The Salmons: Who need an appendix anyways?

We have had a great time exploring Minneapolis – so much fun Dallin even wanted to check out the ER. Last week (Monday, June 23) Dallin went to a taste testing event that Target invited the MBA interns to – and Dallin had a lot of different foods. He got home around 7 pm and was already feeling nauseous. He started throwing up about 8:30 pm – I thought I was food poisoning and would pass in 24 hours. Dallin was complaining his stomach really hurt, again I just thought it was from him throwing up. Little did we know it was really his appendix.

At 9:00 pm he was throwing up every 15 minutes and knew something just wasn’t right so we googled some urgent care clinics, hospitals, and even texted some members of the ward to figure out where to go. All the urgent care clinics were closed so are only choose was going to the nearest ER.

We ended up at Hennepin County Medical Center - which is an inter-city hospital. I dropped Dallin off to get check in while I tried to figure out where to park. At this point Dallin is still throwing up, he is now doubled over in pain, pale and looks like he is going to pass out. We over heard someone else saying they had already waiting 4 hours to be seen. I didn’t know how we were going to wait that long with Dallin being so sick and Hadlee already tried. A lot of prayers were answered that night – we only needed up waiting 30 minutes before they brought Dallin back. They started an IV and got him started on anti-nauseous and pain medications.

The medications helped a little but he was still in a lot of pain. The doctor came back in and started pushing on his stomach to see if Dallin was having more pain in one area than another. As soon as she pushed on his appendix he felt a crazy amount of pain (Dallin said it was the most pain he has ever felt – this from the guy who just had hip surgery) . The doctor ordered a CT scan we just wanted to wait for the results. Hadlee did so good – she watched some shows, played some games and finally feel asleep in her stroller.

11:45 pm - Hadlee sleeping in her stroller, Dallin in and out of sleeping, and me praying it was just food poisoning. The doctor came in to tell us Dallin had appendicitis and needed surgery right away. I lost it – here we are in a completely new place, no family around, and completed exhausted. 12:30 am Dallin was getting prepped for surgery but one of his labs came back abnormal he had to do additional testing and an Ultrasound.

2:30 am – All the testing was done and Dallin was in pre-op. Hadlee woke up screaming and won’t claim down – lucky for us pre-op was empty so no one cared that Hadlee was freaking out. They took Dallin back at 2:50 am and took us to the waiting room.

I finally got Hadlee back to sleep in her stroller. It was the longest hour and half – and I felt so alone.

Surgery went good, with no issues. Dallin would be spending the night and most of the day in the hospital. Once I saw Dallin in recovery and knew he was ok I decided to head back to our apartment.

5:15 am I finally crawled into bed – hopping to get a few hours of sleep before Hadlee woke up and we heading back to the hospital. Hadlee work up at 5:30 am so she slept with me in my bed till about 7:20 am.

I woke up to a few missed calls from family, five text messages from family and some member of the ward. I went from feeling really alone to feeling so blessed to have so many people all over praying for us. The ward jumped into action, offering meal and help with Hadlee. We even had two of our neighbors came and gave Dallin a blessing.

Dallin understandable was worried about missing work – he actually sent an email right before he went into surgery. Dallin’s two bosses even came to the hospital to make sure he was ok and even to see if I needed anything. They told Dallin not to worry about work this week and just get feeling better.

Throughout the day we continue to get calls from the ward checking on us and see how they could serve us. Again prayers were answered and I was reminded again I’m never alone. I’m so grateful for my amazing family, friends and ward members.