The Appendix Saga: Surgery in a Third World Country

It's been a bit since our last post, but we haven't had the energy for writing and reflection. Well, Ella probably had the energy, but not the fine motor skills...or the spelling for that matter. Here's the short of it:

Tyler started feeling rotten last Tuesday. The next day, he thought he probably had a case of food poisoning. But by Thursday, he was in worse and worse shape. He was in a lot of abdominal pain and had other abdominally icky symptoms. Finally, at midnight Thursday night, or I guess technically, Friday morning, we made the call to at least get him checked out at a clinic. We took a taxi to a 24 hour clinic that looked like something out of a WWII hospital movie. It was dark, it was not particularly clean, and it was smoldering hot. They didn't allow Ella and I to stay with Tyler while he got checked out, and I was a bit scared for our safety. When Tyler came out to the waiting area to let my know he had an appendicitis and needed surgery, my first thought was, "Not here, your not!"

We sat in a room waiting for the surgeon to come and talk to him, trying decide what we should do. We didn't want to stay there. Fortunately, we were told that our insurance wouldn't cover the operation at that hospital, so we got his test results and got out. We took a cab back to our flat and called the insurance. They recommended another hospital, Hospital Aleman, a German hospital. So we hopped in another cab and headed there. (Ella is passed out in my arms at this point--it was about 3am when we got to Aleman.) Check in took a long time. The doctors were not 100% sure it was an appendicitis. It wasn't until about 1pm on Friday that he was admitted to the hospital. At 7:30 he went into surgery.

The hospital was not an American hospital, but it seemed clean and the doctors (who all spoke some to really good English) seemed capable. But it was so scary. So scary. Tyler's recovery room when he came out two hours later, was his hospital room. So when Ella and I saw him, he was just out of anesthetic, and in pretty rough shape. Ella freaked out a bit, and I just tried to hold it together. I explained to the nurse that I wanted to talk to his surgeon. The surgeon seemed a bit surprised, when the nurse called him out of prepping for his next surgery, that I wanted to talk. He said the procedure was 'easy' and no complications. They did everything laproscopically, and indeed found his appendix to be the problem.

I made sure Tyler was adequately drugged and as comfortable and stable as possible before Pea and I returned to our flat for the night. The doctor said Tyler should be released the next afternoon. When I explained to Ella that we needed to get dressed the next morning so we could go pick up daddy, she said that she'd rather go swing at the park. I had spent the past two days hailing cabs, ordering food, communicating with nurses, all by myself! I felt utterly exhausted, but also accomplished. When we arrived the next morning, Tyler looked like his old self! I was so happy to see him somewhat normal. He was already being released. So I ran to the farmicia to pick up his pain meds, and caught us a cab home. Flat sweet flat.

He's doing quite well. He's still very sore and can't pick Pea up or really even bend at the waist. The air they pump you up with to do something laproscopically gives you the worst heartburn you can imagine (I know this too well.). So he's taking it slow, and I'm trying to catch up on work, sleep, and you guys. On the plus side, Tyler will have less baggage to carry home!