Back to the ER

For those of you reading my blog you know that Jackson has had some constipation issues which has led to two ER visits.  Well the third time is a charm!  We went back to the ER last week when Jackson was again screaming in pain.  I had stopped giving him the laxative, per doctor’s orders, and the second day of no laxative he began screaming again.  Jackson had also had a low grade fever for about 4 days accompanied by a runny, green discharge nose.  What I thought would be a quick in and out at the ER turned into a hospital stay.  The doctor from our second visit was working and since she had seen him before she wanted to be thorough this time.  Another x-ray of his belly showed us that he was still full of poop, although not as bad as before.  After listening to his chest they then did a chest x-ray to see if he had pneumonia.  Luckily that came back negative.  Then came a urine sample with a catheter (it made me cry imagining how much that hurt my baby, especially after the nurse said it make grown men cry).  Next up was another enema.  They did this one a little different and it didn’t turn into a funniest home video.  I was happy about that for Jackson’s sake, but since my husband was there this time I was kind of hoping to watch him deal with the exploding poop fest.  No such luck, dangit.  After all that, the doctor decided to do a CT scan of his abdomen.  By this point it was about 11 p.m. and we are in the ER with two toddlers.  We decided it was time to take Vivionna home to bed which meant only one of us got to stay with Jackson.  Kevin stayed, I went home.  Kevin is good with the medical stuff and since they were going to have to sedate Jackson for the CT scan we decided he would handle it better than I would.  I didn’t like going home.  I went to bed and cried because I wasn’t with my little boy at the hospital.  I didn’t get much sleep that night and when Kevin called at 4 a.m. to say the CT scan was done and they were admitting Jackson to the hospital I couldn’t wait to get back.  Jackson spent the next day in the hospital while they monitored his poops and fever and awaited the test results.  They did find a kidney stone during the CT scan but other than that everything looked fine.  His urine test results didn’t show any infections so that was good too.  His fever persisted for about another day but was then gone, as was the runny nose.  Basically he is still full of poop and will be on the laxative for a while.  The plan is to give him the laxative twice a day until he starts pooping too much.  At which point we stop the laxative for a couple of days until he is regular, then resume the laxative once a day.  He is also on a high fiber diet.  As for the kidney stone we just have to increase his fluids and hope the thing passes relatively painlessly.  It is pretty small but I’m sure it isn’t going to be fun for Jackson.  We have an appointment with an urologist next month to discuss Jackson’s testicles that haven’t dropped, which became another concern to the doctors at the hospital.  All in all Jackson came away pretty unscathed from the hospital visit.  I have to admit it was kind of sweet to spend the day cuddling in bed with my baby and watching cartoons.  We were fortunate enough to find a babysitter for Vivionna so Kevin could come home and sleep too. 

The doctors all agreed that because Jackson isn’t mobile and lies around a lot that that is a strong cause of his digestive issues.  If things don’t change these problems will persist for him.  Kevin and I are now buckling down and making Jackson work more.  We were just used to carrying him around and doing things for him.  No more.  Now whenever we get him out of his highchair or his bed we put his feet on the floor and make him “walk”.  It of course kills my back (the kid is big!), but it is worth it.  Jackson needs to start being upright and moving more if he is going to get better.  We are currently looking at standers for him.  If we can get him putting more pressure on his legs and have him looking at the world upright, hopefully that will motivate him to walk.  He does have a walker that we use a couple of times a day, but we need something more at this point.  We are on a yet another mission for our boy, but as Ghandi once said “What barrier is there that love cannot break?”  And damn I love my kid!