An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
To Put It Bluntly….
….yesterday SUCKED!
I got a call from my granddaughter, Spud had been throwing up EVERYTHING, and was running a bit of fever. She was sitting in the doc’s office with him, waiting to get in. They were nice enough to squeeze her in since her regular pediatrician was out of town. A couple of hours later, I got a call from my daughter…they were heading to Kingswood Medical Center for an abdominal ultra sound. The doc decided it was either baby reflux, which apparently is more common than I thought, or pyloric stenosis. So, we started the phone waiting game.
After what seemed like forever, I got a text…the radiologist ruled out pyloric stenosis, but said it is possible he might develop it later. So, thankfully, no surgery! At least for the moment. If that had been the case, I would already be in Texas by now! They headed back to the doctor, and he sent them promptly to the ER. After all the vomiting, the tiny person was quite dehydrated. He was throwing up Pedialyte as well, so he was getting no nutrition, or liquids. My daughter sent me a picture, which of course, being 700 miles away, made me feel completely helpless.
They did all the normal tests, x-rays…wish she had gotten a shot of THAT…itty bitty completely covered by portable machine, blood…white count good so no infection, and urine. Now, when she told me how they got a urine sample from little boys, even I had to cringe. Evidently, they have this little plastic bag cuppy thing, with a little hole in it, and they have to tape it to his…well…what males don’t want kicked. It seems the tape got stuck, and removing it made him even MORE unhappy.
About seven, I got another text. They decided to keep him overnight for observation. A just in case scenario, which of course, put my stress back up into the ‘you don’t wanna be around me‘ level. If it hadn’t been for Chris….well, I’ll just say THANK YOU, m’friend! And leave it at that!
Brat let me know they put him in a ‘baby cage’. Now, the way my mind works…the mental image of something small with the word cage…..
Jr, all the while, kept wanting to know what she had done wrong. Nothing! Brat attempted to explain to her over and over, this was NOT her fault, and she hadn’t done anything wrong. Unfortunately, these tiny people don’t come with a users manual, and all kinds of things can happen to them, physically, that no one can predict. But if you’ve ever been a new mother, or even a dad, you know all the reassurance in the world doesn’t stop you from thinking it was something you did.
Hopefully, she has now calmed down enough to realize, things just happen, and there was nothing she could have done differently that would have prevented this episode. Perhaps, after Brat got some food in her, she was able to get a little sleep. Although, knowing her…not a whole lot! I think Brat finally made it home just in time to collapse into bed.
So, yeah….yesterday seriously sucked! We are praying the medication will do its job, he’ll be rehydrated and be able to keep down his formula. She stopped breast feeding last week, so the young’un got plenty of what he needs from her. Now, if we can get him to start gaining like he should, and the meds work so he can keep everything down, or most everything, and he doesn’t develop that stenosis thing…. I haven’t had any updates this morning, so I’m guessing everything has gone well.
He’s about 7 weeks and barely 10 pounds. His cousin, on the other hand, who is a week younger, has grown, and gained, like a weed! With a LOT of hair! Heh.
Why is that dark haired babies have so much hair, blondes are bald, and in betweens look like little old balding men? :/
So, now you know why I was mostly absent from the blog yesterday. Yes, real life DOES take priority!
Wow! I can see why yesterday sucked! I would have been a bit stressed and worried myself. My kids and grands being so far away, its hard sometimes when something happens. For instance, a while back my daughter calls me to tell me that my one and only (blood) grandson, who is in his teens now, has been having seizures! However, then she went on to assure me that the type of seizure he had been having was NOT the full-blown “grand mal” type. Well, that reassured me a bit……just a bit. The way she explained it…….his seizures only last for maybe 10 seconds at the most, and when he has them, it’s like he is perfectly still staring off into space, for a few seconds and then he’s fine. I asked her how they found out, because I mean lets face it, a lot of kids who are normal do this too sometimes. She told me that his basketball coach noticed it, and advised her to have it checked. Apparently he had seen these type of symptoms before. Well, Thank God for that alert coach!! He had an MRI, and the (doctor-specialist) diagnosed it as “Absence Seizures”, and they could easily be controlled with medication. This was good news, however, the bad news was that my grandson will have to take this medication twice a day for the rest of his life.
( Wasn’t the best of news, but certainly NOT the worst. So, yes……I sure can understand your feelings lady! TOTALLY!
Well thank God they aren’t grand mal! I’ve seen that…scared the crap outta me! Ok…I was fairly young, so a lot of things could scare me, but still….something I’ve never forgotten. Well, I hope he’s wiser than a lot of kids his age, and actually remembers to take his meds!
I’m still waiting for an update. *tapping toes* But I guess, as they say, no news is good news, right?
I know this is a touchy subject to approach – especially since mom is already feeling like she did something wrong, but I can’t let it go unsaid. If she just stopped nursing last week, it would be very, very simple to re-lactate. No formula in the world will be as gentle on his system as breastmillk, not at any price ever. My little granddaughter was also found to have severe reflux and her pediatrician told my daughter because of that to never, ever give her any formula at all ever. It just makes it worse. She’s a little porker even though she threw up what seemed to be every thing that went in for her first three months.
Another of my grandbabies was also found to have a severe allergy to cow’s milk, so even though he was exclusively breastfeeding, enough of the cow’s milk proteins that his mom was drinking and eating was getting through her milk to him causing him to not gain weight like he should. She cut out all milk from her diet and now baby is thriving again, and getting downright chubby. She’s asked all the time why she didn’t just put him on a soy formula, her reply is that the sacrifice of her taking all dairy out of her diet was a small one so that he could have the perfect food. I am so proud of her!
While I appreciate the advice, there is more to it than her just stopping for selfish reasons. Obviously, it’s a family issue, so I won’t go into it. We do agree that breast milk is best for a baby, and she is quite aware. Reality has different plans. He was also throwing up her milk, so this is a condition that needs to be watched, and hopefully will not develop into the worse scenario of surgery.