, the local children’s hospital sent an ambulance for her and we finally arrived at AI Dupont at 5pm. After another triage, same questions and passing out in the hallway we were told that she was put on the OR board for about 9:30 am but most likely later.

Sabreena got a room, got settled in and waited some more. Finally we were cleared for surgery; it’s 11:30 am. Almost 2 hours later she’s done, in recovery and doped up on morphine, fentanyl and toradol; the jibberish comes back. We found out not only did she have the beginning’s stages of appendicitis but there was also evidence of a rupture ovarian cyst.  Whether the cyst caused the inflammation on the appendix or if they are at all related we will never now. Over 6 hours later she’s finally awake but super groggy. We went for a walk, got a couple small bits to eat and she was a new person. No more narcotics for her!

That was the longest 24 hours of my life but she’s all better and we are headed home in the morning.