A week to remember

Well it has been quite the eventful week in the Westdyk household. On Monday morning around 4 a.m. Steve woke up to go the bathroom and felt pain. He wasn't sure what kind of pain, but that's when it all started. Steve leads the Men's Bible study for our Sunday School class on Monday mornings at 6:15 a.m. (yes, they meet that early!!) so he headed off to the study. On his way home he started to feel more pain and also felt nauseous. He came home before heading off to the office to say hi to us like he normally does. Instead of heading to work, he went to bed. After waking up from about an hour nap, he was in so much pain that he was doubled over and could barely walk. He first called our Doctor to see if he could get an appointment. He didn't know how serious it was and didn't want to go to the ER if it wasn't necessary. Turns out our Doctor is no longer practicing here and we had no idea! Since he couldn't see another Doctor until the afternoon, we headed to the ER, kids in tow and all. Three hours later, we learned the worst, it was his appendix! Boy did our week change within seconds! Once I heard the news, I headed home to let the kids nap since they had spent all morning in the ER and were going stir crazy. Steve just had to wait at the hospital until they would let him know when his surgery would be. Finally at long last, his surgery was scheduled for that evening around 7:45 p.m.! Thankfully, our dear friends the Murrays were already planning on watching the kids that night so we could have a date night. Instead we spent our date in the hospital together! They have promised us that we should not consider that our date night, and they would be glad to watch the kids again for us!


Here is Steve minutes before he was rolled off for his Appendectomy. He was getting a little nervous by this point and just anxious to get it over with, as he had been waiting all day for it to happen! We left him around 7:30 (Steve's parents were there with me) and around 9:30 p.m. were able to see him up in his room. Everything went well, the Doctor even showed us lovely pictures of the inside where it was removed. Be thankful I am not posting those!! He did have an infection so the Doctor told us he would like Steve to at least stay until Wednesday so he could get his antibiotics and make sure he doesn't get a fever. Thankfully, the next day he did not have a fever and was already walking around and doing great. The Doctor said he could go home that evening at 8 pm. We were thankful! Steve's parents came and watched the kids for me on Tuesday afternoon so I could spend some time in the hospital with Steve. We were so thankful once he got home that evening. He is doing very well. Just a bit sore and still can't lift anything heavy, which means he can't lift the kids! All in all, it went smoothly and we're just thankful it is over with. We're also thankful he caught it so early on.

We have been so amazed by the outpouring of love from the people in our Church through this ordeal. Yes, I know that is what the body of Christ is for, at least what it is supposed to be, right?! But it was the first time we really witnessed it first hand, aside from the meals we received after having each of our children. We received so many phone calls, emails and several even went to the hospital to visit Steve. It was a real encouragement to Steve and really blessed him. Here Steve is holding a get well cookie basket from the Choir director at Prestonwood. We were very surprised that they sent us! It was so thoughtful and kind, and I must say yummy!

The last bit of news for the second half of the week is that Sydney decided this would be the week she starts to crawl! While it is a joy to see her crawl finally, it now brings an added element to the day: watching her like a hawk! She is all over the place! She didn't waste anytime figuring it out. The other frustrating thing about it is that she now wants to move all the time! Which means nap time has been torture for us! She has learned how to roll over to her belly and scoot on to her bottom in the crib. It took me two and a half hours yesterday just to get her to take her afternoon nap! So frustrating! Hopefully she will catch on soon and nap time will not be such a stressful time for us.