Twisted Weekend

Thursday night I went to bed around 11 and was woken up around 12 by Marra. She was crying and writhing in pain. The right side of her abdomen was hurting her and the pain was going down her leg. After trying unsuccessfully to comfort her and get her back to sleep in my bed, I decided we needed to call the Dr., thanks to my sister Bre I know what the symptoms of appendicitis are and we were worried that might be what we were dealing with. The Dr. office told us to go straight to Childrens hospital ER. Before we left I jokingly told Marra that this better be something more than just her poop shoot being blocked up. A few years ago she was having similar pain in the middle of the night, we went to Childrens to be sent home with a laxative and the diagnosis of constipation.

We got to the Emergancy Department around 1:30. Marra's pain was coming and going, she would writhe around in pain and then be just fine. She had also started to vomit. They did say they wanted to rule out constipation so they did an x-ray, she was blocked up, so they gave her an enema. Scott and I weren't satisfied with this answer. After the enema we asked that they look at her further because she was still in so much pain. After speaking with several Dr.s they decided to admit her to the hospital for observation, in case it was her appendix.

1:30 Friday afternoon (12 hours after getting to the ER), we were placed in a room on the inpatient critical surgery floor.

All day Friday the Dr.s just kept telling us they now thought it was gastrointestinal. So in other words a stomach virus in her intestines. That answer wasn't doing it for us either. Marra was still vomiting and she was now saying the pain was worse when she peed and radiating down her leg worse and into her back, but all still on the right side.

I asked the Dr. if we could explore the idea of it being her kidney, since these are similar to the symptoms I have with my kidney problems. Around 10pm Friday they decided to send her for a CT scan to rule out appendicitis and to also check her kidneys and her ovaries and all that other stuff down there. The initial read of the CT was clear but they wanted the head of radiology to check it out on Saturday.

Saturday we waited and waited and waited. Around 7pm Saturday we were told that the CT did show that her right ovary was larger than her left and they wanted to do an ultra sound on her pelvic area. Once again around 10pm we were taken for testing.

When we got back to our room after the ultra sound we were told that our Dr. would not be able to come up to talk with us until very late or even in the morning because the ER was slammed with 5 traumas. And if they had found something on the ultra sound they would have already been up to talk with us. Scott decided to go home and get some sleep. Around 1 the Dr. came in and woke me up to tell me that they did find something on the ultra sound and they would be taking her in for emergency surgery in the next 2 to 3 hours. I tried to call Scott, he was so sound asleep he was not hearing the phone ring. I decided to call my Mom and Dad to see if one of them could go to my house to wake up Scott. While I was on the phone with my Mom, they came back in to say they were taking Marra right away instead of waiting the 2 hours.

Once Marra and I got down to the surgery floor we were told the Drs thought that Marra's right ovary was twisting and untwisting and they wanted to go in and put a stitch in the ovary to hold it in place. At this point they were not sure if her ovary was even viable anymore because when it was in the twisted position it would not be getting any blood. They also did not know what shape they would find her left ovary in once they got in there. They might have to stitch the left ovary as well. The stitches would hopefully cause scar tissue that would then hold the ovaries in place indefinitely. The Dr told me she was worried about future fertility problems for Marra.

From 2am to 3:30 am was one of the longest hour and halfs of my life. Scott and Mom made it to the hospital shortly after they took Marra in. Together we waited, cried, prayed, and cried some more.

Around 3:30 the Dr. came in and said everything went really well. Marra's left side looked great, her right side was twisting and untwisting itself but it was still pink and looked very viable. They placed one stitch in the right ovary to hold it in place and now it is just a wait and see if the scar tissue builds up to hold it in place once the stitch dissolves. The right fallopian tube was very stretched out and they are not sure how much scar tissue has built up in it due to all the twisting. So future fertility on her right side is still an issue but her left side is good! The Dr also said that it was a good thing that the ovary was twisted while we were getting the ultra sound done or they might not have caught it.

We were discharged Monday late afternoon. We are home and Marra is doing great! She is camped out on our couch and not allowed to go back to school until she if off the pain meds. She is also not allowed any kind of activity until we go back to the Dr. in 3 to 4 weeks. She has three little incisions on her tummy, one on her belly button and then one on each side, each incision sight has one stitch on the inside and glue on the outside.

The more I think about it the more I wonder if this problem hasn't been going on a lot longer than just this weekend. I think back to a few years ago when Children's hospital sent us home with just a laxative, and I think of how many times over those years that Marra has complained of the same pain and we have brushed it off as constipation. We will be finding a pediatric gynecologist for Marra and monitoring her "girl parts" yearly.

This happened because of the way God made Marra, it did not happen because of anything she has done. So now what do we do? We ask God to help us understand and accept his plan for Marra.

Thank you to all that were praying for us and sent their well wishes, all the balloons and stuffed animals and text messages really help Marra feel better, as well as Scott and Me.

We saw so many kids this weekend that are a lot worse off than Marra and it broke our hearts, so we are asking that you please keep those children in your prayers as well. There were two children that especially touched our hearts, Caleb, a little boy, maybe a year and a half old, we do not know what is wrong with him but we do know he is in the hospital a lot, and we also know he did not have any family with him the entire time we were there. He has the same hair color as Kieran and the same coloring in his complection. The other was our room mate, she is a 13 year old girl named Mercadyz. She is in for a long struggle, she was life flighted to Childrens with major head, neck, and back trauma. They had to induce a coma for 9 days because she had such sever brain swelling, they also had to remove the frontal bone of her skull because of the swelling. She was just a few days out of the coma when she became our room mate, she is doing a lot better than the Dr.s expected but she has a long road ahead of her. She does not know how to walk, she has not yet gotten back her emotional sensors, she is barely talking, she was not sleeping. She will be moved to the Childrens Institute on Wednesday and will become a resident there for as long as it takes to get her back to suitable functioning. Before the accident she was a cheerleader, basketball player, and softball player. We saw her school picture from just a few months ago and she was a very cute girl. She now will have a huge scar on her head and have to wear a helmet to protect her brain. As I said above please pray for Marra but please remember all the other children as well.