Who Needs it Anyway?

 On Sunday after church, Brad came home and went straight to bed complaining of stomach pain.  He said it was a different type of pain than he had ever felt in his stomach.  When he first mentioned the word appendix, I'll be honest, I thought there was a chance he was being a little dramatic and did not want to pay $500 for an ER doctor to tell us he had gas. (sorry, honey :)  After we spent about an hour researching online, Brad decided to call our friend, Adam, who is an ER doctor.  We happened to be going to lifegroup that night with Adam, so they planned for him to examine Brad.  After the exam, he told Brad that if it were him, he would go to the ER.  So he did and a couple hours later, the CAT scan confirmed that it was, in fact, appendicitis.    

(being dramatic for the camera)

 The surgeon came in and told Brad that he was exhausted from being up all of the previous night.  He implied that it was probably more dangerous for him to try to operate than to wait a night since the infection was mild.  Brad and I had been wanting a night away from the kids for awhile and we got it. 

 On Monday, he went into surgery around 12 and I was able to get updates of his progress on a screen in the waiting area.  During the whole ordeal, neither of us were very anxious since it is such a common procedure, but a little bit of fear crept up in me when he had to hand me his wedding ring right before surgery. 

 I was able to go and be with him in the recovery room around 2:30 and by 3:30, we were out the door. 

 His recovery has gone well and after being home a day, he went back to work today.  The most pain is in his shoulder from the gas they used to expand the abdomen during the procedure.  We are just thankful that it was caught early and that we have access to amazing healthcare in this country!