Hospital Stay

Bradly at CHOC the night we got there. 

Friday night we took Bradley to the E.R as I mentioned in my previous entry, well when we woke up on Saturday he was screaming and not happy and obviously in pain. We took him back the E.R and they did another enema and it didn't work so they admitted him Children's Hospital of Orange County. They put him in his room and took all his vitals and got his history with his pooping and his formula changes and all that good stuff. I never realized how many changes and little things that have happened to Bradley since he was born. I was having a really hard time coming up with a time line with everything. I couldn't remember for the life of me how long he was on each formula or when we switched or why he was in the ER in the past. I felt like a bad mom because it all was just a big blur. It seemed like it was all so long ago and I couldn't tell the doctor what he needed to know. He wanted to know what formulas he was on and how long and how old Bradley was and why we switched. Well we have had 7 formulas in his short 3 months so its a lot to remember. So after they got all that information they hooked him up to the monitors to watch his blood pressure and an sleep watch as well. They told us to get some rest since it was about 1am and that the


Pediatric Gastro Specialist would be in the following morning to go over everything with us.

      

 looking up at the mobile

The next morning they did an ultrasound of Bradley's tummy to see what was in his intestines and to look for the so called "blockage" they found in the ER on the x-rays. Shortly after that the GI specialist. Dr. Grant, came in to go over everything with us. He was VERY rude to me and seemed to not care that my son has been in pain for his entire life. But he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. He said that we don't know why this is happening to him and we wont know. He said that its nothing serious, and I shouldn't be in the hospital. I argued that my boy needing help for 3 months to do what should come naturally, at this age should be doing with out really thinking about, isn't normal. He kept referring to a child he has as a patient that goes 20 days with out going #2 and that's perfectly OK. I know I am not a doctor, but that just isn't right.



 My mom made a joke to Dr. Grant about me needing meds to handle him so I don't toss Bradley over the balcony and since she said that Dr. Grant looked at me a little differently as if she was serious. He told me to go on vacation if I get to stressed and that I need to get a break since I am having a hard time with this. I told him that I was having a hard time since he cries most the day, but not because he is crying, its because I can't do anything to help him feel better. Its painful as a mother to know your baby hurts and not be able to do anything about it. He didn't seem to believe me.

So his diagnosis was he was constipated and that was it. His treatment was complicated and I am still not 100% on board with that one...

1tsp Milk of Magnesia once a day - if that doesn't work to continue upping the dosage every 3 days until he goes daily and on his own
1 pill of Lactalose (probiotics) daily
1tsp Maalox twice a day with the same thing as the M.O.M, up dosage as needed
Tylenol for pain as needed
1/8 of a cup of Miralax once a day and up dosage as needed
Change formula from Soy to Enfamil Gentlease.

He didn't feel that Bradley is lactose intolerant and that it's just that his stomach was not mature enough for the milk proteins. He also said that he thinks Bradley's tummy just ins't mature enough to poo normally. That he may just have slow bowels, or possibly that he had too many solid poos that hurt him so badly (always made him bleed) that he is now afraid to go since it will hurt. So with all the meds it will soften it up so much that he wont have a choice but to let it out and it will "re-train" him that its OK to go. He said that his plan is to start with the meds I listed at those dosages and to continue upping everything until he was going on a normal schedule and then stay at that dosage for up to 2 years, but potentially longer.

He made it all seem like it was no big deal and he didn't seem concerned at all with the fact that my boy is uncomfortable at all. When I asked to make him feel better he said Tylenol, but only getting his pooper working is going to work 100%. I mentioned to him that this all seems like a lot of medication for my 3 month old baby and he seemed like it was nothing and kept referring to that girl who goes 20 days. He kept making references to Bradley's future of needing MOM to go and how he may have poo issues for his entire life. I don't understand how this can be life long with out tknowing how it happened.

Before he left he said that he wanted to run one more test to rule out a more serious issue, the test is  called Barium Enema, which basically is like colon hydrotherapy they put a tube in his bum, tape it closed and allow 500cc's of colored water (with barium) so it will go into his bowels and intestines and then take several x-rays. They contrast of the color will black out on the x-rays so they can see if there were any leaks or crinkles that would cause poo to get backed up. They were also looking for something more serious called Hirschsprung's Disease and basically ment that part of his intestines had nerve damage and didn't work and would need surgery. The test was negative thank goodness!

