My second son James Benedict had a case of acute appendicitis last Friday so he had to have an appendectomy that same day.
It was completely unexpected. He was fine Thursday evening when he went to bed. Twelve midnight he started having stomach pains which he tried to bear until 1 AM when he couldn't take it anymore. When TJ,my eldest son, woke us up and told us about James' predicament,he was breaking out in cold sweat so I rushed him to the nearest hospital.
There were "lessons" I learned over the weekend when I had to deal with James undergoing his appendectomy and recovering from the operation.
1. It pays to trust your instinct and to be decisive: Although James wasn't feverish I knew there was something terribly wrong with him already because he was breaking out into cold sweat. I made a decision immediately to rush him to the nearest hospital where at least he was given temporary relief via antibiotics.
2. It helps to have contingencies ready: When the doctor in the emergency room diagnosed James as possibly having appendicitis I had to check on the cost of the operation in case they needed to do the procedure. The estimate given to me was 50K which would include both the hospital and doctors fees. Although I knew it would be a drain on my finances it helped that I knew I had money to cover the expenses. If I hadn't saved money I would be in a terrible bind.
3. Call for help---if you have other options use them: I texted my eldest sister, a doctor,informing her of the emergency. Since it was 3 AM,I didn't expect she would answer back at once. When she finally called me back in the morning she suggested I call one of her classmates who had done the procedure on her son, Johann last year. I'm glad that option was open to me because her friend didn't charge any professional fees which saved me a considerable amount of money.
4. Prayers definitely help and so does assurance from friends: I sent a text message to one of my former classmates about James' condition. I found out later on that he had emailed members of my egroup about it because I started getting text messages saying that they were praying for James and telling me things would be just fine. One message came all the way from Canada! The fact that James recovered quickly from the operation must have been the power of prayer at work.
5. Good things can come out of unfortunate incidents ---It all depends on your perspective or outlook: In all appearances the whole thing looked like one big hassle and one which any parent would not want to experience. Funny though,I didn't feel abit stressed by the situation. For one,I had a whole weekend of bonding with my son. It made me feel like a real father again! I was amazed at James' attitude towards the whole thing. He even seemed excited about going under the knife! He wanted to see how his appendix looked like and wanted to get the specimen after the operation (unfortunately they didn't give it to him.) We watched several shows on TV (like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and the World cup match between England and Trinidad-Tobago) and we enjoyed it. When his barkada and cousins visited him he was grinning from ear to ear and loving the attention.
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