Day 3 of our adventure at St. Peter's Hospital

Well here we are again. Just to bring everyone up to speed, here is a rundown of the last few days.

Friday: Yumi came home from school with abdominal pain which started after lunch. Sometimes given a nap and time, she feels better and it passes. When it goes into the next morning is when I decide to take action. So we got up and dressed, went to the Group Health Urgent Care, got admitted, IVd with some pain meds and then admitted to St. Peters. I decided to stay in town due to the situation with our house and with Yumi being in high school, it is hard to catch up if you miss too much school. It took until 5pm to get the NG tube in with 2 tries. That's always the hardest part of these hospitalizations.

Saturday: The x-ray showed a good amount of stool in her colon so he ordered laxatives, suppositories and an enema. These were quite unpleasant. She was putting out a lot of saliva through the NG and so the liquids were clear. She had a lot of nausea and still struggled with a lot of pain through the day.

Sunday: Pretty much was just the same waiting game. The doc said that he was prepared to wait this thing out and proceed as we had been doing with laxatives and such. Sunday night her NG started to put out green gunky bial so it was apparent that things are not working quite right. It's strange that she continues to have pain. The x-ray still looks the same as well, not showing any significant blockages or expanded bowels.

Monday: I returned to the hospital and the doctor had cancelled the orders treating the constipation and is waiting this out as if it is a bowel obstruction. He mentioned he may order an Upper GI, small bowel follow-through in the morning. This is a procedure where they have her drink stuff and they take pictures every 20 minutes or so to watch what happens with the liquid, if there is a slow-down occuring and where it is happening. It was a rough day today with a surly nurse, and it was particularly rough for me. I usually can take these things in stride, but I was on the brink, I tell ya. So we are contemplating talking to the charge nurse to see if we can get moved to the pediatric floor. Right now we are on the regular surgical floor, where the youngest patient is in their 50s. No place for a 15-year old! But Yumi is not sure she wants to be moved, so we will wait and think about it some more.

I hope that brings everyone up to speed. Have a good night. I usually try to update once a day unless something significant happens. It's difficult for me to repeat the same happenings of the day to 5 or more people on the phone so if you can check the blog before you call, that would help my sanity tremendously. Thanks so much for your prayers!

Two Meals and a Homecoming

The surgeons came around about 10:15 and they said if Yumi can tolerate her breakfast and lunch she can go home after lunch. They also put her on simethicone. She's going to have chicken nuggets for lunch. We'll see how that goes down!

My goal (always good to set goals) is to leave by 1:30 to avoid traffic. With her in the front seat at least I can use the carpool lane. Thank you all for your prayers!

The Vicissitudes of Today

Well, we've had ups, we've had downs. Right now we are up. She passed some gas tonight. This is very exciting in our world. Pretty much pain-free since the gas thing, so that's excellent. She had been having quite a bit of pain this afternoon and evening. She had some strained chicken soup this afternoon and again this evening. Doesn't sound like we advanced very far today, but maybe tomorrow will be the day we make some real progress.

They may order some more xrays in the morning. I'm not looking forward to early rounds though, now that the week is starting. They do things a little later on weekends, so it has been nice these last two days. Also, the hospital is not that busy on the weekends and the hallways are not bustling with people. That will all change tomorrow morning.

I hope to be out in time for Yumi's field trip Tuesday.

The Joys of a Liquid Diet

Yumi's not too excited to be drinking bland beef broth so all she's had this morning so far is some grape juice. She's having no pain today. Yay! She doesn't even care for a popsicle at this point. I'm going to take her down to the cafeteria and maybe something will motivate her to eat it. Like jello.

We had some friends visit last night and it really helped boost Yumi's spirits. The homemade kettlecorn was fab. I'm saving some for her when she can tolerate it. Thanks, Drakes!

We'll see how she tolerates things and how quickly they advance her diet. Sorry this post was a little late this morning. I read a little then fell back asleep for a long time. Oops!

NG tube is out! yay!

Tonight around 7:30 Yumi pulled out her ng tube. Things were still going okay and the nurse said the docs gave the okay for the tube to come out. Yumi was very nervous since pulling it out is uncomfortable and makes her gag and tastes nasty too. She's doing well and is allowed a few sips of water and some ice chips. Hopefuly soon they will advance to clear liquids, which include jello. I'm thinking if she tolerates all these things well she may be able to go home tomorrow. Yay! Of course, the risk is always that she will start being nauseous and vomit. I was somewhat cautious about taking out the tube too soon because to put it back in will be torture on that poor kid.

I'll post tomorrow as soon as I know anything! I'm glad for a short visit here. Selfishly, we may make it home in time to work more on my latest project!

Doctor Says:

Well this morning another doctor came in and said that her xray yesterday showed a lot of air in her colon. They want to give her a suppository to help her have a bm. Last night, the Fellow (Big Boss Doc) said there was really not that much in her colon. Weird. They did try to let some out last night in the ER but it did not work. So the doc this morning says that perhaps she has some sort of virus that with her previous medical issues, shows up and looks like a bowel obstruction. This all sounds very strange to me. She is still having quite a bit of pain. They repeated xrays this morning and we will wait to hear.

What I appreciate about some doctors is that they really take into consideration what the mom is feeling, "what does your gut say?". I always hate to contradict the docs in case I am wrong, but I knew this was just not going to pass quickly at home and that is why I brought her up here. If it was going to pass quickly she would not still be having a level 7 pain 41 hours after the initial onset. I think her body may be working itself into a tizzy and might obstruct again.

In the meantime, they put her ng tube to gravity meaning that it is not sucking out but just draining by itself if there is overflow in her belly. After she got back from xray she felt pretty nautious and they gave her more morphine and put the suction back on for about ten minutes. Now she's turning it off since Yumi's feeling better.

I'll update after we hear what the xray says.

MAY 2, 2008 Back at Children's

Well, we are back at Children's! I am having problems with the WIFI connection so I'm using my pda phone to type this post. It will be short due to my frustration. We came up here around 1:30 pm Friday. Got here at the ER at 3pm. While theywere quick to get us into the ER, we were there until we were admitted to the floor around 10 pm. Long day. Right now we are hearing faint bowel tones; a good sign. We will know more tomorrow. So far she does not appear to have a full obstruction, but she continues to be in a significant amount of pain. Right now she's enjoying morphine.

It is midnight and I'm going to bed. Thanks for checking the blog and be sure to post a comment!