Monday, June 7, 2010

Good News

We were greeted with some good news Sunday morning. The results from the CAT scan taken the night before indicated that there was no bowel blockage causing Graham's problem. Because the G-Man's alimentary track is a bit different and the fact he has had a major abdominal surgery, a blockage was a worry. But the only things to show up were some indications of distention and swelling in his intestines, probably caused by a viral infection.
Once the blockage was off the table and the doctor pronounced his bowel sounds good, we just had to wait for Graham to poop. (Haven't we been here before???) His stomach contents also finally began to run clear, so suctioning was stopped. We immediately broke out the old poop dance choreographed at Riley many months ago, and it worked ... with a little help from a glycerin chip. Katie was allowed to resume nursing this evening, and all is going well so far. If Graham's night is uneventful, he'll be discharged tomorrow morning.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Sick in Fort Wayne


Friday morning, Bill and I rushed Graham to the ER when he started to throw up green stomach bile, his temperature dropped to 95.4 and he became very lathargic. Since Lutheran Children's Hospital is 5 minutes from our house and it was a seemingly urgent situation, we took him there. Graham's pediatrician also works out of that hospital. It's been a weekend of the roller coaster ride we all were really not ready to hop back on. They started an IV (only took 2 tries), gave G some nausea medicine and took some xrays to make sure he hadn't aspirated when throwing up. This xray showed mainly that Graham was extremely backed up and constipated. He hadn't pooped in a day, which with babies can be normal. But the throwing up was an obvious concern so Graham was admitted to the hospital for further observation and was assigned a consult with THE pediatric surgegeon of Fort Wayne, Dr. Smith. They started suction through his NG tube to relieve his stomach of the bile so he would stop throwing up. Later that day, Dr. Smith ordered an upper GI test, which pretty much came back inconclusive because Graham couldn't keep down the dye they gave him for the test. Graham slept pretty well Friday night, but started to become pretty agitated Saturday. He got some Tylenol and received an enema which worked a little bit, but not much. As the day wore on, we could tell he was much more irritable and in obvious discomfort. Docs decided to do a CT scan yesterday evening in hopes to get a clearer picture of his abdomen. It's hard to read his xrays because of the omphalocele. He also got a couple doses of morphine which made him relax and get a good night sleep. Today, he woke up happy, even gave some smiles and sat up a little bit (pictured above). He has that sad sick look though that just breaks my heart. He hasn't been able to eat, but I've been doing non-nutritive which I think comforts Graham (and Mommy). We are waiting to talk to Dr. Smith about the results of the CT and go from there. If any further surgery is needed (Dr. Smith was speculating a possible obstructed bowel), we'll be heading back down to Graham's old stompin' ground in Indy. So, to be continued...