Update From the Hospital Couch

Just a quick note to say:  Chickadee has ileus.  We've been at the Children's hospital for two nights.  I'm considering indentured servitude to this hospital.  Or maybe just to the ER doc who looked at us for 5 min. and then said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure she has this thing called ileus.  Which is when your gut goes to sleep basically.  In children like this with gut motility problems, being sick  like that [back to back three times with only four or five well days] can just overwhelm the intestines.  The virus/bacteria can hang out there and not get cleared away because they don't have the ability to push out everything and clear it away."

Five minutes people.  Versus three and a half hours at the Smalltown ER and leaving with a 'clean bill of health.'  Adding in the three and a half hour drive and ZERO tests, this Children's hospital is winning hands down.  Mr. Survival saw a construction site across the street for condos, and he said, "Let's buy one of those."

Dead serious.

Sigh.  Maybe when we have a job.  But seriously, I cannot express the relief it is to know what is wrong.

I just realized, I lied.  They did do an x-ray of her g-tube site to basically allay our concerns about her g-tube.  She has been so backed up that when she has gas or air bubbles it makes her tummy as tight as a drum.  Which causes the pain and shaking {our worries about seizures allayed} and leaves the outline if the inner part of the g-tube balloon clearly outlined under the skin.  I was worried maybe the g-tube had slipped and was leaking fluid between the walls of the stomach and abdomen.

The good thing about the one test, was that the x-ray also caught the bowels, and they were able to see no obstructive masses.  And convinced me that her g-tube is sound.

It's just nothing can go in.

We were supposed to do 2 oz. every 2 hours.  Chickadee normally takes in 5 1/2 oz. every 2 1/2 hours.  So, they gave her an IV for 12 hours.  She then pooped SEVEN times.  Apparently dehydration + ileus = back up  even if she's been pooping fairly normally.

I thought that was the problem.  So did everyone else.

But, apparently the ileus is a bigger monster than that.  She needs to rest her intestines more, because we aren't able to do 2 oz. every two hours.  We're now doing 1 oz. every three hours.  She's tolerating that.

But just barely.

I am thanking God every hour, practically every minute for that IV.  I haven't been letting on how much this has been affecting our home life.  These three illnesses Chickadee has been incredibly sick.  I've been couch bound with her.  I put her down to run to the bathroom and she freaks out.  I feed her, she freaks out.  I ventilate her g-tube and it only comforts her sometimes.

It's been the worst hell I could ever imagine.

I went for a walk yesterday for a couple of hours.  That's the first I've been able to get in in a couple of weeks.  It's so dang hard guys.

I love IV's.  If polygamy worked inversely, and I wouldn't get excommunicated, I would marry it.

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JourneyBeyondSurvival