But the biggest surprise by far- on her stomach was a scar!

(This post is completely out of order, but I am so behind that I am forgetting things and wanted to get this typed out before I forget.  Brian R. left after a month long visit and my parents came the very same day.  I literally drove Brian R. to the airport and picked up my parents at the same time.  So to catch you up, they were here during these events.)

In the middle of the night

Miss Clavel turned on her light

and said, "Something is not right!"

Let's start at the beginning.  Wednesday, September 8th, we were at the library, Hannah's favorite place of all time, and she started having a stomach ache.  She didn't feel good still by the time we were leaving to go to the track for our homeschool gym day.  I told her she could lay down on a blanket and skip the exercise that day.  Bless her heart, by the time we left she was feeling really bad and I was wondering if this was something like a stomach bug.  The plan had been for me to drop the big four kids with Mimi off at the movie theater to see Pete's Dragon because it was the last day it was showing.  She didn't want to go, and I knew then she must feel really badly.  I get her tucked in and she is writhing in pain all evening. Finally she starts throwing up around 8:15pm and I was still sitting with her at 10:15pm telling her she'd feel so much better in another 5 hours or so when this stomach bug passed.  That's been my experience.  We've had a lot of them in this house and it usually doesn't last long.  I turned on a movie, disinfected the bathroom, brought her a clean trash can, and said good night.  I went to bed and checked on her first thing in the morning since I hadn't heard from her all night.  She was sleeping so I went down to start getting ready for my eye appointment that morning.  She comes down, doubled over right before Brian leaves fro work and says the pain is worse and its a different pain now.  Turns out she never threw up again all night, but she barely had been able to sleep either.  She was up until at least 4am.  My sweet girl didn't come get me in all that time because she didn't want to wake me, but I felt horrible that she went through that alone.  

Brian examined her and told me I needed to take her in ASAP and rule out appendicitis.  He said it seems like all signs are pointing to that.  I couldn't get her an appointment, so we headed to the ER.  We got there at 9am.  Praise the Lord my parents were visiting and could watch the other kids while I took her in.  It was a classic case of appendicitis the doctor thought, but he needed to confirm with an ultrasound.

Yep, that sucker was twice as big as it was supposed to be and she was wheeled to the OR as soon as they got her IV in and gave her some morphine.  That was her first IV and the nurse had some trouble with it so Hannah was crying and very upset.  She was super scared about the whole thing.  I tried my best to comfort her with stories and telling her how the surgery part was going to be the easy part and she'd feel so much better with it out.  The docs and nurses were all very nice and made her laugh and smile a bit before I had to leave the prep room at 1pm.

I was completely at peace about this entire situation.  My mom and sister both really and truly almost died from a ruptured appendix, two of my aunts had cancer that started in their appendix (one of which discovered during a routine appendectomy), and I am a total worry wart.  And yet, I was calm and not worried at all.  I just felt like this was catching it early enough and that she was going to be okay.  I am so thankful for that peace that surpasses all understanding.

In recovery

Of course, she was okay, and the surgery went well.  All was clear and good.  She was sore, but feeling 70% better by the middle of that night.  We stayed only one night and she was ready to go home the next morning.  Genevieve was dying to see her and had been very worried about her best friend the whole time.

The perks of having your appendix out...popcycles!

Genevieve and I pampered our patient for quite a few days while she hung out in my bed.  Brian had a trip that he was supposed to leave for on the early morning of the day she came home from the hospital, but he postponed it a day to make sure Hannah was home and healing nicely first.  When he left she stole his side of the bed until he got back a few days later.  Her room is all the way at the top of the house on the sixth floor and she wasn't doing stairs too easily yet.  She was spoiled with movies and meals in bed for those few days.  She was feeling much much better after that and was able to do the stairs and eat at the table.  She got off chore duty for another week and then had only half duty, so Isaac and Genevieve were working extra hard for a while there.  She is now back to normal...almost.  She still can't do running, jumping, or heavy lifting (i.e. carrying Bobby) for another week or so.  She had her post op appointment and all is well on the healing front.

We are so thankful for this girl and extra thankful that God protected her from a ruptured appendix by having Brian be able to check her out before work.  If she had woken up 5 minutes later, he would have been on his way to work already and who knows how long it would have taken me to decide to take her in.  You only have 48 hours usually before it ruptures once symptoms set in.  She was in surgery at almost exactly the 24 hour mark.