Last week was a bit of an odd week. Jacob started complaining about stomach pain either late the prior week or over the weekend. It was on his right side. It didn't seem to get any better and maybe got a little worse. All we could do was watch it and if it got significantly worse or didn't go away, we'd obviously look into it. We figured it was probably gas or constipation.
Jacob's had a rough go lately as far as being healthy enough for basketball. He's playing for a 9th grade team coached by an assistant coach of the school he's transferring to, so stakes feel pretty high. He was sick a couple weeks ago and then somehow tweaked his neck/shoulder area while laying in bed one morning. It seemed very similar to what I did to myself last year on Good Friday, when I was towel drying my hair and something popped around my shoulder blade. His was a little higher (trap area) but seemed very similar. He had limited range of motion in his neck and was very sore. We got him into the chiropractor pretty quickly but it took three sessions and a couple weeks to get it to the point where he seemed significantly better. So that was keeping him from full speed, as well, although he did manage to do practice and the scrimmage last Sunday. We didn't want him getting a bad reputation with the coach because he was missing practices, so we encouraged him to participate as much as possible.
But by Tuesday he was texting me from school insisting we get him into the doctor because his pain was getting worse. I made him an appointment for right after school but I had a meeting so Craig took him. And much like happened five years ago, they recommended he go to the emergency room and get checked out. Ugh. We knew that probably meant a long night for them, if not worse.
They did an ultrasound that was inconclusive. His appendix appeared enlarged and not compressible (not squishy) like it normally would be, but there weren't really signs of inflammation. Bloodwork seemed about normal (although it looks like he could use some iron, just like Carter and me), so the next step was a CT scan. They were there until long into the night waiting on that. And in the end, results were...inconclusive. The appendix was large but not inflamed, and so all we could do was watch him--either there or at home--and see if it got worse. It could mean he'd have appendicitis in a couple days or even a year, but nothing conclusive. So, they came home.
He stayed home on Wednesday so we could observe him, and it was a little better than the day before but still bothering him. For two days it stayed about the same and he insisted he just wanted to get the appendix out. I understand his thinking--he can be anxious and didn't want that hanging over his head. He just didn't want to worry that it would flare up again, or face the idea he might need to live with the pain for an indefinite period of time. But I also don't think he really comprehended how much surgery would take a toll on him. He wouldn't mind missing a week or so of school, of course, but he'd probably be out of basketball for a month, and I don't think he really thought through how that would go or how it would impact his conditioning. A month is a long time.
Finally on Friday morning he woke up saying he didn't have any pain. In the meantime, we've pondered things a bit and are wondering if it could be Celiac-related. I know that probably should have been obvious, but at the time there was no indication that he'd eaten anything that could have done it. But then he mentioned having eaten Lucky Charms before it all started, and I was like, "Well, geez, that could have done it!" See, General Mills is somehow allowed to label Lucky Charms and Cheerios as gluten-free, but most Celiacs can't eat them. Jacob's never had a problem, but then again, Jacob has almost never shown any sort of reaction to cross-contamination. General Mills doesn't use gluten-free oats--they use a proprietary sorting process to remove gluten grains that might be contaminating the oats. But when they test the batches, they average the results, so if one batch has high gluten content and other batches are low enough to keep the average under the limits, they keep the batch and it could be that certain boxes are worse than others. So, it's entirely possible that could have happened here.
With that possibility in mind, we just waited it out to see if it continued to get better or got any worse. We didn't want him missing more school or basketball, and it didn't help that my jury duty period started on Thursday and I didn't want to be stuck on jury duty if he was going back in for surgery. Knowing that rupture didn't seem imminent, we pushed any further action off a bit and hoped that time would clarify things. And sure enough, once he felt better on Friday morning the pain never came back. He had a good workout Friday night and said he was okay to play in his tournament this weekend. That's a whole other story, but it's a relief that he seems to be doing okay. And if the pain does come back, at least now we have a little more history and can ask specific questions to the doctor of how a Celiac reaction might impact the appendix. It was definitely a worrisome, frustrating few days, and I'm not looking forward to the bill, but I'm thrilled he's doing better. Never a dull moment with this kid.
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