It was one of those nights.

Last night after I had shut down the computer for the night and was turning off the lights, I heard a noise coming from our 11-year-old son's bedroom.  I peeked in through his doorway and saw that his eyes were wide open.  I asked him why he was still awake and he whispered that his stomach was hurting really bad.  I could tell that he had been crying and he had his hand over his lower abdomen.

I asked him some questions and he tried to answer them as best as he could, in between his moaning and crying out in pain.  Since I didn't know what was causing his pain, I wasn't sure what to do for him.  If it was just severe gas pains, I could give him some TUMS.  If it was something else, maybe I could give him Tylenol to cut down on his pain until we knew what was causing it.

Since it seemed to be getting worse, I decided to go for the Tylenol to relieve him of his pain.  After I got the pill and a cup of water, he told me that he couldn't move or else it would hurt really bad.  I didn't want him swallowing the medicine while lying down, so I tried to raise him up.  This wasn't working either.

By this time, it was after midnight, my brain was getting foggy and I was starting to get a little panicky.  I decided to wake up Norman.  He went into our son's bedroom, looked him over and asked a few questions.  Then, he got on the computer and did some searches to see if he could figure out what we were dealing with.  The symptoms were very similar to an appendicitis except the pain didn't seem to be on his right side.

I had also noticed that our son's lips had a bluish tint to them, so I whispered this to Norman outside our son's room.  The rest of his coloring was fine, he was breathing normally, and he didn't appear nauseous.  We discussed our options... take him to the hospital?  No, we couldn't move him without him crying out in pain.  And, we still don't have any health insurance, so calling for an ambulance was not a high priority... yet.  I prayed that the pain would start to subside soon.

I asked our son if he wanted to try some TUMS to see if that would work.  They are easy to chew without moving his body and risking additional pain, so he agreed to try them.  I gave him two.

After awhile when I asked him if he was feeling any better, he did say that he thought so, although he still seemed to be in severe pain.  I gave him another TUMS for good measure and sat on the floor beside his bed... and prayed… and waited.

Finally, around 2:40, I noticed that he had quieted down.  I glanced up and saw that he had fallen asleep.  After waiting awhile to see if he would wake back up, I decided to get on the web and research the causes of "blue lips".  This still bothered me. 

After bringing up a few pages on the computer, I heard our son call out to me.  When I walked into his room, I found him awake... and feeling much better!  In fact, he was sooooo relieved (and so was I!) that he was almost giddy.  We prayed and thanked God for helping him to find relief from the terrible pain.

As I was leaving his room, our son asked, "Are my lips blue?"

"Well, yes.  Why do you ask?"  I thought maybe he had overheard Norman and me talking outside his room.

"Because I had a blue raspberry sucker tonight," he answered, with a slight smile on his still-blue lips.    

~Connie~