It's Christmas Break.....Means someone's got to be sick

Never fails, every year during Christmas break someone in the family gets sick, or worse.  Last year, it was my dad dying.  This year it was a quick trip to the ER for my youngest.  For the last few days he has been complaining of intermittent belly pain.  He also has been having a low grade fever.  My first thought, as with all my kids who complain that their belly hurts, "When was the last time you had a poopy?"  Danny told me he had one at his dad's house.  No big deal, a couple of days ago.  Well, earlier today, we were getting ready to travel to NJ to do Christmas at my Uncle's house.  First all, my kids love their Uncle Skip.  They look forward to seeing him.  So, when Danny told my mom that he thought that we shouldn't go today, as he felt too sick and hurting too bad, we knew something was up.  He was doubled over in pain, crying and crying.  Both my mom and I examine him, and took note that he had rebound tenderness in his right lower quadrant.....classic appenciditis symptoms.  Throw in the low grade fever.........off to the ER immediatly.  No sense going to his pediatrician, what are they going to say, wait a few days and come back if no better, or go to the ER and be evaluated.  So, we cut the middle man and went right to the ER.  Not what we all had planned.
We decided to go to the new local ER satellite.  We get there, and there is no one in the waiting room, and the guard tells use that there was only 1 other person in the ER.  We go right back, and as soon as we get to the room, the doctor is walking into the room.  The doctor agreed, the symptoms are classic appendicitis, so blood work, ultrasound, and x-ray are in order to see if my baby would be having surgery later or if something else was causing his severe pain.  The worse was me and my mom holding my baby down to help the nurses put an IV in his arm and draw some blood.  The nurse was so good explaining everything to him, and giving him permission to scream through the pain.  As soon as the IV was in, they wheeled him to the ultrasound, then to the x-ray.  Within 1 hour, we saw the doctor, had all the tests, and was waiting for the lab to finish up with the results.  Every test came back negative for appendicitis, however, my baby is constipated.  So off to the store to get some prune juice.  As soon as we got home, I got him a glass of prune juice mixed with apple juice (ER nurse suggested to mix the prune juice with apple juice to make it taste better), and heated it up a little.  My son told me that it tasted like apple cider, and he loved it.  Luckily, we started to have a little success before the night was out. 
I am just so thankful that I am home able to write about this, and not in the hospital helping my baby recover. 
So off to NJ tomarrow to celebrate Christmas in NJ.