The nurses were fabulous. So kind, so patient, and very friendly. Kayzee LOVED them. She would do whatever they asked. One hard thing was they would only let Kayzee eat jello and drink juice and I couldn't leave her side so they brought me lunch but I had to hide eating it in front of her so it took me about an hour to eat my salad;) The hospital did have a play room for inpatients and Kayzee was in heaven playing with all the dolls and the play kitchen.
Here is Kayzee with her new yellow hospital socks. She loved them. She looks so grown up here too.
The GI specialist (a different one than we had seen before) came in and took her history then ordered a barium enema. An enema with contrast dye so they could take x-rays of her intestinal tract. The specialist was worried about hirschsprung's disease. It's where a part of the intestinal tract is narrowed and missing some nerve endings which causes bowel problems. So off we went to radiology. This was the hardest part of the whole hospital adventure. Watching my daughter being strapped down to a board so she couldn't move and then listening to her scream for 30 minutes while they did the enema and turned her strapped down body every direction so they could get good x-rays was heartbreaking for me. All I could do was hold her hand and sing songs quietly in her ear. Here is what I wrote on Facebook about this whole experience...
I have a new appreciation for parents who have to watch their children suffer through painful medical procedures...there is nothing you can do but hold their hand and wish you could take their place so they don't have to go through that. And there are those who deal with it on a daily basis. My heart goes out to them. My daughter has been so strong through this process bringing smiles to all the nurses with her sweet personality. She is such a good example to me to be happy through trials.
We headed back to her room and waited for the results. The enema cleaned her out and she had diarrhea for 4 days. I literally changed 9-14 diapers a day when normally I change her 2-3 times a day. She got really dehydrated so while in the hospital she had an iv with fluids. The nurses got the iv in her really fast so Kayzee didn't really have time to cry.
11 hours after being admitted the specialist came in with great news. She did not have hirschsprung's and now that she was officially cleaned out we could actually go home. They rushed her paperwork so we could leave before it had been 12 hours and that way I could claim out-patient procedures instead of in-patient admittance to help us save a lot of money! YAY! She was officially diagnosed with chronic constipation. Basically we have to give her a fiber filled diet and she needs to learn to go to the bathroom on her own (which is hard because she is so young and doesn't understand the importance of going everyday or else she will be constipated again and have to be cleaned out. We have to continue with the laxative once a day and the ex-lax chews every weekend until June when they will reevaluate and hopefully wean her off everything. Since we have been home I was worried about the 4 days of diarrhea but knowing she was staying cleaned out I didn't worry too much but now she has not had a bowel movement in 5 days so the dr says if she goes 2 more days without one then we will have to do the 3 day clean-out procedures all over again. UGH. I wish there was someway we could get her to understand. And I am going to start potty-training soon so we will see if that helps or if it will be hard with everything going on.
After we got home life got worse for me (I had already had a horrible week so to have another week of being miserable was really disappointing) but then I had the best week and that made up for everything! But that's another post:)
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