I went to Holland on Friday to spend the weekend with my parents so Justin could get some work done on the basement. All was going fine. Coleman had had some loose stools the past few days, but I was changing his diet some to see if I could remedy the problem. He had no fever and no other symptoms of being sick so we went on our way. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning were all fine for him.
Sunday around 11:30 Coleman began to get fussy - I figured it was because he was up super early that day and he just needed an earlier nap. So I tried putting him down (which basically means putting him in his crib and walking away as he falls asleep on his own)...but he was having none of that. He was screaming and screaming so I went in to check on him and tried to calm him down. He was pulling his legs to his chest, grabbing his stomach, screaming, and was basically inconsolable as I tried everything to calm him down. He would fall asleep for a minute, then wake up screaming again. This was so hard to watch and to try and figure out what he needed. This went on for a good hour before he started to throw up a little. I thought this was from being so upset because it didn't really look like throw up, just like he couldn't calm himself down and his stomach couldn't handle all the extra air going in. I was frustrated that I wasn't at home with Justin, so I decided to quick pack everything up (thanks mom for helping with this), put him in the car, and hope that the car ride would lull him to sleep 'til we got home (an hour car ride).
The car ride went okay, he was in and out of screaming fits, clinging to his puppy and pacifier. He would fall asleep for a few minutes, then cry and cry again. He did throw up 2 times on the way home, which I had to pull over for to make sure all was okay. He finally fell asleep for the last 20 min. of our drive home. I was feeling so sad for the little guy thinking he just developed a case of the flu. When we arrived home, Justin was able to hold him and he slept on him on and off for an hour or so. However, he would wake up to throw up, then fall right back asleep. We started getting concerned as his vomit was more of a dark brown color (I wont go into much more detail on what to expect when you have the flu/what that should look like). I called our Dr.'s 24 hour nurse line to see what they suggested as Coleman had never been this sick before and I was worried about dehydration. He hadn't had a wet diaper since that morning either. The nurse took all of his symptoms, went through scenarios with me, etc. and told me to watch him for a bit at home and if things didn't improve to call her back or take him in. Well, it only took 2 more times of Coleman throwing up and laying on the floor (fairly groggy and unresponsive to us) for Justin to say "we're going in".
So we grab a few things and load Coleman into the car and head over to the hospital ER. We didn't have to wait long, which was nice as they weren't super busy that day. It was now around 5pm so this had been going on for a good 6 hours. Coleman didn't have any problems letting the Dr.'s examine him (which is weird b/c he normally would have put up a huge fuss over someone touching and poking him), so we knew something wasn't right. They tried an anti-nausea medicine to see if that would help him stop throwing up (as this continued throughout our say), but that didn't really help. They also put him on IV fluids to get him hydrated (I had to step out of the room for this b/c I didn't think I would be able to hold it together...I'm so thankful for my husband who stayed with him the whole time)...come to find out, Coleman didn't even flinch or do much while they were finding a vein to put the IV in (again, another sign that something was not right with my normally active child). Coleman would occasionally wake up and ask for his puppy or his mama, but he would only really look at us, then fall back asleep with a blank stare in his eyes and we were very worried. The Dr.'s also wanted to do an x-ray of his belly to make sure all was okay. We had to wait a bit for the x-ray because they had a lot of traumas come through at one time. Once the xray was done (which he did great for according to Justin - I wasn't going to go in with him to the x-ray being pregnant), we just had to wait for the results. Justin's parents generously brought us some dinner (I think it was around 8 or 9pm at this point although I'm not really sure. The Dr.'s came in and said "we'd like to transfer him over to Bronson where they have more specialized care for pediatric patients". Talk about scary! They saw something on the x-ray but didn't want to speculate as to what it could be without having a pediatric Dr. look it over and put Coleman is his/her care. So we then waited for the ambulance to arrive to take my little boy over to the other hospital (only 7-10 min. away).
I got to ride with Coleman while Justin drove separately. We had some great nurses with us that made sure all went smoothly in the transition and Coleman did great. He actually woke up a little while we were getting him ready to go. I told him he was going to ride in an ambulance and he immediately did a "woo-woo" sound that he does for ambulance, police, and fire cars. Although a little more quiet and lack of energy in his "woo-woo" I at least got to see a part of my little boy again. He was interested in watching all the beeps from the heart monitor, blood pressure, pulse checker thing. I wasn't allowed to ride in the back with him, but the nurses assured me that he would be fine. I didn't hear a peep from him on the way over to the other hospital (turns out he fell asleep).
