Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Mama knows!!

Last Monday I posted about Randy having a crying spell that was unusual for him. He was fine after a few hours, but for some reason I was still worried. Well I had good reason to worry; his hernia was incarcerated (no it was not under arrest). He had emergency surgery Saturday morning.

Mama knows!

Let me back up and tell the full story. When I arrived at the daycare Friday afternoon, I went to the toddler room to get Randy. They were not there, but I could hear him in the adjoining infant room. As I grabbed his coat, I heard this burp and someone vomit. I knew that retching voice.

I went to the infant room and they immediately said, "Mom he just threw up". As the teacher was cleaning him up, he threw up again. I gather him and his belongings and we headed home. He was whiny in the car and fell asleep. He did not feel good and I was worried.

Mama knows!

At home he would not eat or drink and whined and cried. He acted as if he was in a lot of pain. He was arching his back and couldn't decide if he wanted to be up or down. Around 7p, I decided he was going to the ER. My fear is that it was his shunt. This was not normal.

Mama knows!

I had to decide between taking him to our local children's hospital (5 miles), the hospital in the next town where his neurosurgeon is (50 miles), or the satellite hospital (of the one in the next city-25 miles). Although my gut told me there was something wrong, I kept thinking "What if I drive this 50 miles and it's a virus". I took the middle road and went to the satellite office.

When we get there I tell them I suspect a shunt malfunction and he is taken back immediately. The nurses and doctors see him quickly and send him for an MRI and a shunt series. While we wait on the results, Randy vomits about three more times. The ER doctor orders blood work and an IV so that she can control the nausea.

After four sticks, the blood has been drawn but there is no IV (horrible veins). The doctor notice there is a lot of air in his abdomen and she examines his belly. She asks about his hernia. When she tries to reduce it, he screams bloody murder and moves her hand. Now his hernia often bulges, but is always easily reduced. Not this time. She has the nurses drop an NG tube to suction some of the air, and insists in an IV (he threw up twice while she was in there). By this time transport is on his way to take him to main campus so that neuro can see him and general surgery can see him too.


Two more sticks and no IV. Transport arrives and takes him to the ambulance. I follow them the 25 miles to the main hospital. I should have driven there in the first place.

Mama knows!

Once we are at the main hospital, I answered the same questions for the 20th time and to the 20th person. Neurosurgery says that he does have a cyst that is enlarged, but that his ventricles look good overall. The ER doc looks at his hernia and has difficulty reducing it as well. A couple hours and an abdominal x-ray later, the general surgeon comes in to examine him. By this time the hernia has reduced, but is still extremely tender. He cries when it is touched. They decide to admit him and operate.

Mama knows!

Now it is 6am and Randy has not eaten or drank since 3:30p. They try again for an IV. Two more sticks. No IV. Finally at 7:30a, Randy was taken to his room. The IV team is paged to his room. Two more sticks. No IV. While they were packing up to leave, one of the surgeons came to talk to me. He let me know what will be done and that he should be going to surgery around 10am. He also let me know that he will not be doing the surgery because he has been at work all night, but that his partner will be in any minute. The IV team explains the issue with finding a line and that he has now been completely fasting for 17 hours. The surgeon says they will get a line in the OR and he will make sure he is not bumped.

My baby was a champ through all this. By this time, he was no longer crying and was just laying there sucking on his paci. He usually does really well when he is NPO. I guess that's because he's not that into food anyway.

He was taken to surgery around 10:30am. It took a little longer than usual because the surgeon said that he had a lot of abdominal fat stuck in the hernia. Fortunately, the blood supply was not cut off yet; so it was not quite the emergency it could have been. He spent Saturday night in the hospital, and was discharged after lunch on Sunday.

He is recovering well. He is sore, but is not crying at all. And although it was not his shunt, he was sick.  I should have listened to my baby last Monday. He tried to tell me. I had a feeling.

Mama knows!

6 comments:

  1. Sweet momma! I'm so sorry he had to go through all of that *and you too!* It is hard...there is just nothing easy about these decisions. Funny...our shunt guy is 120 miles away! I'm so glad he seems to be recovering well. :0)

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  2. Oh, I am so glad he's okay. You are right - MAMA ALWAYS KNOWS! Praying for you and Randy.

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  3. Oh, poor little man. So sorry to hear he had to go through this. Thank God you acted so quickly. I hope he feels back to normal soon.

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  4. He is back to himself already (actually better). He seems a little stronger in the core.

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  5. Randy is a very special little dude. What a champ to go through all that. And Mama too. I am glad he is on the mend!

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  6. Tiffany...My son got the CP diagnosis today.
    I'm so unsure of how I feel about this. I feel like Randy got his diagnosis not too long ago.
    Thanks for sharing your story...experiences with us. It helps!

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