Children’s Hospital in Seattle isn’t exactly cell phone friendly in most areas so if you are just hearing about this don’t take offense! I’ll start from the beginning because that just seems like the logical place to start a story. (Photos are not in real time)
Luke was born on July 26th 2010….yada, yada, yada…his 
1st smile was awesome and was not gas…yada, yada, yada…after returning from his first road trip to Oregon, this past weekend, we took him out of his car seat AND This is where it all began.
10:30pm Sunday night – intense screaming that not even a bath 
would calm him down. After about an hour Luke was finally able to calm him down by holding him scrunched up in a ball. So we figured he just had a tummy ache.
9:30am Monday morning– still super upset when he woke up for his 2nd feeding of the morning then took a super long nap and slept till 1pm. He’s such a cutie when he’s sleeping.
My friend
Stephanie
and her kids happened to be at my house playing and while she was holding him, after his nap, he did a projectile puke all over my kitchen floor. (Which is fine because when else is my floor going to be mopped if my kids don’t goober it up.) So we thought oh, wow he really does have tummy issues and he must be sick.
THEN I went to change his diaper which was totally dry after almost 4 hours of sleeping, which was alarming, and then I realized he had a hard mass and swelling on his right side just below his hip and there was also a dark bruise looking area on his right testicle. Stephanie and I agreed that this was not normal and that I should take him to urgent care.
And just like that we had all 5 kids out of the house in less than 2 minutes, it was a quiet shuffle of panic.
I dropped the kids off at her house and went to urgent care in Bellevue. They saw me right away (btw, I’ve never had to wait longer than 5 min. at the Bellevue Group Health urgent care center). After a few minutes with the doctor there they sent me to Children’s Hospital in Seattle where they said he would likely need a hernia surgery, but that it’s a “no big deal” surgery.
So I get in my car and realize that Luke’s in a meeting that doesn’t end for 10 more minutes. So I call my friend Stephanie and she gets her husband Tyler, who also works at Microsoft, to try to find Luke. So funny – Tyler finds a guy who is 2 doors down from Luke’s office that is “online” and messages him to try to find Luke. It worked out that as soon as this guy walked outside his office he ran into Luke so it was a fast find. Then Tyler offered to drive Luke to Children’s so that we wouldn’t have 2 cars there and plus Luke had no idea where the hospital was and Tyler did.
As soon as I got to the ER they were waiting for me…which was awesome. And thus started the poking and prodding of Baby Luke’s “down there” area. Oh and they put him in a hospital gown! I took these pictures with my cell phone camera.
They had us get an ultrasound of the area to help the doctors get a better idea of what was going on since it didn’t “feel” right. After the ultrasound 3 TEAMS of doctors reviewed the results to try to figure out if there was fluid in the area or if there was a twisted testicle because they didn’t think that it was the intestines (see below for what a Hernia is).
I felt bad because he hadn’t eaten since that morning and they didn’t want him to eat so that they could do surgery. But that was sort of the strange thing, Baby Luke didn’t even feel like eating I don’t think, he was so quiet…except for when they were feeling him all about.
He went in for surgery at about 8pm and they finished at about 10:30pm. Pre surgery they gave us all of the possible scenarios which included possible removal of part of his intestines and part or all of one testicle. Post surgery they told us that he did indeed have a hernia and that his intestines and right testicle were badly bruised, but that they were able to repair things and that nothing was removed…Thank GOD! But since he was so badly bruised they said he might have to stay in the hospital 3-7 days depending on how he would heal.
He was pretty groggy after surgery and still wasn’t allowed to eat so they soothed him with morphine and a pacifier that could be dipped into sugar water. Here he is in his hospital crib hooked to all kinds of monitoring wires and an IV.
He was super content the entire time we were in the hospital. We shared a room with another baby who looked to be the same exact age as Luke. There were no parents staying with that baby overnight which broke my heart. Every time she started to fuss I called the nurse button for her since the nurses couldn’t really hear her unless she cried really loud. For the most part she was a really good baby and hung out in a swing with a pacifier most of the time. We only saw her mom one time when she came to visit for 5 hours the 2nd day we were there. The nurses indicated that that baby had been there since birth so I guess I understand why the mom wasn’t there all the time, but still so sad. I pray that that baby will get better soon so she can go home to her family!
And well that’s the gist of it. People prayed and he made excellent progress healing. We have a follow up appointment in about a week, but we are hopeful that everything will heal just fine.
Thanks for all the prayers and special thanks to visitors who came to see us and who brought us yummy food!! AND thanks to our friends Stephanie and Tyler who watched our kids for 3 days straight on no notice!! It was so nice not to have to worry about our kids. They had a great time playing with their friends for 3 days and didn’t even miss us much. In fact when we got home Alyssa asked when we were going back to their house! And apparently Evan really enjoyed wearing Dora the explorer pull-ups that they borrowed from a neighbor since I only left them with a few diapers! lol
Ahhh no notice overnighters…if you were stranded at a hospital on a desert island and could only bring one thing, what would you bring? If the hospital had toothbrushes (thank goodness they did!!) then I’d bring my cell phone charger!
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About Hernias
When part of an organ or tissue in the body (such as a loop of intestine) pushes through an opening or weak spot in a muscle wall, it can protrude into a space where it does not belong. This protrusion is a hernia, which may look like a bulge or lump.
Some babies are born with various small openings inside the body that will close at some point. Nearby tissues can squeeze into such openings and become hernias. Unlike hernias seen in adults, these areas are not always considered a weakness in the muscle wall, but a normal area that has not yet closed.
Sometimes tissues can squeeze through muscle wall openings that are only meant for arteries or other tissues. In other cases, strains or injuries create a weak spot in the muscle wall, and part of a nearby organ can be pushed into the weak spot so that it bulges and becomes a hernia.
Types of Hernias
There are different types of hernias, and each requires different levels of medical care.
In many infant and childhood hernias, the herniated tissues may protrude only during moments of physical pressure or strain. You may only notice a prominent bulge when your child is crying, coughing, or straining, and it may seem to retract or go away at other times. Hernias in this state are called reducible and are not immediately harmful.
Sometimes tissue can become trapped in an opening or pouch and do not retract. These are incarcerated hernias, and are a serious problem requiring immediate medical attention.
(***THIS IS WHAT BABY LUKE HAD***) For example, a loop of intestine that is caught and squeezed in the groin area may block the passage of food though the digestive tract. The symptoms of an incarcerated hernia can include pain, vomiting, and irritability. If you touch the bulge it has created, it may feel hard.
http://www.ehow.com/about_5078712_hernia-symptoms-babies.html