Good and bad

When I left off last, Emily was doing well and we decided to make our trip to Florida. Wednesday morning, we drove 10 hours (took us 12) to the panhandle/Destin area. Emily did very well in he car. It just rained the whole time.

Thursday was rainy, but calm. She are great and was happy. Friday was more rain, but we decided to go out for a while. We hit the panama beach pier before it started to rain. This is our only vacation picture.



We were went to Fridays for a quick lunch, where the first signs of trouble appeared. Emily refused to eat. I figured she was just having a bad moment. We were an hour from my in laws house, so we headed back. That was one of the longest hours of my life.

She started retching and gagging horribly. Constantly. I had to take her out of her car seat and wrap a seat belt around her in the back as tried to throw up every single minute for an hour. She was ice cold, but sweating. Her eyes rolled back in her head. I was scared out of my mind. I wold have called 911, but we were in the middle of nowhere, and we had to get home.

As soon as we got back we rushed her in the house and hooked up a g-tube to vent. She has a Nissen for reflux, and can not throw up, so venting the tube allows her to drain off the stuff that made her sick. She immediately drained about 10 ounces of nasty green stuff. That's a lot for her. I gave Zofran and called the doctor. We were about 2 hours from the closest pediatric hospital. The doctor suggested we try to get home, so we did. We pack up the car, and headed out the next morning.

24 hours in the car, 17 inches of rain, 4 days and one sick girl.

I couldn't get food or liquids in her for about 30 hours, so we came straight to the hospital when we got to nc. She was admitted, started IV fluids, and then trying to figure out what was wrong.

First they told me it was constipation. It wasn't that. I threw a fit I'm not sorry about, and they looked further. She looked awful for two days as her belly continued to drain green. After what we just went through with Abby, we were living in terror as we watched Emily so weak and sick. She had vey low blood pressures, she didn't make any urine for 22 hours. They scanned her bladder, but it was empty. She was very, very dry, and it took a few days to get on top of fluids. Today, she finally looks better.

Yesterday, she had an upper GI series that showed SMA syndrome had returned. That's what she had 2 years ago when she and Abby were in the hospital at the same time. Basically, the mesenteric artery and aorta smash her small intestine causing a blockage. It doesn't require surgery because her own body fat will eventually lift the artery off her bowel. More good news is that once the dye moved past the blockage (lying on her side, almost stomach, it moved through) her motility and absorption are perfect. Her belly isn't sick, she is just sick temporarily. She's not Abby.




Today she is going for a g-j tube. We will have to formula feed for a while and put some weight on this kid! It's very frustrating for me. We feed her all the time, and she is a great eater, but the pounds just don't come easily. Then one little illness and it's all gone.

I'm thankful for answers, and the ability to fix this without surgery. It's been a very trying week for us, but finally heading in the right direction. Whew!