About one month ago my stepson and his two-year-old son moved in with us. Even though the economy is slowly improving, it's still tough out there, especially for single parents. So until he can save up some money, they will be living with us, and I'm okay with that. We've done it for two of the others in the past, so once again we will all get through this. Anyway, this past Sunday my husband had invited some friends to come over after church so we used our coffee time to clean the house. It can get pretty messy with a two-year-old running around, plus the dogs who almost have as many "toys" as the grandbabies.
Unfortunately, cleaning increases my pain. I'm not sure if it's all the bending or what, but then I end up miserable for most of the remainder of the day. On top of this, for the past month I have been sick to my stomach every day. It starts from the moment I wake up and usually last until around noon. I take my Zofran like I'm supposed to, but even they don't seem to help as much as they have in the past. Needless to say, it is frustrating me to no end.
It's been ending up that every Sunday I say I'm not going to church. It's not that I don't like church, I do! It's just that I stand up front on a stage and sing, and the whole time I'm usually gritting through the pain and the nausea. I am really tired of feeling this way all of the time. So, Sunday was probably the calmest day over a four day period. On to Monday!
Monday started out like any other day. I got sick to my stomach. Made my morning runs to the bathroom and started working on laundry. I was having a lot of pain in spite of my pain medications and I really truly did not feel like moving much, but there are things that just have to be done in a household so I do them. It takes me longer to do them now than it has in the past, but they do get done. So basically I did not feel like moving or doing anything. Just about the time I sat down, put the series I'm watching on Netflix on, and got settled in a comfortable position with my yarn and a new project my phone rings. It was my son calling to see if I would take the baby to the Emergency Room. Obviously I'm not going to tell him no on something like that. Apparently the baby (2 months old) had started to projectile vomit on Sunday and was still doing it on Monday, along with a high pitched cry. If you have ever had a baby you know that when their cry hits that high pitch it is usually an indication of pain. So I threw my meds, my tablet and a few other things into a tote bag and headed out the door.
I dropped mom and baby at the emergency room entrance then went on my way to find a parking spot. It took me 15 minutes to find a parking spot! What irritated me that it is clearly marked "Emergency Room Parking Only" and as I was perusing the parking garage for a place to park, I see nurses and other hospital personnel parking their cars in spots that would open up, and then be on their merry way into the hospital. By the time I finally parked and made my way into the ER, they had already put the baby in a room, and there were nurses coming in and out non-stop. The doctor came in a few minutes after me, and told us she was ordering x-rays and an ultrasound. I stayed in the room while they took him for testing, and it felt like they were gone for an hour. Of course this gave my mind time to wander and go crazy. The first thoughts that were coming to mind were of course Pediatric Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, along with the possibility of a hernia.
When they finally came back to the room we had to play the waiting game. I could tell how distressed the baby's mom was, so I kept all of my thoughts to myself. The nurses came in, started an IV on him and let us know that we should know something soon. A short time later the doctor came back in the room to let us know that the ultrasound was positive for Pyloric Stenosis, and that he would have to have surgery either that night or the next morning. It was so hard to see the babies parents deal with this. I know that at this same age, my son, his father, was hospitalized with pneumonia and how stressed I was, so I can only imagine how I would have felt if I had been told that he had to have surgery.
I finally went home around 8:30 that night so that I could get some sleep, and told the kids that I would be back up there first thing in the morning which I was. I have to tell you that Tuesday was the longest day ever! Even when they took him down to pre-op we had to wait another hour before the anesthesiologist came in to talk to them, and then another 20 minutes before they were finally ready to take him to surgery. Praise God, the surgery did not take long at all, and the doctor came out to the waiting room to let us know that everything had gone great, but it would be another 45 minutes before he would be out of post-op and taken back to his room. That was another period of time that seemed to drag on forever. Since waking up from surgery he has been eating without throwing up all over the place, which means the surgery was completely a success.
I didn't realize until I went home late that afternoon, (I had an appointment with my GI doctor for my CT results), how exhausted I was. I was calm on the outside the whole entire time when I was at the hospital with my son, his girlfriend and their baby, but on the inside I had been tense and praying like crazy that the Pyloric Stenosis was all that there was, and that the surgery would go exactly as planned. With any luck this will be the only time that this child will have any problems with his digestive system. Since they believe that CD may be hereditary, I can only pray that my children and grandchildren don't get it, and if they do, maybe through blogs like this one that make people aware of this disease, there will be more research and someday a cure. I was also thankful that on Tuesday my CD symptoms had decided to play nice for at least one day.
Many Blessings and Remember LIVE, LAUGH and LOVE!
C
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