|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Volume 11 • Issue
4 • Fall 2007
Ava's little princess Callie Lamb bounces back after emergency
appendectomy
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 had 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.”
|
|
|
|