Monday - Brody refuses dinner. This isn't like him, but at the same time he is two and entitled to be a stinker every once in awhile so I let it go.
Tuesday - The hunger strike continues. He was eating a little bit, but not nearly the amount that he usually does and it is a fight to get him to eat anything.
Wednesday - Again, the hunger strike goes on. We go to the park and do things like normal, however Brody is pretty uninterested and mellow.
Wednesday night - I put Brody to bed and he wakes up at midnight screaming but not telling me why. I try to sleep in his room to help him calm down - this doesn't work. Finally at 5 am I give him a dixie cup of water say go to sleep and return to my room. (I thought he was crying for water at that point - which is usually the ONLY thing he will cry for in the night (or an ear infection))
Thursday - We had a planned picnic at the park with some friends that at the last minute I cancelled because every time I would turn around Brody was laying on the floor somewhere else. By now I know something is up because he doesn't do this - he is a "go go go" kid until I lay him in his bed and he just falls asleep. He proceeds to cry and cry and cry. He tried to nap but he just kept screaming that his head hurt, his back hurt and his tummy hurt. I made him a dr appt for 3:15. After I made the appointment I held Brody down and he screamed and screamed and finally he threw up into a bowl (thank goodness). I felt a little better - thinking oh, good now I know he just has a stomach bug or something. I considered cancelling the appt, but Brandon thought lets just get him checked out just in case. He continued to scream and scream and scream. We went into Dr. Baker's office (our pediatrician) early because I couldn't take it any more. All this time he has had no fever - not even a low grade fever.
The doctors did a urine test first and found keytones and white blood cells in his urine. Inside I immediately think of my friend Ashlyn and her son who has diabetes and my heart sinks - please not that. I see only a small part of what she and Cayden go through every day and I know its hard. Next was a finger prick to check his blood sugar - 100 (good - we are in the clear). They did some x-rays of his back next because a 2 year old doesn't typically complain about back pain. Brody has complained about back pain for over a month now. The x-rays didn't show anything wrong with his bones, however they showed an abnormal amount of air in his belly. The next "guess" was intussusception. It is a condition where the intestines telescope into each other causing a blockage and could lead to other serious problems, but if found can be corrected. Brody was completely lathargic through this whole thing. He was either screaming, or laying limp while everyone poked and proded. They tried twice to draw blood, but by now he was on 4 days of very little food and fluids so they weren't able to get any. Dr. Baker said he'd let me take him home if I would very aggressively try and give him fluids. I know the Dr is concerned when he asks me for all of my phone numbers. We head home at 6:00pm.
Thursday night - Horrible. The only word to describe it. Brody was with me in my room. He woke up screaming every 40-45 minutes grabbing his belly saying it hurt, grabbing his head and crying in pain. Brody has a high pain tolerance. He doesn't cry for everything - he hasn't cried for a shot since he was 4 months old. He didn't cry when they poked his finger for blood. So if he screams out - I know it hurts. I was able to get him to drink about 20 oz of fluid over night, and he threw up a very little amount once.
Friday morning - My phone rings at 6:00am - I am thinking it is the pediatrician calling to check in. Nope - just my sister Amy calling to tell me her water broke and she is at the hospital having a baby - FINALLY - a piece of good news! Hooray for Amy and the baby! The phone rings again at 8:00. It is Dr. Baker. I relay the events of the night and he says pack your things and head to the ER - we are done trying to deal with this at home. I call my dad to come pick up Ella and get our things ready to head out. (Up until now Ella has been a gem! She has won over the hearts of the entire Dr's staff who cared for her for three hours while Brody and I were working with the Dr.) We got to the ER and they got us in quickly. Brody endured rectal exams (again without crying), more x-rays, more urine samples (thank goodness he is such a big boy and can go on the potty!) and an IV (he screamed through the IV while another nurse and I held him down) I think I have totally gotten over singing in public. I sang the Thomas song and the ABC song so many times in front of so many doctors - it just doesn't phase me anymore that I may be completely off key.