We arrived to our own room on the pediatric floor and they took Coleman's vitals, etc. and we had residents, resident supervisors, and finally the Dr. come in and chat with us. There were lots of things that could have caused Coleman to be so sick. We talked about intussusception (a form of blockage in the intestines where the large intestine pushes into the smaller intestine causing a blockage), ileus (intestinal obstruction), or a bad virus as well as the treatments that could be done for all of those things. Coleman was still in and out of throwing up and sleeping at this time - again, no issues having vitals taken or people touching him and examining him. Poor baby. The Dr.'s obviously wanted to do the least invasive procedures as possible (which we were totally in agreement with), so we waited a while to see how he would react to the iv fluids and to see if the vomiting would stop. Coleman continued to throw up throughout the night but the color was changing to more of an "empty stomach" type. Still no wet/soiled diapers. They tried a suppository to see if that would help bring down anything that could be blocking his intestines, but it didn't work.
In the morning, they decided to try an "air enema" where basically you put air inside the intestine to see if there is a blockage. They wheeled in a wagon for Coleman to go do the room in (which he didn't mind....see the photo). Still groggy and tired, but enjoyed the ride and did really well according to Justin for the procedure (I stayed back to try and sleep....which didn't happen). Hospital chairs...even ones that recline...are not good for a pregnant woman who has hip issues!! Justin and I were running on very little sleep at this point with nurses coming in every few hours to take vitals all night long, and with Coleman needing to be consoled, etc.
The results showed that there wasn't any intestinal blockage (HORRAY!) So now was just a waiting game to let the air pass through and see what happened and go from there if he didn't improve. Luckily, Coleman awoke from a good 2 hour nap, looked up through the hospital crib and waved at his daddy =) Awww...he then sat up in the crib and was like "okay, I'm ready". This was the MOST energetic we had seen him since Sunday morning. We took him down the hall to this amazing play room they have set up for the kiddos on that floor. He was so excited to see the fishes in the fish tank, push around the toys, play trains, etc. Even with the IV attached, he was on the move! He also ended up going to the bathroom - horray! At least now we felt like we were making some progress. He did spike a few fevers that day so they wanted to keep us overnight again just to monitor him and see some more improvement as well as how he would do on a regular diet.
Thankfully, my mom and dad came down for the evening to see how he was doing. My mom stayed the night which allowed one of us to go home for a few hours and get some sleep, then switch in the middle of the night. I actually slept better that night in the hospital (well, as well as you can in an uncomfortable chair). Coleman was spiking fevers on and off throughout the night, so we were still a bit worried, but the Dr.'s figured it was from him fighting off whatever virus was in his system.
We awoke the next morning to at VERY hungry boy! He downed cheerios, yogurt, water, anything we could get into his hands. It was like we had our Coleman back - which made us VERY happy! The Dr.'s came in and said that we could go HOME! However, as the morning we went on and we were waiting for the paperwork to be completed for our discharge, Coleman ran another fever. We tried some Tylenol again and it went back down, but our discharge was now held off 'til at least after lunch. Luckily the little guy made enough improvement that we were able to go home mid afternoon on Tuesday.
We got home and Coleman was a little confused about what was going on, where he was, etc. But I guess that's to be expected when you've been sleeping on and off with no schedule for almost 3 days. We all got some sleep Tuesday night which was great.
I don't think I have ever been that scared. To see your child hooked up to IV's, not knowing what is wrong with him, having him be somewhat non responsive towards you, and not acting like himself was so frightening. We are so thankful for the many friends and family who prayed for us during our time at the hospital. I truly believe that with those prayers, Coleman's diagnosis was the best it could have been for what we were facing. We are so thankful there wasn't an intestinal blockage that needed correcting.
The final diagnosis was ileus (intestinal obstruction), caused by a virus that he was fighting off. Basically - part of his stomach/intestines shut down for a short period of time which caused him to be in so much pain and to get sick. There was nothing we could have done to prevent it and it was just something his body had to work through. The fevers on/off were an act of his body fighting through it at the end. We are so thankful he is okay and getting back to his normal self. We are still working on getting back to our normal routine - a lot easier for me than Coleman.
