Complications - The full story

I use this blog as a bit of a journal, so even though most of you already know the story I'm going to go ahead and type it out anyway.

Caden had his scope in biopsy on Friday, January 22. That day everything seemed fine and we felt good that the procedure had gone well.

Saturday morning Caden woke up grumpy. He didn't want to eat. He cried over everything. He was off balance and had skewed depth perception. We chalked all of that up to recovering from the procedure. He had a strange bowel movement around 10 am, cried non-stop for 4 hours, then had another bowel movement at 2 pm. That one was bloody and mucousy. I spent the next few hours holding and comforting Caden, frustrated that not 24 hours after the scope we were right back to where we started. Painful, mucousy, bloody stools. No answers.

Caden didn't nap, and wouldn't eat dinner. He cried through his entire bath, so I decided the kid was in pain and tired. It was time for bed. We read stories and I tucked him in, then started to nurse Eric. Caden was protesting being put to bed and kept screaming and crying. I figured he'd calm down and fall asleep within a few minutes. After about 3 minutes I heard him cough and thought, "Great, he worked himself up so much he threw up a little. I'll go take care of it after I finish nursing." (Yup, I'm a good mom like that. Ryan was tiling and was outside cleaning the cement of his tools at this point). Caden's cries continued to escalate, so after another minute I reconsidered, dropped a crying Eric into his crib, and went to check on Caden.

I found the kid, his doggy, his sheets, everything - covered in bloody vomit. I took him into the bathroom, stripped him down and rinsed him off. Trying to take stock of the situation I called my mom. "Is this normal?" "I don't think so. Call your doctor." I carried a still crying Caden down to the garage to get the doctor's number out of the car. In passing I said to Ryan, who was actively cleaning his tiling tools, "When you're done with that I could really use your help inside for a few minutes."

Seven minutes later when Ryan came inside I was still on hold with the hospital. Eric was still crying in his crib. Caden was sitting on my lap looking pale as a ghost and shaking. As Ryan walked down the hall to get Eric I called for him to check out Caden's bed. He came running into the family room, "Thats blood! And a lot of it!"

We called the neighbor over to help give Caden a blessing, then 20 minutes after he vomited we loaded the kids into the car and headed to Primary's, still trying to reach the GI doctor on call. About the time we got on the freeway the doctor came on the line and confirmed what we already knew - go to the ER, expect to be admitted overnight.

A blood test in the ER showed that Caden had lost 1/3 of his blood and many of his other levels were dangerously low. They flushed his stomach to see if there was any more blood in there - there wasn't. They started IV fluids and ordered a blood transfusion. Based on Caden's vitals and blood test results we were told we'd be moved into an in-patient room just as soon as one opened up. At that point we opted to send a tired Eric home with a tired Daddy. They left at 10:30.

When Ryan and Eric arrived home my parents were just leaving. They'd spent 4 hours cleaning up the mess we'd left on Caden's bed, and weren't entirely done yet. They managed to salvage doggy and all the sheets and blankets. The mattress will be forever stained, but is still usable.

By midnight we were still sitting in the ER. One of the nurses finally explained to me that Caden's levels were continuing to drop, so they were on the phone with the doctor trying to determine if he needed to go into the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). He'd been borderline when he was admitted and I was really pushing to get assigned to the general floor. At 1:30 we finally got moved to the PICU, where they started the blood transfusion.

Ah, the blood transfusion. Somewhere in all our waiting it donned on me that Caden might have an allergic reaction to the blood. We asked the resident assigned to him, and sure enough, blood carries food proteins. The PICU team confirmed that he would probably react, but they expected the reaction to be mild. They pre-dosed him with a large amount of Benadryl, then started the blood. It took 4 hours to get the full unit into him, and he got a second dose of Benadryl halfway through. He made it through the transfusion without incident. By 6 am we'd had just 4 hours of sleep, interrupted by two finger prick blood draws and the dose of Benadryl.

At home, Ryan and Eric weren't getting much more sleep. Eric doesn't really sleep through the night yet, and he still nurses. When he woke up at 1:30 wanting to eat, Ryan attempted to give him rice cereal and rice milk. After much crying, both of them just gave up and went back to sleep. Eric fussed a little off and on through the rest of the night, but ultimately Ryan had to wake him up around 8 am to come back to the hospital.

Since Eric wasn't allowed in the PICU, Ryan took over with Caden and I took the little one to my parents' house. I fed him and put him back to sleep in a crib, then rejoined Ryan and Caden. Ryan's parents, sister, and brother in law came to visit. Caden really seemed to like having visitors. Poor kid was going stir crazy cooped up in the bed. He did figure out how to race his cars down the bed and developed a love for the movie Nemo.

Around noon Caden's status was officially downgraded from ICU to general admittance. We got to hang around the ICU for a few more hours anyway waiting for a room to open up. In that time I drove to Murray again to feed Eric and take a shower. When I got back to the hospital, Ryan took a break and went to his parents' place for dinner.

On the general admittance floor we were told once Caden could keep himself hydrated, keep food down, consistently have blood levels in the appropriate ranges, and produce 2 bowel movements we could go home. We ordered 'room service' for dinner and settled in. My parents came for a visit, bringing with them a treat from my sister who had been at home watching Eric the past few hours.

Since Ryan needed to go to school the next morning, we opted to send Eric to my parents' house for the night. The kid was an angel. He slept until 5:30, ate rice cereal without complaint, and went back to sleep until 9 am.

By Monday afternoon he had met all the criteria for release but the bowel movements. The doctors were wanting to check his stools for blood to make sure his internal bleeding had stopped. Since his numbers were holding so steady they decided the bleeding must have stopped and decided to discharge us, with instructions that we would likely see some blood in his first bowel movement as the colon cleared out but the second bowel movement should be back to normal.

He had his first bowel movement about an hour after leaving the hospital. Pure blood. The second bowel movement came that night around 7 pm. Pure blood again. We decided to wait to call the doctor until the next morning.

Tuesday morning the doctor said continued blood in the stools was indicative of continued bleeding, but that the bleeding should stop on its own. As long as it wasn't massive amounts of blood Caden should be fine and there wasn't much that could be done for him at the hospital. We were just supposed to watch him, and return to the ER if he started vomiting the blood again.

Today is Thursday, and the bleeding appears to have stopped. Caden is still a little lethargic, pale, and whiny, but we think he's on the mend. We are grateful for amazing staff at Primary Childrens and the support of family.