March Medical Madness!!

This month has been quite interesting to say the least. Our family decided (unwillingly) the best way to help the economy was to keep Austin's doctors busy by coming up with multiple ailments that required professional medical treatment. Let's begin with case one--Steve discovered a cyst in his wrist and made an appointment to have it checked out. It's sitting on a nerve, doesn't show up on an MRI, and doesn't seem to be causing an issue. So, the consensus is to leave it alone unless it grows or begins to cause pain. It does bother him at times, but it's mostly just an annoyance! While that was happening, enter case two and three in the form of twins battling allergies. That's pretty common around here, but then a week later, Brenden contracted Rotavirus! A Sunday night ER visit resulted in a 2 night hospital stay. He just couldn't keep anything in his system and he was miserable. We were released on a Tuesday afternoon, spent one day at home, then spent all day Thursday back in the ER for more meds and fluids. I thought this would never end. Especially since Patrick ended up with a sinus infection in the midst of all that mess! The second round of treatment for Brenden worked wonders and he woke up Friday morning with a huge appetite and lots of energy!! On Monday (Spring Break) Patrick began to show signs of having the virus, but thankfully, I still had medicine on hand from Brenden and began treatment right away. He was better in a couple of days. I was thankful for that since Danae, enter case four, had all four of her badly impacted wisdom teeth extracted on Tuesday morning! She did really well, considering she had lots of pain, swelling, and soreness. Oh, this just gets better, because I got to be case five! Friday morning at precisely 1:30am I had a gall bladder attack!! I didn't know that's what it was. I thought I was having a heart attack and decided the stress of dealing with everyone else had really gotten to me. I thought I would lay there and die in peace. The pain subsided about 3-4 hours later and I thought, if I was still alive, there was a reason... so I should probably see a doctor. I was hoping for the embarrassing scenerio of being laughed at for a bad case of indigestion or over-active imagination brought on by stress... either of those would have been fine. I'm no stranger to being an idiot! I was even expecting the "you are overweight and out of shape... do something about it now" conversation. I'm no fool... the truth is the truth and I was prepared to hear it! The doctor examined me and sent me for a sonogram. It revealed "multiple gall stones" and acute cholecystitis. The nurse gave me strict instructions to take it easy over the weekend and eat extremely "lite". Not a problem since I had no appetite at all. They would make arrangements for me to meet with a surgeon on Monday. Well, Monday arrived and since I haven't had any pain or other symptoms, I had the actual appointment on Wednesday morning. It was decided that I should just have the surgery to remove the gall bladder and be done with it... Tuesday, March 31st... Nothing like ending this month of medical madness with a surgical procedure!!!

I can't wait for April to get here... that will just be full of birthdays :)