Severe Stomach Cramping …. The Story

Where to start this story? At the beginning, I guess….

We had a full weekend. The older three kids had track meets on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was hot and humid. We brought lots of water with us and consumed it all. Everyone tried their hardest and some beat their previous ‘best’ at long jump and in the running events. One kid complained of their leg hurting, another of a foot giving them problems, and the youngest was pretty clingy. After the heat, no one felt like eating much dinner.

Most of the kids slept in on Sunday, so we went to “late Church (10:30 a.m.).” The one early riser was the youngest. He woke up with stomach pains that seemed to re-occur in waves. He’s two years and seven months old and has spoken about four words total in his life. The clearest two are “no” and “Mama.” We don’t hear them too often, though. Anyway, in varying frequency, he would double over on the floor crying for about a minute. Sometimes these pains were five minutes apart and sometimes they were an hour apart.

Darling husband and I conferred on the phone. We were unsure what the problem was, but decided to take a ‘wait and see’ approach. The pain didn’t seem to be getting any worse or migrating (appendicitis warning flags), so we thought perhaps he was just a little ‘stopped up.’ While his bowel pattern didn’t seem to be out of the ordinary, we couldn’t figure what else could be wrong. He wasn’t drinking or eating very much because a stomach pain would occur and he would no longer be interested in drinking or eating.

Come Monday, we decided a call to the pediatrician was in order because the stomach pains continued through the night (hourly). After many questions and after consulting the doctor, they requested that we try Miralax (two capfuls) or a mineral oil enema to bring on a bowel movement. If, after the bowel movement occurred, the stomach pains continued, they wanted us to call back and we could bring him into see the doctor.

A friend brought over her supply of Miralax and we gave that a try. My little boy hadn’t been drinking more than a sip or two of liquid at a try, so I tried to use as little liquid as possible to dissolve the Miralax (in this case, a generic Target brand knock-off). He took a gulp or two and then headed off to pursue other activities. Within minutes, he had another stomach cramp and spit up two tablespoons of the juice he had just consumed.

I put him down for a nap. He slept for about an hour and a half before waking up screaming because of another stomach cramping episode.

We tried more Miralax in a different juice drink. He took the tiniest of sips and wouldn’t touch the stuff again.

By this point, it was Monday afternoon. I went to drop off the older kids at track practice and pick up the Other Option (the enema!). While I was gone, he had a bowel movement. Hurrah!

He’s still in diapers, so we took a look at it to see if there was something there that could have caused the cramping. Nope. It was a normal looking bowel movement for him.

And the cramps continued.

On Tuesday, we headed into the Big City as I called the pediatrician’s office and got him in as early as possible to see his doctor. I didn’t let him eat anything that morning, but did continue to push liquids. He drank a few sips of juice on the way into town.

The doctor couldn’t find anything conclusive. She didn’t hear any digestive sounds and did a rectal exam to see if she could feel anything still ‘up there.’  She wanted to get him in for an x-ray or sonogram of his tummy. Radiology insisted that he be “6 hrs NPO” before the exam. Seeing as I had given him fluids right before his doctor’s appointment, that would mean another six hours before the exam. The doctor felt that was too long for us to wait and that sips of liquid shouldn’t count against him, so they compromised on just over four hours that he would have to have “nothing by mouth” — including water!

We finished up some errands in town, got lunch for the other kids, and visited my parents who live there in the Big City. When it was time for me to head out, I left the other four children with my parents and headed out to the Radiology Department at the big Children’s Hospital. Paperwork filled out, visitor’s tags on, we headed back for the sonogram. Distractions didn’t work, so I attempted to sooth him (and hold him still as much as possible) while the sonogram technician checked his belly. There wasn’t much talking going on, but they finished up pretty quickly. I got to hold him while they went to confer with the Radiologist. Pretty soon, he came in with the sonogram tech.

They knew what was causing his belly pain. Hallelujah!

He had an intussusception and time was of the essence. They immediately wanted to perform an air-contrast enema (see also Google Search) to see if they could ‘reduce’ the intussusception. They took the time to explain what this hard-to-spell term meant:  His lower intestine had ‘telescoped’ up into his large intestine. Every time his large intestine pulsed, it caused my poor little boy pain. They also explained that since he had been presenting symptoms for so long, the chances of this procedure working were slim. If it didn’t work, we’d be off to surgery. If it did work, we’d be kept for a day in the hospital for monitoring. The chances of it reoccurring were quoted as 20% within the first 24 hours.

