Apendi..what?

If this project has taught me anything, it's that God felt I needed a lesson in patience and rolling with the punches.  It has also taught me how lucky I am to have wonderful administrators and a job I can do from anywhere.

Favorite son, Conor, called me as I was finishing up a class.  Seems he had some major stomach pains and left his school (he's a Social Studies teacher) to head to same-day care.  There, they told him it was 90% possible that it was his appendix and that they would need to do surgery by the end of the day.  Wha......t!?!

Now, please understand that while I would NEVER invite nor give myself the label "helicopter parent", any time that there is a possibility of someone cutting into one of my children, I'm going to be there.  That fact together with the mom guilt I still have over not being five minutes down the road anymore had me throwing necessities in a bag and hitting the road in under 20 minutes.  As a side note let me say that I had to let LVS know that I was "leaving" for the day and that I would be unavailable to teach my afternoon class, by email, and by phone.  I was astonished at the response.  First, my principal called me and left a message...then texted to make sure I was ok.  Then came the emails from coworkers sending prayers and well wishes.  What a fabulous place to work!

I arrived in Hutchinson about the same time that Conor was told he had "appendagitis".  What does a kind, caring, English teacher mom do?  I corrected his pronunciation...
Me:  It's pronounced appendicitis
Con:  No.
Me:  Really, Conor?  It is called appendicitis.
Con:  Mom, it's really called appendagitis...Google it.  (Secretly shaking his head and wondering when he can take another pill...)

So I did.  Epiploic appendagitis (EA) is an uncommon, benign, non-surgical, self-limiting inflammatory process of the epiploic appendices. Other, older terms for the process include appendicitis epiploica and appendagitis, but these terms are used less now in order to avoid confusion with acute appendicitis.

Who knew, right?  So much to his delight, he was not facing surgery.  Instead, he got a nice prescription for some hydrocodone and orders to hit the couch and stay there until whatever was going on untwisted itself.

Again, I am lucky that I have a job I can do from any spot that has an internet connection.  And, we are all thankful that Conor didn't have to go under the knife.  <3