On an ordinary Wednesday, our 6yo son Theo came home from school with a stomach ache. We thought maybe it was a virus or something he ate that didn’t agree with him. I did all the things you do at home to treat an upset stomach — bland diet, rest, lots of checking in. Theo went to bed feeling okay, but the stomach ache persisted. It woke him in the night, and in the morning it was worse.

His stomach hurt more and now he had a fever, was hunching over, the right side of his belly was tender, and it seemed increasingly tough for him to walk and use the bathroom. Luckily, my husband Sam knew early on that something wasn’t right and wondered about his appendix. We took him to Urgent Care, who then referred us to a pediatric ER, and before we knew it, we found ourselves in the same children’s hospital where Theo had surgery to put in ear tubes almost three years earlier during one of the most challenging times in our life.

We watched helplessly through an ultrasound, IV insertion, blood work, and MRI as our little boy grew pale and struggled in pain without understanding what was happening to him.

It all felt too familiar.