Friday the 13th will always be a lucky day for 4-year-old Callie Lamb of Ava.

On April 13, after a week of what her parents and pediatrician first thought was the stomach flu, Callie saw St. John’s pediatric surgeon Gregg Ford, M.D. An hour later, Dr. Ford performed an emergency appendectomy.

“She was a very sick little girl,” says Callie’s mom Andrea, a stay-at-home mom who was seven months’ pregnant with Callie’s baby sister, Madolin, at the time. “Her appendix had ruptured into lots of little pieces. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if we hadn’t seen Dr. Ford that day.”

Callie’s dad, Lee, who installs underground cable, and 6-year-old brother Brayen both had a stomach virus for a few days when Callie’s symptoms began.

When the symptoms persisted for more than three days, the Lambs took her to her pediatrician, who treated her for the virus. Two days later, Callie was still sick and unable to eat, so he ran X-rays and bloodwork, and scheduled an appointment with Dr. Ford.

“The night before the appointment with Dr. Ford, she fell on the floor crying and holding her stomach, but then immediately seemed to feel better,” Andrea says. “Dr. Ford said that may have been when her appendix ruptured.”

After the appendectomy, which was performed laparoscopically, Callie remained hospitalized for three weeks at St. John’s, two of which she spent in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Dr. Ford performed two more surgeries to remove infection left in her abdomen from when her appendix burst.

"We knew she was in great hands with Dr. Ford, but it was still so scary to see her with all the tubes coming out of her,” Andrea says. “But Dr. Ford explained everything to us on our level, and his assistant, Rita, was wonderful. When Dr. Ford first examined Callie and determined she needed surgery, Lee was a little hesitant, because it was major surgery on our (then) 3-year-old daughter. Dr. Ford had Lee feel Callie’s abdomen where her appendix was and explained why it felt swollen on that side, and that he needed to operate to remove her appendix. We appreciated that he took the time to do that. The nurses during her hospital stay were very good, too. If they didn’t know the answer to a question, they would always find out.”Callie’s parents stayed at the hospital with her while Brayen stayed in Ava with his grandma.

To keep Callie’s spirits up during her recovery, St. John’s Child Life Specialist Cadee Teaford brought Callie four dress-up costumes to wear and played games with her. Andrea and Lee also played dominoes, card games, video games and Candyland with her.

“The nurses wanted her up and walking not too long after her surgeries, which wasn’t easy. Having dress-up clothes there motivated her to get up and walk through the hallways because people would call her Little Princess Girl and she loved that,” Andrea says.

After more than a week in the hospital, the Lambs took Callie outside in a wagon on a warm April day.
“I’ll never forget the day she got to go outside again. She was so excited that she screamed ‘sunshine.’ She laid in her wagon and just let the sun shine on her for about 30 minutes,” Andrea says.

Callie was on a liquid diet immediately after her surgeries, but graduated to McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets and other favorite foods before long.

“I ate lots of popsicles and chicken soup,” Callie says.
“When Dr. Ford told us it was OK for her to eat whatever she wanted, my mom brought her McNuggets,” Andrea adds.

About two and a half weeks into her hospital stay, Dr. Ford began talking about when Callie would go home to Ava.

“She had to be off IV antibiotics before we could take her home,” Andrea says. “She continued to take oral antibiotics for two weeks after we went home and was back to her old self within about three weeks.”

What is appendicitis?

Appendicitis is an irritation, inflammation, and infection of the appendix (a narrow, hollow tube that branches off the large intestine).

The appendix functions as a part of the immune system during the first few years of life. After this time period, the appendix stops functioning and other organs continue helping fight infection. Appendicitis is the most common cause of emergency surgery in childhood and occurs when the interior of the appendix swells. The blood supply to the appendix is cut off as the swelling and irritation increase and the appendix starts to die. Rupture (or perforation) occurs as holes develop in the walls of the appendix, allowing stool, mucus, and other substances to leak through and get inside the abdomen. An infection inside the abdomen known as peritonitis occurs when the appendix perforates.

Symptoms

¢ pain in the abdomen which:
    • may start in the area around the belly button, and move over to the lower right-hand side of the    
    • abdomen, but may also start in the lower right-hand side of the abdomen.
    • usually increases in severity as time passes.
    • may be worse with moving, taking deep breaths, being touched, and coughing or sneezing.
    • may spread throughout the abdomen if the appendix ruptures.
¢ nausea and vomiting
¢ loss of appetite
¢ fever and chills
¢ changes in behavior
¢ diarrhea or constipation.

Child-life specialists help patients adjust to the hospital

Hospitalization can be unnerving enough when you are an adult. Imagine how scary the same experience can be for a child. St. John's Hospital’s Pediatrics Unit employs a child life specialist, Cadee Teaford, CLS, who is devoted to making a child’s hospitalization experience as understandable and close to normal life as possible.

“Our child life services include bedside and playroom activities to distract our patients from their illness or injury,” says Teaford. “We do one-on-one activities, games and crafts and group activities in the playroom, depending on the patients' mobility. We also do pre-procedure education to prepare pediatrics patients and their parents for surgery."

"We have pre-op parties on Thursday nights, where we allow the children to see and play with some of the medical equipment and we take them on a tour of the surgical floor. We answer questions and try to clear up any misconceptions about surgery or the hospital. We also often serve as liaisons between pediatrics patients, their families and the medical staff,” she adds.