This is Brody post-IV at Presbyterian of Denton. The urine still showed keytones, the blood work came back looking good, but the x-rays showed still an abnormal amount of air in his belly. The next step was an air contrast enema that would diagnose intussusception. We waited and waited for the radiologist to come in. In the meantime - WELCOME TO THE WORLD AIDEN! Amy delivers Aiden William Wells at 8:46 PST (10:46 to me) weighing in at 8 lbs 15 oz - with a full head of hair! Yeah - another moment of good news! Im finally an Aunt! The last one in our family! Ok...so the doctor comes in and says...we feel like he needs this air contrast enema, however we need a pediatric surgeon to back up on the procedure because one of the possible side effects is a perforated bowel and if that were to happen we'd need someone willing to operate to fix it. We were told we'd need to be transported by ambulance to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth (40 miles away) to be treated. Im thinking yikes - an ambulance...can I ride with him?? Why the urgency?? I go with what they say - Dr. Baker calls me at the hospital and goes through all the findings again with me and lets me know how to reach him with any questions, etc.
We are transported via ambulance to Cook Childrens around 1 pm. Brody spent most of the ride as pictured above. He thought it was pretty cool - especially when we hit traffic and they turned the sirens on and we cut through everyone. I was not a fan of the ambulance ride. Even without speeding the ride was really bumpy and a bit scary. When they turned on the sirens and started weaving in and out of traffic I thought I would be sick. I flew off the seat at one point looking like a dummy - but whatever - they should have seatbelts back there.
We get checked into Cook Childrens and meet with the doctor there. He doesn't feel like the enema is the next step (by now Im upset) and that instead we should do an ultrasound. He said that maybe he just needs to poop or pass gas. That infuriated me. They transferred me to you by ambulance to tell me my kid needs to fart? COME ON! I wasn't a fan at all of this man. They did the ultrasound of his belly and we waited for results. We found out our nurse was LDS, and that eased my mind a little bit. I don't know why, but I guess I felt a little more comfortable venting my frustration at the situation and she was able to talk to me like a person and not a doctor without good bedside manor. (She did tell me that the doctors made the right call to send us over if they thought it was intussusception - so I guess I will go with it) The ultrasound needed to be read by a pediatric radiologist. They came in and told me that his appendix was fine, he didn't have intussusception, his bowels weren't blocked (whew...more guilt gone - it wasn't caused by potty training), but that he did have swollen lyphnodes within his intestines that would cause pain when he ate or drank. The Dr said - you're being discharged just go home and give him some Motrin. I was really upset - like I hadn't been trying Motrin already? No one wants there kid to be sick, but I was hoping for more answers than that. The technical name is Mesanteric Lymphadenitis. We were discharged around 6:30pm.
Brody wasn't allowed to eat all day. Which he didn't complain about until about 5:00. So, when I was finally able to "feed and water" my kid - I got a whole new boy. He talked again, he walked again and he began to perk up. The picture above is in the gardens at Cook Childrens. You might wonder, why would you hang out after being discharged. Well...because the transferred me 40 miles away from my car and my carseat and proceeded to "treat and street" me. Brandon had been high-tailing it back from Oklahoma since 1:30 - thinking he was going to be there to help get Brody through any more procedures. It was a 5 hour drive from OK and he had to stop and switch cars so we'd have a way to get Brody home. So Brody and I hung out outside the hospital. I think he looks like a freed bird or something with the bands around his ankle. Brandon got to the hospital only to pick us up on the curb.
So the whole day was a bit "anti-climatic" however, after being completely thrown off schedule and needed a couple of days to get back to normal he seems to be doing better. He still favors liquids over solids, but as long as he is getting something it doesn't matter to me.
I feel like I will never be the same. I find myself completely paranoid and over protective. At the first sign of any discomfort I jump at the worse possible conculsion. I feel like I want to shelter him from everything not knowing if or when he may have another episode. Im so keyed up a lot of the time I think I cause myself headaches and stomachaches. Its been two days and I finally am not as tired as before. My good husband has allowed me two nights now of uninterrupted sleep. Hopefully with each day I will feel a little more like me - but definitely not there yet.
We are grateful for everyones thoughts and prayers and for the preisthood blessing Brody was able to receive. We feel blessed to have him not have to endure more pain than was necessary and we are mindful that everyones prayers help contribute to that - so thank you again!
(From left to right: Emily, 2, Cameron, 6, Brody, 2, & Brayden, 4)
(Ella, 8 months & Erica, 11 months)
Brody made some finger paint welcome signs for Ma-maw and Pa-paw (thats how he pronounces Grandma & Grandpa - its really cute!)
