Cruz ended up in the ER yesterday. It was pretty scary. We had gone to the beach, and while we were showering off, at the beach, he started getting really whiny. I figured it was nap time, so he was probably just ready for sleep. He fell asleep as we walked up to the car. When we got home, he woke up as I was taking him to his bed. He was still really whiny. Again, I figured it was just nap time and he hadn't slept enough. Since he was still sandy, and he still needed to sleep, I quickly pulled off his clothes and set him in the shower.
Cruz was born with a very large scrotum. He had to have ultrasounds to rule out a Hernia, which they did, and so they attributed the oversize to something called Hydrocele, which is water in the scrotum. This is something that typically fixes itself by the age of one-no surgery needed. Although the shape of his scrotum had changed, it was still abnormal. I had actually called for another appointment a few days ago.
When I put him in the water, to shower off the sand, I noticed his scrotum was much bigger than he normally was. It was also very firm. I had seen this look before, whenever he cried really hard, it would get bigger and harder (kind of like a small balloon, filling with air). It didn't really bother me, because he was crying at the time (he hates showers and was still tired). So I cleaned him up and put him in his bed to sleep a bit more.
He woke up about an hour later and was still really whiny. By now, it was dinner time, so I figured he was hungry. But when I went to give him something to eat, he wouldn't touch anything. This was VERY unlike Cruz. He has always been my best eater. I couldn't figure it out.
I had to change his diaper and noticed he was still swollen and hard. I called my friend, who is a nurse and asked if she could take a look at Cruz. We went over and she checked his temperature, which was a little higher than normal, and felt his stomach, which was a little firm. She checked out the diaper area and concluded I should take him to the hospital. She said if it was her, she would take her kid.
Now, I love Danni, but she and I have different views of the doctor. I would rather not go...ever...if I don't have to. Especially not at 9pm. So she told me if I wasn't going to take him that night, to definitely take him in the morning. Not to wait until Monday (this was Friday night). I agreed and was about to head out. Then Cruz threw up. Luckily I caught all of the mess on my lap :-P
Danni quickly googled what symptoms come up for a twisted Hernia. This is what came up:
Strangulation. An incarcerated hernia may cut off blood flow to part of your intestine. This condition is called strangulation, and it can lead to the death of the affected bowel tissue. A strangulated hernia is life-threatening and requires immediate surgery.
Signs and symptoms of strangulated hernia include:
- Nausea, vomiting or both.
- Fever.
- Rapid heart rate.
- Sudden pain that quickly intensifies.
- A hernia bulge that turns red, purple or dark.
Ok. Cruz had a check for every one of those things. So I decided to take him immediately. I thanked danni very much and ran home to get a change of clothes and tell Brad what was up.
He stayed with the kids while I headed to the Emergency Room.
Once we got there, the concluded the same thing that Danni had said. They called Life Flight to take us to Kapiolani Medical Center on Oahu. They ran him through ultrasound and got him all hooked up with an IV feeding him morphine for pain.
We sat around for about 4 more hours, waiting to be processed. By the time we were getting ready to fly, Cruz's Hernia had popped back into place! What a relief! They still wanted to take us over there for surgery, because they didn't want it to happen again. But Cruz was not considered "emergency status" anymore (thankfully!). Brad was able to bring me an overnight bag before we left.
The flight over was interesting. The ambulance takes you directly to the airplane, like, 10 feet away. they pull the gurney out of the ambulance and push it into the little plane. The whole process took about 5 minutes! I sat on the gurney during the flight with Cruz sleeping, on my lap.
We got to Kapionlani about 6am. They checked us into a room and told us they would schedule the surgery for Sunday morning at 8am. On Saturday, we got to chill out and play in the park room, and watch movies. Oh! Did Cruz ever watch movies this weekend! He probably had more movies at the hospital, than he did during his whole life!
Hospital Food!
Taking a walk, to try and get him to sleep, dragging the IV thing...
They told me it would be about 2 hours, and they would call me when I needed to come back down to get him. After three hours, they called me to tell me it was not what they expected. "Everything is fine, but it's taking longer than we anticipated. Just letting you know so you don't worry. We will call you when he's finished."
Ok. Now I'm a little nervous.
After 4 hours, the surgeon showed up at my room. I almost lost it. I thought Cruz had died. Why else would the surgeon be in my room!? They told me they would call when he was done. Not that I would get a visit! Surgeons are too busy to actually talk to people...they let the nurses do that, right?! This guy had something happen that he needed to personally talk to me about!
I must have look all of these thoughts on my face. The first thing the surgeon said to me is, "Everything is fine! He's all done! He's ok!" Few!
Normally, a hernia on a baby is a small little hole - like the size of a pinky finger, where the gut can sometimes get pulled through and twisted (which is what they thought had happened to Cruz). When they opened Cruz up, they found that he did indeed, have a hernia. But instead of the small, pinky-sized hole, it was an enormous, gaping hole (maybe the size of a lime)! When the surgeon realized this, he slowed WAY down and had to figure out a different way to repair it. Normally, they just kind of stitch the hole back together. For Cruz, he had to create a mesh barrier which was big enough to cover his big hole. This was a trickier procedure, so it had taken much longer. He had to have an incision made on his lower abdomen, which would leave about an inch long scar.
The surgeon said during his entire career, after doing thousands of hernia repairs, he had never seen anything like this! Ha! My baby is one in a million! He said this was the sort of thing he might see on a 60 year old man from a third world country, who had performed hard, manual labor his entire life; not on a little baby! I asked what had caused it? Was he probably born with it? Or could it have been so bad because we didn't fix it sooner? He said this was most likely something Cruz was born with. (which makes sense, since he has always had a swollen scrotum). I wondered why they had never found it before in ultrasounds (he had had 3 or 4 and no one ever even thought he had any hernia problems). The surgeon said the reason was probably because Cruz's hernia was higher up. Not down in the scrotum, where they had looked. The surgeon was awesome! I thanked him and went to get Cruz.
He basically slept the rest of the day and we ended up leaving the hospital the next morning for home.
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