East Coast Trip: Part Two

I left off with John in the Southampton Hospital.

Let me back it up to 2am Saturday morning. John wakes up with wrenching pain in his abdomen. Pain so horrible that he can't get back to sleep and can't find a single comfortable position. Naturally, he thinks it's because he has overeaten (which he has) and that it will pass. Finally, about 9am, John asks me to take him to the hospital because the pain is just getting worse. And when my husband, John J. Durso, is insisting on going to the hospital, you just take him to the damn hospital.

So I left the boys with all of their doting relatives and drove off with John. In Long Island, where I've never driven. Driving a rental car I'm not supposed to be driving. Totally panicked by my husband being in such intense pain. Oh, and pregnant/hormonal to boot. That was probably a good recipe for disaster right there, but by some miracle, we arrived at Southampton Hospital having made only a few wrong turns (GPS coverage is a little patchy in places) and John was ushered into the ER in a wheelchair, convinced he was going to die of stomach pain.

Eventually, he was dosed with some morphine and something else a little stronger and he was able to relax a little bit. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent getting a CAT scan, an X-Ray and just passing the time.

Finally, we got a diagnosis of a partial bowel obstruction (a diagnosis John's aunt and uncle [renowned physicians] concurred with). Now, unless you've actually experienced a bowel obstruction or have seen someone suffering from one, it sounds kind of... innocuous. "Oh? You mean you just haven't crapped in a while? Wow. Can't you just, like, take some Metamucil for that?" I now kind of understand what John went through while I was in labor with Hank. Only labor contractions actually let up every now and then while the bowel obstruction pressure and pain just multiply with time.

Yes, I just compared John's pain to labor. It was that awful.

And thus began John's four-day stay in Southampton Hospital, soaking up all of the "hospital"ity they had to offer (who says you can't find humor in these situations?). Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that after his diagnosis came through, they shoved a large tube up his nose and down his esophagus (twice, because the first tube was the wrong size) into his stomach to drain the contents and relieve the pressure on top of the obstruction. I know. It "sucked". (I just can't stop.) But you know what was worse? It was in there for THREE FREAKING DAYS. He had to talk with it, sleep with it, eat the occasional ice chip with it (he wasn't allowed to eat for obvious reasons) and if he wanted to use the bathroom or walk the ward, he had to get a nurse to unhook his tube from suction so he could walk around.

People, it was no walk in the park.

In the meantime, while he was getting better, we had to cancel our tickets for our flight home that Monday. Luckily, though, my mother-in-law and father-in-law were able to stay so we could take turns watching the boys and keeping John company. I can't imagine what a misery it would have been if they weren't there. Dealing with two small children in an unfamiliar place with a hospitalized husband by myself? I might have returned to San Diego needing a lobotomy. 

On Tuesday, John was allowed to eat clear fluids like broth, Jell-O, lemon ice, etc and when he kept that down, he moved on to harder-to-digest foods like oatmeal and an egg burrito. He was released Wednesday morning and the boys and I picked him up at the hospital. The boys were ECSTATIC to have their Daddy back.

John's dad was able to make some reservations for a flight that night at 7pm, so we packed up and got the hell out of Dodge. Or Hampton Bays. Whatevs. We got out of there and headed to Newark with smiles on our faces.

The rest is pretty normal. We got to the airport, lugged our stuff around, got on a flight and flew home. The boys did well on the flight, sleeping most of the way because it was pretty late their time (we landed at 1am East Coast time) and were so excited to play with their toys when we got home. Of course, John and I were rather dismayed at their exuberance to play with ALL THE TOYS at midnight, but eventually exhaustion won out and we were all able to get some sleep.

And that's the entirety of our trip. Lots of fun with family and friends, delicious food, some great memories, and then a four-day hospital stay. We certainly know how to hit all the bases on a vacation.