This is the next chapter in our long struggle with sick babies. Of course, the story began over 16 years ago. If you are just tuning in, you may want to start at the beginning.

Previous Chapter:  Stomach Flu and a Baby in the House

 

 

Day 2 in the hospital~

 

The next morning, Hubby went off to his new job, and I stayed at the hospital with Baby Sean. He seemed to be feeling a bit better, so today would be the day to feed him. The doctors figured that if he had stomach flu, then after twelve hours of not throwing up he should be able to tolerate small amounts of liquid. For some reason, our doc (who is very knowledgeable about breastfeeding) thought it better to try him on a bottle first.

 

 

So I gave Sean his first taste of milk in many, many hours. He took 2 swallows and promptly threw up. The nurse decided that she should try it. He threw up.

 

It was now obvious that this was not stomach flu. Now I began to really worry.

 

That morning Sean weighed in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces. The IV fluids had gotten him hydrated again, but he only gained 2 ounces from that hydration. Despite all the fluids, my sweet baby was still pretty dehydrated. The lab would come to draw blood for tests, and we would watch the blood collect one. drop. at. a. time. That is, if they could find a vein. If the blood did not have to be from a vein, they would prick the bottom of his foot to collect blood. In order to get enough blood this way, they normally have to squeeze a baby’s foot a lot. Since Sean was dehydrated, it was even worse! They would have to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze his tiny foot. The needle in his arm did not even make Sean stir, but the squeezing of his foot made him extremely mad!

 

We tried giving his belly time to settle, and then gave Sean a bottle of milk again. He threw up every time. After several tries with no interest in eating and no success at keeping it down, Doc decided to do an Upper GI to test the sphincter at the top of the stomach. He was wondering if Sean may have pyloric stenosis. I was really starting to suspect Hirschsprung’s Disease, but was too afraid to even think about the possibility.

 

In order to do the Upper GI, my sweet, tiny, sick 14-day old baby had to go back to X-ray without me while some stranger had to force him to drink a bottle of nasty liquid (called barium) that would “light up” on the X-ray so they could see his esophagus and the top part of his stomach. This took a very long time, but Sean finally held down enough of the barium to do the X-rays. They decided that he had a bit of reflux– but not pyloric stenosis.

 

What happened next was the most painful, terrible part.

 

When the barium goes in, it must come out. If it doesn’t come out …

 

Sean was not pooping out the barium. It usually doesn’t take very long before babies will poop out that nasty, thick stuff. It had been long enough that the doc started to worry. After a couple of hours, they took Sean down to X-ray his belly. The barium had not moved very far.

 

Up until now, Sean acted as if he felt nauseous and yucky, but he would wake up sometimes and just look around. As soon as the barium was in him, he would only sleep. He was very lethargic and unresponsive. Now I was realizing that he likely had Hirschsprung’s Disease. The barium had obstructed him. I recognized that hard, bloated belly.

 

Now comes the part that I will forever regret.

 

Our doc was kind of at a loss at this point. He asked if there was another doctor that we would prefer for a consult. We gave him the name of a doctor that Colleen had seen briefly. That doctor was on vacation or something, and so another doctor in her practice came in to consult.

 

Why didn’t I just say, “Send us to the children’s hospital”?

 

This other doctor (Dr. E) began consulting with our doc. She wanted us to try to give Sean some milk with baby cereal in it while he was fairly upright. She thought he may be able to hold it down that way. She also thought his urine smelled strong, so she wanted to be sure he didn’t have a urinary tract infection.

 

At this point, I was feeling very conflicted. Deep down, I knew that this plan of action would likely be fruitless. Deep down, I knew now that my baby had Hirschsprung’s Disease. I don’t know if I just couldn’t face that yet or if I didn’t know how to tell a doctor that I thought we should take a different course of action.

 

The rest of our second day in the hospital was torture for all involved.

 

I will always regret the rest of this day.

 

 

 

Next Chapter: Part 2 of The Part I Will Always Regret

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