Reflections on a First Birthday, OR: When Your Appendix Goes While You’re Solo Parenting

by Susie Meserve | Oct 5, 2017 | Great Reads, Motherhood

Just shy of his first birthday, planning for reflection and nostalgia, instead wham boom I?m in the hospital with a?bum appendix. The husband is away, unreachable, mobile stashed in the glove box of somebody?s car. I wanted this for him, a break from the work and the waves. I was not afraid to let him go. Even in the hospital, frantically phoning the school/the grandfather/the good friend/the nanny I am not even quite afraid, it?s not the right word?incredulous might do it. And, perhaps sickly, slightly relieved. Why? It makes no sense.

My milk threatens to dry up after the hospital stay. I blame Nurse Ratchett, reincarnated as a beautiful blonde named Shelley who refuses me fluids, who looks at the breast pump like it is a medieval torture device. It is clear she does not have children or want children or like children. This is okay; parenthood does not, in my book, an adult make. But kindness? Kindness, yes. She brings me Jello and broths so salty if I drink them my cells will shrivel up. She brings me a vomit bag which I fill and hand to her. (Later, in the 1200-word letter I write to the hospital, complaining, I say the best part of my stay was handing over the puke. This is true.)

A week later, shadows in the studio play off the green chair and make me think someone is passing by. I am writing again, or attempting to. My milk has come back slowly, so slowly. I hear voices telling me one year of nursing is enough, one year is good. But I could not take it from him so abruptly. Returning from the hospital, I was greeted by his outstretched fists clutched tightly in the ?milk? sign, his body tense, his desperate crying for me. There was no mistaking it. Why would I take this away if I didn?t have to?

When the husband finally calls from the road two days later, he too is incredulous. ?Hi,? is all he says, but his voice says something else. ?I?m okay,? I tell him, though I do not feel okay: my belly is full of fluid and air. I can feel them sloshing together, waves crashing on a ship?s prow. Later, after he gets home, we will spend six more hours at the Emergency Room. When did they stop calling it a CAT scan and call it CT? The contrast dye makes me have to pee, flushes me head to toe. The pedantic tech had assured me it would. I guess I was grateful to know ahead of time.

Fluid in the abdomen. Start of an abscess. Maybe. Shit.

?Antibiotics,? says Dr. James Starr, ER doctor. ?Three to four days intravenous, incompatible with nursing.? This is the first time I feel fear. Later, moments before they are hooking me up to an IV, he comes in to say stop. ?The surgeon says you can go home with a prescription instead,? he reports, and then I cry again for a different reason.

The pain is like needles. The pain is a dull ache. The pain is like needles. The sloshing gets lesser. The air passes through. The incisions are like angry little mouths, glued shut. I cannot get comfortable. The air lodges in my shoulder. The pain killers make me stupid. I take one a day, tops.

Let me see your scars, the eight-year-old intones every day. He tells me appendicitis is contagious. He tells me he does not want to get close to me. The first night home, I remind him to be gentle. As if possessed by the devil, he leans over to my belly and with both hands, presses. After, wailing, he insists it was an accident. I pretend to believe him. I tell him it is okay.

It was not an accident.

Someone brings soup.

Someone brings flowers.

Someone does my dishes.

The house is still a disaster.

By his first birthday, things are mostly right-side-up again. The mornings have grown colder. In California you watch for these subtle signs of fall. By mid-day it could be any season, but the mornings are crisp. We attempt a walk. In the bath the night before, I noticed my tailbone, jutting out. Three pounds lost in the hospital, all, apparently, from my ass. How many ounces is an appendix? Not that many.

Pounds lost: 3

Hours in hospital: 30

Babies un-nursed: 1

Appendicoliths: 1

Size of inflamed appendix: 11 millimeters

Incisions: 3

Pounds of air pumped into belly: too many

Appendixes left: 0

The incident with the appendix cuts something with the baby. It is not so simple as that, for two days, waiting for contrast dye and antibiotics to leave my system, I can?t nurse. It is also that, in that time, I avoided him altogether, fearing his desire. Out of sight, out of mind, I told myself. Lying in bed while someone else takes care of him, I feel for a minute like I never had him. I could let my milk dry up, forget all about it. But I do not. Guilt, I think. When he resumes nursing he kicks at my belly. The two of them, these two boys, slowly batter me.

The eight year old, who has always been in control of his feelings, is acting strange. Mad. Reserved. Finally, I make him say it. ?I was scared,? he says. ?You never called me,? he says. ?I never got to visit you in the hospital,? he says. ?I was so worried,? he says. ?I didn?t know what was happening.? My love for him floods the room.

I?m sorry, I say.

I?m sorry, I say.

I?m sorry.

I played around with the style of this blog post after reading Jenny Offill’s amazing and experimental novel Dep’t. of Speculation, which I can’t say enough good things about.

Also:More about Writing Motherhood.

Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash