Just another night in the ER

Last night we spent 6 hours in the ER due to little man's stooling issues.  I won't get into it, but the pediatrician's office was not comfortable with waiting until the morning, so off to the ER we went.  They were worried about something called intessuseption or a blockage or impaction. There can be some very serious side effects to is kind of constipation, so we knew we needed to get him checked out.

So it turns out he is impacted- his colon is full...or as the doctor put it, "major constipated...huge belly full of stool." It is so amazing to me that a child who takes six squares of ex-lax a day and 3/4 a capful of Miralax could still be full of stool.  How?  And so quickly.  This is why it is so very important for him to have a BM everyday.  It spirals out of control fast with kids like him.  It definitely is not necessary for everyone to be daily, but for these kiddos, it is!

No one was quite sure what to do with him.  What do you do with a kid who is stopped up and already on a giant dose of ex-lax?

Well, they did what you would expect, and they called the children's hospital on call GI fellow.  We spent hours waiting for this call back to discuss NG tube clean-out, enemas, etc.  The fellow told the ER doctor to try Miralax.  Really? I think both the ER doctor and I were a bit insulted...as if we couldn't think of that. 

So, now that it is midnight...and almost morning, the plan becomes to call Cincinnati Children's first thing in the morning and let them tell us what to do.  Cincinnati is putting him on several high volume enemas for several days to get his colon good and cleaned out.  Then, after he is clean, they want to increase his laxative dose in order to keep him cleaned out.  If he does not tolerate a larger dose (as you can imagine that amount of ex-lax can cause horrible cramping, etc), then we will start a new plan.

When we were leaving the hospital last night as a very tired 2 year old and a worn out mama, the nurse came into discharge us and go over his papers.  She said that she sees he was diagnosed with..."um...let's see here, oh just constipation."  I am not sure that I would call this "just constipation."   To me, the term constipation does not do it justice.  Lucky for her, I was too tired to go very deeply into it. And I know she was just a kind nurse doing her job...one doesn't usually think of such an extreme situation when they see the word constipation by a baby's name.  After all, what baby isn't constipated at some point?

On Monday morning, we will take Beckett to see a new GI a bit closer to where we live now.  Please, please pray that this new doctor will have some insight on how to best handle his digestive problems.  I want him to have some relief from this.   I want him to be able to digest food.  We would really appreciate your prayers.  I know a doctor's appointment may not seem like a very big deal, but we are looking for someone to help keep up with the way nutrition goes through our son...his quality of life.  It is a big job, and we want to find just the right person to help us with it. And it would be good to have a doctor that is a lot closer in the event he gets sick like last night, and we need help!

Thank you for praying.