Friday night, my 6 year old son started complaining of "brain freeze" even though we had no ice cream in the house. Figuring that he is cursed with migraines like his brother, SWMBO and me, I told him to go lay down in his room for a few minutes while I finished cooking supper (wife still doesn't know where the kitchen is...we've been in the house 6 years).
He passed out and slept a couple of hours. When he got up, he was running a temp of 103 and complaining that his tummy hurt. Fearing the worst, we called the pediatrician, who also feared the worst and gave us some things to look for to see if it was appendicitis. By 10:00, the pediatrician has us go to the ER, since it looked like it was his appendix.
ER wasted no time...he had an IV and was in a room less than 20 minutes after arriving. CBC came back normal, and his temp had dropped from the Tylenol we had given several hours earlier. Knowing how our son behaves, the wife and I both knew something was wrong. We opted for the CT scan with rectal contrast. The ER doctor said he was constipated, the radiologist tech said it looked like an impaction to him. We made it home and to bed by 4:30 am.
As per the pediatrician, he got 2 enemas during the day Saturday. At this point he quit eating and drinking. By Sunday, still no poo. We took him to emergency hours at the pediatrician's office. She ran some tests and another x-ray. Even though I am not medically inclined, when I saw the x-ray (all digital, I saw it when the tech did), I could tell the problem. It looked to me like all of his large intestine was full. Doctor confirmed what I saw and said it was because he had yet to pass the contrast. We were given the option of trying to help him pass the poo with more enemas/laxatives or take him to the hospital. Wife and I didn't have to think about it...we knew we were out of our league. We had a pediatric room at the hospital waiting when we arrived.
The immediately started him on fluids. By this time it was close to 5:00 on Sunday. All he had since Friday morning was a small bag of chips (he didn't eat the rest of lunch at school), part of a small bag of popcorn, the top off a raisin bran muffin, and a few Ritz crackers. He was put on a clear liquid diet.
Sunday night and early Monday, he had at least 2 more enemas. They spiked a Sprite with Miralax (sp?), which he drank. No poo. Doctor and nurse told us he couldn't go until he could go. Took him off liquids Monday afternoon, inserted an NG (sp?) tube down his nose, and started him on Golytely. At this point, he was fed up with everything and everyone, but was really too weak to put up much of a fight.
10 hours after starting the Golytely, while I was at home and the wife was spending the night, he finally had an explosive blowout, the likes of which I haven't seen since our 1st son had Rotovirus. I'll spare the details, which I know about from the others I saw and helped clean up. During the day Tuesday, he had a couple of these blowouts, and pretty much either slept or watched a borrowed Bob the Builder video repeatedly. Tues. night, a pediatric Gastrointerologist (sp?) came by and ordered an additional x-ray. The nurses, my wife and I were fully expecting the same results, but according to the Radiologist, the worst had passed (pun intended). Good thing, since the last resort was to send him to the ER and have everything dug out under anasthesia (sp?).
Since my wife figured I could handle things at this point, I spent the night with him. He did start complaining of what I can only assume to be a migraine, but wouldn't take anything for it. He is scared of medicine and anyone in a nurse's uniform. So, it was a restless night for me. I did wake up to another blowout, and had to clean him up by myself. We went through 3 changes of bed linens on Wed. alone. I lost count of fluid bags, but at 90ml an hour, my best guess is that they put 6000ml into him over about a 60 hour period, along with over 1/2 gallon of the Golytely.
Yesterday (Wed.), he was told he could go home if he would eat and drink a little. He was able to put down a little sherbet (correct spelling), a soft cookie and a little PowerAide. Last night (and probably against orders) we allowed him to have a few french fries, along with the sports drinks. He has been put on a "soft diet," and we figured a few fries were soft enough, and he was begging for them. We felt so bad for him that we let him have some, which he was quite happy to eat.
I was finally able to sleep in the bed with my wife, although she rolled me over a few times for snoring. He slept very well, but still seemed quite out of it this morning.
The docs are telling us that he will have to have a few changes to his diet, which will be difficult since he is extremely picky. Also, we have been told his colon is several times larger than normal from all the buildup. He will hold poo until he can't hold anymore, since certain muscles are so tight that it hurts him to go. The docs tell us he will be on laxatives for at least 2 months to allow his colon to shrink to normal and to retrain his bowels. But, thankfully we are home, and thank God my wife and I listened to our guts and pushed for treatment. We were concerned that we were overreacting, but we know our own children well enough to know when something is seriously wrong.
