sANTi's surgery

Sunday after lunch santi started acting like he was in pain all of a sudden. At first I thought it may have been something he ate, and that he was extra tired. We got him to sleep but all of a sudden he'd wake up crying and writhing in pain. Then he fell asleep finally with my mom in bed but woke up throwing up. That's when we took him to the ER
We waited in the waiting room for about 8 hours. It was scary becuase Santi really wasn't himself. He went through a pattern of sleeping and waking up writhing in pain about every 15-every 30 minutes. Even at times when awake he'd seem perfectly fine: smiling, playing, but then all of a sudden crying out again and then sleeping.
He usually only takes two one hour naps a day on average.
Sometimes he would just fuss and other times he would scream in pain.
He was very yellow and I even went to the front desk after waiting 7 hours and told them he was getting worse. Of course, I felt like they were treating me like all the other parents who may think their kid is dying of a cold, so they just told me to wait. They were moving as fast as they could.
Finally we were called back and after a blood test and x rays he was told he was just dehydrated and given two IV's of fluids. We were sent home but didn't see any change at all.
All night Sunday night Santi slept in our bed with us and kept up the pattern of waking up every half hour of so crying.
On Monday morning we gave a little bit of water and pedialite. He threw up four times.
We called the ER and they told us to take him in but that there were already 7 people in front of us and they coulnd't tell us how long we'd have to wait. We only waited about 10 minutes till they called us to get his vitals and during that time he threw up his pedialite. As Seth said, "Perfect timing, Santi!" becuase they sent him to the back right away and got started on him. I must of had to repeat my story of his sympoms and what all had been happening about 10 times. They took blood and x rays but this time they also took an ultrasound.
Oh,that reminds me, I had told the first ER dr. on sun. nite about his ab pain and told him that i wondered if it could be a urinary tract infection. he said it probably wasn't becuase he'd be running a fever and that to check we'd have to insert a catheter which i didn't want to do. I wish he'd been more thorough! I felt like they just wanted us to get out of there asap so that his room could open up for someone else.

During the ultrasound I actually prayed that God would give him the pain so they could see what was happening inside, and He did! THat's how they found out . otherwise they wouldn't have found out.

He was diagnosed with Intesusseption (sp?) which you can look up but basically is like the intestine folding in on itself.
They tried a berium enema first which usually clears it up. Only one of us could go int with him during that so Beto went. I could hear Santi just screaming for the 30 minutes, "dadadadadad". They tried three times and it wouldn't release so they had to do surgery.
Beto was so scaredafter seeing Santi during the enemas.
They went int microscopicly and were able to pull out the blockage and took out his apendix which was inflamed.
The procedure only took about 45 min.
We were able to see him afterwards sleeping in recovery.
Last night Seth offered to stay at the hospital with him since we didn't sleep well the night before and let us go home to get a good night's sleep.
We were so grateful. Seth was so good with him! Santi knows him so well that he wouldn't let Seth let him go all night. He only slept in his arms and when he got fussy Seth would whisper "Santiago" in his magical accented voice and Santi would konk out again. Seth said he only got 30 min. sleep but he thanked US for letting HIM stay with him! He is so sweet!
This morning my mom arrived to relieve Seth at 6:30 and we arrived at around 9 after getting Bake n Broil breakfast to go for us and mom.
Until about noon he was kind of fussy and slept for about 90 min., then he was playing, drinking, eating and pooping normally so we got to come home around 4pm and he hs done great.
It's so amazing to have him home playing,talking, and about 90% back to normal. He is still recovering and is a little more mellow than usual. He's sleeping now.

My sister Glenda said that this Christmas we are just going to be happy that Santi is here and we are all together.
Another great friend also mentioned how in the light of something like this all the busyness,craziness,and materialism of this season suddenly all seems so ridiculous. I'm paraphrasing, but I agree with both of them

So may you all enjoy your loved ones in the love of the Lord and be mindful and grateful of all the blessings we have this season.
Thanks so much to all you out there who came to the hospital and were praying for us and Santi. We are so humbled and thankful for all of you, especially those in our wonderful Church family at Long Beach!
God bless you and Merry Christmas!