Chaos

After a chaotic past two days at home, we find ourselves back in Sioux Falls in the Children's Hospital. The first night at home went well even though we were still figuring out feedings. Tuesday Olivia started throwing up at 3 of her feedings. That night did not go well either. She was very fussy which is quite unusual for her. Wednesday she had throw ups at 4 of her feedings. The last feed she bottled 20cc, I leaned her over to burp, and she puked it all up. We took her to Rock Valley ER to X-ray to make sure the feeding tube was still in place. They forwarded those to Sioux Falls, and the ER doc up in Sioux Falls recommended we come up. They had seen that her bowels were distended on the X-ray.

We arrived in Sioux Falls at 8:30pm. After 3 pokes, a pair of pediatric nurses finally came and found a vein, drew some blood, and started an IV. The results from the blood draw all came back good: no sign of infection, white blood cell count good, etc. They had tried to get a spinal tap to get fluid to see if there was any infection around the brain or meningitis. They couldn't get it, and they thought once the IV had started they would have more luck. But thankfully they cancelled that since the blood results were good. They also took additional X-rays.

They asked if we noticed that Olivia's stomach was bigger. Neither Wes nor I had even thought to look. We only knew she wasn't keeping food down! Now that they told us, we could definitely see it. We could see the bumps of her intestine as it wrapped around because it was so swollen. They told us it was full of air. They inserted a tube to suction all the air out. After that she had 4 large dirty diapers! She hadn't had a large one since we'd been home.

They've done an enema and taken more X-rays, and they still don't know what caused it. After her 4 large dirty diapers and not eating (just getting IVs), there was a noticeable improvement in her stomach getting smaller. The drs compared the latest X-ray from the one when we arrived and decided we could start her bottling again in smaller doses. So through Thursday night we bottled 30cc or 1oz every 3 hrs. At the 6:30am feeding we got the Ok to start feeding 60cc. We are monitoring her stomach and throw ups. If she has any vomits or her stomach is getting bigger, then we will stop feeds and do more tests.

Waiting in the ER room after getting IVs. 

Getting ready for ct scan

Olivia has feeding tube and suction tube in her nose and IV in her hand. We are loving the pacifier and clip Sheena gave us. She needs it a LOT with all the pokes and prods.