Intesiception.

So this is the story of our ER trip. Mainly for me to remember it. But it's a pretty good story. Felt like we should be on the show House. So anyways. Here it is.

Tuesday morning at 6 am Jax wakes up with a high pitch scream. He usually wakes up at 6 am so this is nothing new, but the "I'm in pain" screaming was new. So I panicked and ran in there falling over our dog Kenai in the process. I was thinking he had probably been stung by a scorpion or something because our house is surrounded by them. So I took him and tried to soothe him and lay him down in the bed with me and feed him and he wasn't going for it. Just screams. Screams, then vomit. That freaked me out because it wasn't your typical baby spit up it was projectile vomit. I'm such a paranoid mom. So, I freaked and called my mom to come help me out. Yes, happiest baby you've seen. Seriously? So I figured it was just a fluke thing. Well right after she left, and for the rest he was back on it again. Of course! So for the rest of the day I continually tried to calm him and soothe him and nothing. Pain. Vomit. Agony.

After a night of zero sleep, I decided it was time to take him in. He hadn't had a full bottle or anything in such a long time. By this time I was certain he had the stomach bug. He would randomly fall asleep in the middle of changings. Definitely not like him. When I took him in, Dr. Auxier recommended Pedialyte. 1 tsp every MINUTE for TWO hours. Seriously. I got through about 40 minutes before his screams were unbearable and he'd had enough. So my mom took him and let me get a nap. That evening he was on a spree of no vomiting, so I assumed the dr's suggestion was working. When we got home, vomit. When we went to bed, vomit. Now we are going on 2 days of nothing in his belly. No bms. Nothing. So again, we took him into see the doc. 

When I told him his progress, he immediately said, it's time to go to the ER, and went on to describe what he thought it might be. {malrotational intestines} I just sat and pretended to understand what he was talking about. Basically, when you're a baby inside the womb, your intestines develop outside of the place where they need to end up and through pregnancy and after birth your intestines continue to get sucked into the place they are going to remain. Instead of going counter clockwise 180 degrees like they should, they go backwards 90 degrees and cause a blockage. Affects about 1 in 500 and is cured by surgery. Panic. Pure panic. When I left the dr, I called my mom crying and asked her to go with me to Phoenix Childrens Hospital ER. And Brandon left class and met us there.

When we got there, the ER was empty and a ton of staff nurses just swarmed us thinking he was dying. It was a comfort for sure! We got all checked in and went immediately into a room. I've never been to an ER before but my impression was always, even if you're dying, you have to wait. After sitting in the room, we had a bunch of nurses and residency drs asking all routine questions again and again. We got him some nausea medicine, and then he got all hooked up to the IV. It was interesting. They turned off all the lights and used a light under his hand to see the vain. To give you an idea of how dehydrated he was, the vain was so flat that they had to call in the greatest of the great to do it and it took her about 20 minutes and 3 stabs later to do it, not to mention we ruined her perfect record. 

After about an hour with the IV, they took us to get his chest X-rays. We mentioned that he had started to vomit up blood, and they wanted to make sure everything was okay as far as that. Well the little RN dude took his IV bad and laid it on the table and then took off to examine the picture. Then this alarm started going off saying air bubble alert. Hello! I grew up watching shows that people end up dying because they get air injected into their veins! FREAKING out right about now. So I went back there where I don't think I was allowed to go, and he sends out a radiation nurse to come help us. Her words? "Well we don't use these things, so lets see if I can figure this one out. Oh! It worked, first try!!" Then she continued to repeatedly push buttons till she got it all turned on again. MMm ya, comforting. FREAKING OUT. We booked it back and I made sure our nurse re checked everything. Ugh. 

So by this time, the dr came in and told us that accidently, the x-ray got a lower shot then they expected it to, but luckily they did, because they noticed the top of one of his intestines was inflamed. Seriously. Prayers answered. So lucky that they caught it because up to that point they weren't planning on doing any belly xrays. So they sent us back to get more xrays. This is when they came to the thought that it might by malrotational intestines, automatic surgery. Yes, FrEaKiNg OuT!!! It took 4 hours for them to get to that conclusion, which took my pediatrician all of 2 minutes to decide, after I told him he hadn't had a BM in 3 days. 

So from there, it was time to see if it actually for sure was that diagnosis. They sent us back to the xray room where we would do an upper GI {putting water soluble and koolaid down his throat and following it on the xray machine to make sure it would go where it was supposed to} and an enemy, {Shooting water up his bum to see if that went where it was supposed to} Apparently, neither one gave them the results they were hoping for or wanting, because then they sent us across the hall to do an ultrasound and a CT. CT was canceled because he had too much dye inside him that would ruin the results and nothing would show up.

It's a boy! Nope, it's intesiception. :( Baby ultrasound.

 

When we got back to our waiting room, they gave him another hour of IV fluids and he threw up all the Koolaid mixture that he had. Still no BM. After about an hour the doctor comes in and says, "intesiception" {basically the small intestine collapses into the large intestine kind of like an old sailors telescope does, affects about 1-4 out of 1000 babies and is rare after 2 years old. Cause is unknown} Cure is doing an air enemy- sending air up the bum so when it his that block, it pops it back out. 75% success rate, but if it fails, or pops back in later, then it's surgery. Anyways, long story short, it worked and he immediately stopped crying and fell asleep as they were finishing up the procedure. 

Our doctor (in the black)

When we took him back to the room, he ate 9 oz of pedialyte/milk in about 10 seconds, and just slept the whole rest of the time. Dad Luke and Linds came to visit, and my amazing mom, who I would have been a mess without, stayed the entire time with me. So blessed to have my prayers answered and have such an amazing family. This little boy went through way more than a kid his age should go through but, he did it and was such a trooper. My little hero. He backs to giggles and smiles now. Not to mention, sleeping 12 hours through the night. Love this kid! Thanks for reading! Oh, also, PCH is amazing, I've never been more impressed with staff, nurses and doctors. Our doctor was so determined to find out what was happening. He went back and for to the main building with us every time and even assisted the radiology doctor and nurses each time. I've never seen a doctor do that. Come to think of it, I've never seen a doctor hang around for more than 15 minutes! My OB was there for 13 minutes!!!