Off to Sick Kids...AGAIN :(

Well this may be a little late for an update, but life has been so busy for us.

Our last frantic trip if you recall was in May, when Brittany was having some foul drainage from an old surgery (or what's left of it) out of her vagina.

Well things were quiet. Too quiet. LOL. Until six weeks later when one night in July, she suddenly took sick. It had been a usual day, a wonderful paid day of hooky from work as it was Canada Day. Ahhhhh...doing what I wanted and getting paid for it. Gotta love that! Made some pasta and tomatoes and hamburger for supper...dd was hungry from playing and wolfed down a heaping bowl. A bath and a cuddle and she was off to sleep. But not for long :(

A couple of hours had passed and all of a sudden I heard her crying. She had been sick in bed. Cleaned it up (icky poo)and she said her stomach hurt really bad. So we gave her some tylenol and she laid in bed with me as we tried to sleep. Short time later she was sick again, and screaming, with a fever. I noticed the food didn't seem to be digested at all. Warning bells went off and we packed up for a trip to the ER. This was about 1:30 am.

Upon arrival poor Brittany immediately deposited yet another present on the rubber mats inside the ER department. Needless to say they put her on a gurney right away (with a BIG bowl) and got her a bed as soon as they could...within a few minutes, in the ward.

The doctor came in and as she was still in pain, very pale and feverish, he put her on an IV gravol drip immediately and said they would moniter her for the night, give her x-rays in the early morn and call her Pediatrician as soon as his office opened in the morning.

It was a long, sleepless night for both of us. Dh decided to go home and catch a couple of hours in case he could make it to work in the morning. I sat up in a chair beside her bed...occasionally making my way outside for some air, yearning for the coffee stand to open. I suspected the worst, as I had "that feeling of doom". I was right.

Dh came back early as he couldn't sleep and called into work. At 5:30am I also called into work (I work at 6:30 and the secretary is there at that time...a wonderful kind woman). I promised to phone her back when I knew more.

The nurses were wonderful that were on that night. I knew they were discussing Brittany, as they could see some of her unusal attributes on her ER charts. They were so kind as they brought dh and and I some coffee and muffins from the staff room before the coffee bar opened in the ER waiting room. It was a real pick me up.

X-rays showed what I had feared and suspected from the time she started vomiting. A bowel obstruction. Her food was not getting into her intestines because of this, causing the sickness, as well as extreme pain and bloating. Thank God it didn't get as bad as the time she had the extra bowel blocked up...I won't tell you what she was vomiting then :0(

Her wonderful Pediatrician came in around 9, looked at her and the xrays (she had slept blissfully all night thanks to the meds) and ordered immediate transport to Sick Kids, as soon as she was done some IV triple antibiotics, as preparation in case she needed surgery.

Dh sent me home to pack (had kept some stuff ready to go after the last mad dash)and I made a few phone calls and posted to TP (of course!!). Back to the hospital and as soon as the IV was done we were off. This time I got to ride in the back of the Ambulance and dd was awake at first then drifted off. It was very hard to stay awake, with no sleep and that rocking motion. Good thing I was buckled in...LMAO.

We got near Toronto and of course traffic jam. As dd was stable, we stayed in traffic till it cleared. I kept an eye out the back window expecting dh to roar up behind us any minute. As we entered the downtown core we started seeing the moose that Mayor Mel had put around town for fundraising. That was pretty neat. Dd was awake by then and it gave us something to look at a bit and wake up. Until she was sick, as the gravol had worn off. I felt so bad for her...and couldn't do anything about it, especially strapped into an ambulance.

Funny...I remember all of that the clearest. I think because once we get to Sick Kids everything is pretty routine...a routine that we are so used to, it is just second nature. I know we were in the ER, and she got a room right away pretty much. She had wonderful nurses, nice doctors and some bloodwork and x-rays. They totally confirmed the bowel blockage and we were told the first method of treatment. An NG tube...to relieve the pressure off the blockage and hopefully make it move on it's own. A small relief - no surgery, at least yet.

So in goes the nose tube, dh was there by then and split the scene - he cannot take anything like that happening to his baby girl. Being the woman and the mother I, on the other hand, have the wonderfully unpleasant task of helping hold her down...her choice. I think next time I will pass though. She is getting older and it is getting harder and there is SO much more gagging and other goodies now, unlike when she was an infant and toddler. Daddy made it up by buying her a huge sticker kit from the gift shop. (Oh goody...we're on the way to the poor house again...LOL. At least she's worth it!)

Off to a room, thank goodness. Time for some sleep?? Please????? We've only been awake for something like 36 hours straight. It was absolutely brutal, I've never been that tired. We didn't get to be on the same floor she always is either, as they were full up:( So strange floor, strange nurses. But hey, they were all great. A few more hours and she was ready to sleep again, and so, over 40 hours with no sleep we were finally able to get some rest...ahhhhhh. Chelle was SO awesome and came up and stayed overnight. We each got a room across the way for the night (it is actually very cheap) and sat up and gossiped until I could not keep my eyes open. Seeing as it had been a while since my last sleep, it wasn't late..LOL. She hung around for a few hours the next day and was joined by Corrina and a very pregnant Cynthia (she was easy to spot coming..LOL). I remember Jeanine stopping (what a sweet little girl)...or was that last time...see how old I am getting!! Tigger phoned and sent some goodies, and I kept in touch with all my wonderful, loving, supportive TP buddies via the internet connections in the Sick Kids library. (Thank God for a little sanity saver time....ahhhhh)

There were some empty rooms on this floor, so dh slept on the couch (if you can call it that, but it beats paying for a room across the street) in her room, and I was allowed to use an empty room, as long as I didn't touch the actual bed in case they had to put a patient in there. So I slept in there the rest of the nights.

The next few days, lets just say I spent a lot of cuddle time with dd in her bed ;) We met with her Dr. again that day and he said they would give her a few days to pass the blockage with the NG treatment. During that time they would find a cause and moniter her with daily xrays.

She slowly got a bit better and started demanding food...which of course she could not have. Oh those are just not the most fun times. But we were cheered up by many visitors from TP!! The most fun part was when she was feeling better and mobile. She would just take off with her IV pump and run...literally RUN down the halls to visit the nurses and other patients. Everywhere she goes in that place she is welcomed and loved :)

Finally the day came that she could eat some liquids (if you call that eating, but hey, to a starving kid...bring it on baby). She kept telling the doc that she wanted PANCAKES!! But she had to wait another day for that. About 6 days into our stay she was allowed pancakes. It was the middle of the day and dh went across the street to Mary John's ( a wonderful little restaurant that the Group of Seven used to frequent)and they made her a special order of pancakes:) They know dh quite well in there...LOL. I have a picture of her mowing down on THE pancake.

Next day. Day 7( I think, I always lose track up there...was it 5, 6, or 7???), anyways...we can GO HOME!! Yayyyyyyy. Got in an arguement with the doc about it (cause someone phoned up and said there was not change the day before, but he came up and said it was clear. So they sent the xrays up for us to view...really ticked him off), but we were free!

Diagnosis. Small bowel obstruction, caused by a ring of scar tissue in her bowels from multiple surgeries. Prognosis...likely to happen again at any given time in the future:( I live in fear of it. Everytime she is sick to her stomach. Everytime she has stomach pains. If it happens again they will operate to remove the scar tissue and hope that new stuff doesn't build up. I hope that day never comes.

One more adventure in the life of little Brittany...how many more to come??


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