Our Week at the Hospital

Thursday, September 2, Grayson started throwing up in the middle of the night. At first I thought he maybe had too much formula but he continued to throw up most of his bottles.

On Friday, I decided to call his Dr. I usually wouldn't call this early but knowing it was a holiday weekend I wanted to get his thoughts. He wanted us to start giving him Pedialyte and then reintroduce formula once he was keeping the Pedialtye down.

He ended up throwing up the Pedialyte the rest of Friday and into Saturday morning. So Adam and I decide to take him to the emergency clinic. Unfortunately, since he is an infant they wouldn't see him and insisted I go to the Emergency Room. So off we go to the hospital.

He and I were there for 4 hours for them to examine him, do x-rays, and an ultrasound. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything and suggested we change his formula assuming he is lactose intolerant. We did have a really nice ER doc who called later to check on us and even gave me his cell number so we could call if something came up.

Over the next day we give him soy formula (gross!) with no change. Sunday I realize he was looking skinny and was pretty sure he had lost some weight. Since he was still throwing up, Adam calls the on-call dr at our physician's office, talks over some options, and decides its best to take him to the hospital so they can monitor and see what he is doing. They weigh him and he had lost 9 oz since Tuesday. They also draw blood to do some tests.

Our poor guy on Sunday...

I stayed at the hospital with him and he continues to throw up everything all through the night. When they weigh him the next morning (Monday) he was down another 3 oz. They do a barium swallow test to see if they can find something wrong, mainly to see if there was some type of a blockage. From this test they didn't see much but what looked like his stomach was not contracting to move the food through the rest of his body. So it would sit in his stomach and eventually come back up. They decide to put him on some acid reflux medicine to see if that would help. This is when I start getting frustrated because I was positive he didn't have acid reflux.

Monday ends the same way, with him continuing to throw up. Because he hadn't had a dirty diaper in over 15 hours they decide to give him an iv. (Which honestly, watching them put in an iv in my poor dehydrated baby was the hardest thing about all of this. It took several sticks to get it started, one in each hand, his head, and then they finally got one in his right hand.) It was good though because he was beginning to look pretty bad. His skin was pretty grey in color and he was really lethargic.

Monday...in pretty bad shape...

Tuesday, we finally get to see our Dr and he agreed with me that it wasn't acid reflux but they were going to give him the medicine to see if it would help until they figure out the real cause. He really felt like Grayson had Pyloric Stenosis, which is what Adam and I also thought, but unfortunately every test said he didn't. Although every symptom he had pointed to it. Dr Kiracofe also wanted a pediatritian to look at him just to make sure he wasn't missing anything. Late in the afternoon the pediatritian shows up and does a quick exam and had nothing new to say. He even apologized for not being much help, in which I thanked him for admitting it! Love me!

Tuesday was really frustrating and I about lost my mind. It seemed like no one had answers and we just kept doing the same thing, giving him Pedialyte, watching him throw up, and me changing my clothes numerous times. I really wish they would have tried something new but I don't think they had any idea of what to do different.

Wednesday, Dr Kiracofe comes back to check on us and again says he really thinks its Pyloric Stenosis so he wanted him tested again for it. If nothing showed up on that test it was decided to transfer us to a different hospital, either to KC or Wichita. We waited all morning for the ultrasound, when they finally take him down and start the test it wasn't clear yet if anything had changed since Saturday's ultrasound. Luckly, they got the radiologist to come in and look at him and he was able to get better pictures. He spent a lot of time with him and wanted to make sure he was defintely seeing what looked to be Pyloric Stenosis. He admitted that he needed to make sure not only because the only treatment for it is surgery but also because he was going against what two of his colleagues had already said.

The results were reviewed by all parties needed and it was decided that Grayson definitely had it. Thankfully they were able to do the necessary surgery at 5:00 that evening and a big thank you to the surgery staff that stayed late to make that happen. The surgery took about an hour and everything went well. After he was out of surgery it didn't take too long for them to let me take him back to our room. He was pretty sleepy but was also starving (and who wouldn't be he hadn't ate anything in a week!).

So after the surgery he had to slowly be introduced to formula again. He got 1/2 an ounce of Pedialyte every hour for 4 times. After that he got a whole ounce, then he was able to move on to diluted formula and finally formula. So all through the night I got to feed him every hour then he would have to be held upright for 30 minutes after. Yes, it was a very long and tiring night.

But by Thursday morning he was obviously feeling better. He had put on 8 oz since Monday morning and was much more alert. Dr Kiracofe came and checked on him again as did the surgeon (twice), the second time he released us to go home. I practically ran out of there.

Thursday afternoon...sleeping and normal color again!

He does have a small incision above his belly button which means he will have a small scar. He has a couple of check ups to go to over the next week but just routine things to make sure everything is ok.

It was a hard time to be apart from our family but so many others have it far worse with much more serious illnesses, we can't complain about our little happy ending.