Camille's hospital experience

Camille has had some crazy pains coming from her abdomen lately.  They have been going on and off starting around April.  They weren't very painful - just uncomfortable - until this particular experience.  It started on May 28th as she was enjoying a friend over at our house.  She was making lunch when all of a sudden she was on the ground doubled over in pain.  She stayed this way for about 1 hour.  Poor thing was in tears and I could tell that there was something crazy going on.  She hung out on the couch downstairs until the pain started leaving a little bit.  In the meantime I called our doctor and had a CAT scan ordered at the hospital.  We knew it was either an appendix issue or something to do with a cyst at this point.  We wanted to rule out any issues with her appendix since it was a pretty scary thing to mess with (especially since Cameron just had his rupture about 1 1/2 weeks previous). 

Byron was up at our duplexes  and so I went with Camille to the American Fork hospital alone.  After much waiting, she had the CAT scan.  We had to wait for the results.  She was told that her appendix was inflamed on the end so we needed to head over to the ER.  This poor girl didn't quite know what hit her nor what was happening.  They ended up putting an IV into her during this procedure.  Neither of us knew this would be happening, but she was so brave.  She was terrified at what might happen.  I actually got a phone call while she was in the restroom telling me the results.  Once Camille came out and knew something didn't sound right, she started stressing out and walking down the hall away from me.  I was finally able to calm her down and tell her what the results came back as. 

We walked over and were admitted into the ER.  Camille once again had to have a darn IV put in.  We had a doctor come in and try to figure out what was going on.  The pain had pretty much left completely which made it really hard to figure out what was going on.  Normally appendicitis pain doesn't leave - it just continually gets worse.  Since she wasn't currently in pain we had the option of either going ahead and having the appendix out since it isn't needed anyways.  Or we could go home and then come back in the morning and reassess everything.  In the meantime, Byron was coming over to the hospital.  He finally arrived while we were waiting in the small ER room.  Camille had been so brave up to that point.  As soon as Byron walked into the room all of her emotions came to and she started to cry.  I think she realized at that point how scary it was and also the unknown of what might be happening.  We decided after talking this over quite a bit that we would just go home and try to get a good nights rest and return in the morning.  Camille was able to leave her IV inside her so she didn't have to have it put back in.  We were happy to be heading home - 4 hours it a long time in the hospital.

The next morning we headed back to the hospital by 8 a.m.  After dealing with an entirely different set of doctors we decided that since the pain had not returned we would just head back home and try to figure out what else this pain might be caused from. 

For another month or more she continued to have pains on and off, but none as strong as the one on May 28th.  At one point on July 9th the pain got really bad again.  I ordered an ultrasound this time to see if anything different might be found to figure out what was going on.  She had to come with a full bladder, which wasn't full enough when we arrived so she had to drink more and then we waited.  Poor thing was in pain as she had to go to the bathroom really bad and then the lady was pushing around her bladder area while taking the ultrasound.  We found out later that the ultrasound results came back that nothing was found on the ovaries, but her appendix was an abnormal size. 

We then headed over to a specialist for the appendix.  After he was able to look at both her CAT scan and ultrasound results he found out that it definitely was not an appendix issue.  He said that the ultrasound results weren't very clear and that the abnormal spot they found was from her appendix wrapping around at the end - not from it being a larger size.  This was relief to us both. 

So after a lot of craziness for the past 4 months or so, we still have no clue what is causing this pain.  They can go in internally with a camera to figure things out.  We are hoping to figure out what is going on without doing laparoscopy, but this might be our last option.  As of today - Oct. 4 - she is still having pain on and off with some days more painful then others.  Our only thoughts at this point are that they are follicles rupturing which causes intense pain that slowly leaves.  We really hope to finally figure everything out for Camille.  She has learned a lot about more than she should have to at this point in her life.