Sorry this seemed to ramble on, but it's hard to cram 5 days worth of poo into a text box.
He passed out and slept a couple of hours. When he got up, he was running a temp of 103 and complaining that his tummy hurt. Fearing the worst, we called the pediatrician, who also feared the worst and gave us some things to look for to see if it was appendicitis. By 10:00, the pediatrician has us go to the ER, since it looked like it was his appendix.
ER wasted no time...he had an IV and was in a room less than 20 minutes after arriving. CBC came back normal, and his temp had dropped from the Tylenol we had given several hours earlier. Knowing how our son behaves, the wife and I both knew something was wrong. We opted for the CT scan with rectal contrast. The ER doctor said he was constipated, the radiologist tech said it looked like an impaction to him. We made it home and to bed by 4:30 am.
As per the pediatrician, he got 2 enemas during the day Saturday. At this point he quit eating and drinking. By Sunday, still no poo. We took him to emergency hours at the pediatrician's office. She ran some tests and another x-ray. Even though I am not medically inclined, when I saw the x-ray (all digital, I saw it when the tech did), I could tell the problem. It looked to me like all of his large intestine was full. Doctor confirmed what I saw and said it was because he had yet to pass the contrast. We were given the option of trying to help him pass the poo with more enemas/laxatives or take him to the hospital. Wife and I didn't have to think about it...we knew we were out of our league. We had a pediatric room at the hospital waiting when we arrived.
The immediately started him on fluids. By this time it was close to 5:00 on Sunday. All he had since Friday morning was a small bag of chips (he didn't eat the rest of lunch at school), part of a small bag of popcorn, the top off a raisin bran muffin, and a few Ritz crackers. He was put on a clear liquid diet.
Sunday night and early Monday, he had at least 2 more enemas. They spiked a Sprite with Miralax (sp?), which he drank. No poo. Doctor and nurse told us he couldn't go until he could go. Took him off liquids Monday afternoon, inserted an NG (sp?) tube down his nose, and started him on Golytely. At this point, he was fed up with everything and everyone, but was really too weak to put up much of a fight.
10 hours after starting the Golytely, while I was at home and the wife was spending the night, he finally had an explosive blowout, the likes of which I haven't seen since our 1st son had Rotovirus. I'll spare the details, which I know about from the others I saw and helped clean up. During the day Tuesday, he had a couple of these blowouts, and pretty much either slept or watched a borrowed Bob the Builder video repeatedly. Tues. night, a pediatric Gastrointerologist (sp?) came by and ordered an additional x-ray. The nurses, my wife and I were fully expecting the same results, but according to the Radiologist, the worst had passed (pun intended). Good thing, since the last resort was to send him to the ER and have everything dug out under anasthesia (sp?).
Since my wife figured I could handle things at this point, I spent the night with him. He did start complaining of what I can only assume to be a migraine, but wouldn't take anything for it. He is scared of medicine and anyone in a nurse's uniform. So, it was a restless night for me. I did wake up to another blowout, and had to clean him up by myself. We went through 3 changes of bed linens on Wed. alone. I lost count of fluid bags, but at 90ml an hour, my best guess is that they put 6000ml into him over about a 60 hour period, along with over 1/2 gallon of the Golytely.
Yesterday (Wed.), he was told he could go home if he would eat and drink a little. He was able to put down a little sherbet (correct spelling), a soft cookie and a little PowerAide. Last night (and probably against orders) we allowed him to have a few french fries, along with the sports drinks. He has been put on a "soft diet," and we figured a few fries were soft enough, and he was begging for them. We felt so bad for him that we let him have some, which he was quite happy to eat.
I was finally able to sleep in the bed with my wife, although she rolled me over a few times for snoring. He slept very well, but still seemed quite out of it this morning.
The docs are telling us that he will have to have a few changes to his diet, which will be difficult since he is extremely picky. Also, we have been told his colon is several times larger than normal from all the buildup. He will hold poo until he can't hold anymore, since certain muscles are so tight that it hurts him to go. The docs tell us he will be on laxatives for at least 2 months to allow his colon to shrink to normal and to retrain his bowels. But, thankfully we are home, and thank God my wife and I listened to our guts and pushed for treatment. We were concerned that we were overreacting, but we know our own children well enough to know when something is seriously wrong.
Sorry this seemed to ramble on, but it's hard to cram 5 days worth of poo into a text box.
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