My issue with all this is we still don't know why this is going on, which I asked several times. I don't understand how we can treat something when we don't know whats causing it. How can we change whats going on with out knowing what to change.

I do have to admit he has gone to the restroom by himself 3 times now since we were discharged and is in much better spirits. I just don't want to over medicate my baby. I went to my pediatrician and she was shocked at how much Dr. Grant wants Bradley taking... that makes this even more difficult. UGH.

My troubling question... How do you know whats the best thing to do? Who do you listen to?

First few days as Mommy

Everything happened so fast that it didn't hit me that I was a mom until everyone left and Randy fell asleep and I had a few minutes to look at my son and just take it all in. That was the first time I cried.

My first night in the hospital was extremely long. I was trying to breast feed so I was getting use to doing that. He would nurse for an hour at a time and then want to be nursed again 45 minutes later. Between that and him being changed and me being worried when he was sleeping alone in his little crib next to me and then you ad the pain in my tummy I was scared to fall asleep.

He cried a lot the first few days. Sometimes for several hours at a time. I didn't think he was eating enough, I didn't feel like everyone told me I would when I was breast feeding. I didn't get the "let down" or engorged or any different feelings at all. I must have asked the nurses 20 times if that was normal and how to know if anything was coming out. They all told me to keep nursing and I was doing the right thing. So I kept nursing.

I remember one night he was crying and screaming for almost 2 hours. Randy and I couldn't calm him down. I was convinced something was wrong so I paged the nurse on duty and she came in to help us. That was the worst night for me. While I was in tears since I had not slept for even 5 minutes since I got there (Tuesday morning and this took place Thursday at 4am) this so called nurse told us that we were doing it all wrong and that I was to stressed and I needed to calm down and stop crying or I would be a bad mom. She told me that I was lucky that I had my husband with me and that most moms there didn't and I needed to take advantage of that. She told me I was holding him wrong, feeding him wrong and swaddling him wrong. She even at one point raised her voice and told me firmly to stop crying. I was so terrified that I was totally messing up. After a few more hours and my mom coming to help I realized that she was a horrible nurse and that I was doing fine. I can't believe a nurse could say that to a mother who has only had her child for under 72 hours.

Our stay at Fountain Valley Hospital was not the greatest. I will definitely  not have my next child there. They were rude and unorganized. The nurses all seemed bother by the fact that I would page them for my medicine or for help with Bradley. My first night there 12 hours after my C Section the nurse came in at 4 in the morning and told me I had to get out of bed. I had just gotten Bradley to sleep and was in desperate need of some shut eye myself. The morphine was getting the best of me. She said that I needed to toughen up and get out of bed. I was in tears trying to move. She made me walk all the way to the bathroom sit down and stand back up and walk back to my bed, even though I had a catheter in. She didn't care in the least bit that I was tired and was not sensitive to the fact that walking hurt like hell. I had another nurse come in and check my IV's and she leaned on my incision and I screamed and she looked at me and said "oh, did you have a C Section" I just looked at her with more tears in my eyes and said "can I please have my pain meds no?". How can you be my nurse and not know I had a C Section? Could these nurses pretend to care at least.

He got circumcised on Thursday. I was so sad and afraid for him.They didn't let me go with him which is a good thing. I don't think I would have been able to handle that. The doctor said he didn't even flinch when she did it. He bled a bit and I was terrified to change his diaper. I cried when they brought him back to me and showed me what it looked like. Poor little man.

I was so relived to come home. I got discharged on Friday March 5th. About 3 hours before we went home the doctor told us that Bradley had Jaundice, and that we needed to give him some light and keep feeding him and he should be fine. He also had a fever and had lost 1 pound. Getting him ready to go home was exciting and scary. I felt comfortable there and didn't want something to happen to him so far away from help. But at the same time I was relieved to get out of that Hell Hole.

We got him all dressed and ready to go and got the car all packed up.

Him ready to go home

Getting me into the car was a mission. Very painful. My mom took Bradley and I to my house while Randy went to pick up our dog and get her home. We had been told to have the dog, Bella, home before the baby got there so she didn't get aggressive so thats what we did.
The drive home was rough and long. The roads were bumpy and every pot hole was a sharp pain. I swear my mom was hitting them on purpose. hehe. My sister was there with us, we were talking and making jokes and having a good time. 

I was relieved to be home!