Warning–this post contains information of emergency urological kind. If you are squeamish, stop reading and enjoy this picture of lovely flowers. If you dare read on…
Okay, we’ll continue…
Acroboy came to me yesterday and complained of unusual pain in his groin. He has a habit of wrestling with his brothers, so I kept an eye on him and asked him to be a little more quiet. I had a visit planned to the doctor a few days later and I figured I would ask about his pain then. It seemed to get better as the day wore on.
The next day, (Sunday) he seemed to be back to his happy, usual self. He was playing and while I still planned on talking to the doctor, I wasn’t overly worried.
Things changed Sunday night though. I went to sleep and Dear Husband stayed up late working. Acroboy woke up in extreme pain in the middle of the night. My sweet husband had a niggling feeling that he needed to get Acroboy looked at. He sent him to me. I was pretty groggy and had Acroboy lay down beside me while DH looked up symptoms. He came back to us and found us both asleep. He almost let us keep sleeping, but he had that little voice whispering to him that he needed to get Acroboy into the ER. He woke us, and took him in.
Fast forward to a few hours later. I was getting kids up at 5:40 per the usual, when I reached Dear Husband. Acroboy was in surgery for testicular torsion.
Testicular torsion is when one of the testicles twists internally and blood flow is cut off to the testes. If not treated in time, it can result in the loss of the affected teste. The lack of blood flow causes pain. Sometimes the testicle(s) can untwist themselves and the pain will subside (which is what happened to Acroboy), but once it has happened, there is a great risk of reoccurance (which is what also happened to us).
I woke my mother-in-law (who was mercifully visiting us) and she finished getting the kids out the door to school while I went over to the hospital to join my husband. We were both waiting for him when he got out of surgery. He was pretty groggy, and nauseated. He needed the emysis bag a few times. The surgeon felt confident he had fixed the torsion in time and that Acroboy would keep all his boy parts. This was truly an answer to many, many, many prayers.
My poor husband really didn’t get any sleep during the night, so I had him lay on the pull out chair/bed. It was a restless sleep at best without his CPAP machine. I let them both sleep while I read scriptures, wrote in my journal and surfed Pinterest.
Eventually everyone woke up for bits and pieces at a time. I had a previous appointment for Baby Girl to see the podiatrist for a plantar wart under her big toe. I had my mother-in-law bring her the hospital with the extra car-seat. I took Baby Girl to her podiatry appointment (she is so cute and knows the drill to pull off her shoe and sock when she sits in the big chair). Acroboy was still mostly sleepy like Dear Husband. When I was done, I called my husband and had him meet me out in front of the hospital and had him take my car with Baby Girl home. It worked out so Acroboy was never without one of us for more than a few minutes.
Acroboy was a trooper. He asked for very little pain medication. His biggest problem was the nausea. We finally got an order for anti-nausea medicine filled. The urologist who performed the surgery wanted our pediatrician to check him out and sign the discharge papers. Our pediatrician doesn’t actually have privileges at the hospital so she works with another group. It took a while to convey all that correctly, and so it was later in the day when Acroboy was finally released.
My in-laws made dinner, picked up kids from the bus stop and one of our schools and watched Baby Girl. My husband and I independently picked up other children (after I got Acroboy home). Then Dear Husband had to leave for the airport for a business trip. My in-laws had planned on leaving, but stayed an extra day to make sure we were going to be okay.
It was not the happiest thing to have happened to our family, but I am sooooo thankful for the tender mercies of the Lord that 1) My husband listened to the still, small voice telling him to get Acroboy checked out. 2) All this happened when my in-laws were visiting and they could help us so much. I can only imagine how chaotic and hard it would have been if it had happened just one day later. 3) That our prayers were answered.
The Lord was truly looking out for us. Even in adversity He is our rock and help.