I couldn’t get ahold of my husband. I took two minutes to call my mother & let her know I wouldn’t be back to pick up the other kids like I thought. We were going to be at the hospital for the night no matter what.

They explained everything again, made sure to ask about three times if I was sure I wasn’t pregnant, and then hooked me up with an x-ray apron. I stripped my sweet boy down and they strapped him to a board on the x-ray table. I got to hang out at his head, holding his arms and supporting him with my words, kisses, and smiles as best I could. They inserted a tube into his rectum (more screams) and we all watched the x-ray screen as the tube-within-a-tube wound its way up through his large intestine. I lost track of the tube & the squeezes of air the doctor was pushing into his body as his screaming and pulling on my hands distracted me completely.

Suddenly, he stopped screaming for about 30 seconds. Long enough for me to hear the doctor confirm that the procedure had worked well & quickly. That seemed to indicate to them that he didn’t have any lasting damage to his intestines from the intussusception. After some more phone calls to & from his pediatrician’s office, we were admitted to the hospital for monitoring.

Poor sweetheart fell asleep on my lap during the admissions process. I was able to call & post-pone my chiropractic appointment literally minutes before I was expected to arrive for it. I still wasn’t able to get ahold of my husband, but I did call my mother back to let her know what was going on and that she would have the rest of my kids until at least the evening when my husband would be able to get up to the Big City to pick them up (if that was the plan).

… The rest of the story is just as long, but we are now home. He didn’t have a re-occurrence while we were there. He ate & drank well and was charming the nurses in his medical/surgical ward by pedaling the little pedal tractor they had through the hallways as early as a couple of hours after his procedure. (He also was creating little stink-bombs as he pushed the air they had inserted back out through his bunghole.)

It wasn’t how I expected to spend my night. I really need to get my contacts out as they’ve been in non-stop since yesterday morning. That’s the one thing I would have given my kingdom for last night – some contact lens solution & a case.

I haven’t been able to have my big stress-relieving cry yet. Perhaps tonight when my husband gets home from work & dd#3 gets done with her big end-of-the-year gymnastics recital.

Raising kids isn’t for the wimpy.

Shocking!

Our water-softener developed a small leak in tank. My darling husband called in the man who installed it originally about 15 years ago for the previous (original) owner of our current house. She was a widower, so he installed a small unit.

The fix-it guy arrived today and was talking through what he’d have to do with my husband. (Note that he walked right past two of our children on the way in.) He casually asked, “Just the two of you?”

My husband replied, “No, five kids too.”

The guy immediately must have thought he heard wrong. He said, “Five what?”

My husband repeated, “Five kids.”

I was in the other room and started laughing. Finally, after several repeats, my husband got through to the guy that we have five children. He was adamant that the unit would never do for a family of seven unless it was regenerating each night. We replied that it used to do it every seven days, but now it was more like every five and sometimes six. He was amazed. Shocked at the number of children. Said if it regenerated every three days, we were doing well with water usage.

He said there was no way a normal family of seven (or even five, which is what he started calculating for before he corrected himself) could use so little water.

Who knew we were such conservationists?

Short Trip

We are supposed to be on a trip right now. We drove 12 hours to our first stop – camping with some of my darling husband’s relations. The first night was cool and somewhat windy. The heat and humidity we left were but memories as we enjoyed high 70 degree F temperatures with occasional sprinkles.

The second night was much colder. I did not pack jackets, so we made do with blankets and improvised chilly weather gear as we sat by the campfire. Our sleeping bags are all rated for “below zero” temperatures, so we were cozy in the night. Regardless, the two smallest members of the family showed signs of illness during the long and windy second night camping. The baby started wheezing and woke up screaming every 30 minutes (on average). Starting around 3:30 a.m., he wouldn’t go back to sleep no matter what I tried.

He finally started to drift off about 5 a.m. when the second youngest woke up coughing and crying. It wasn’t just any cough – it was a croup cough. The baby was back up. The toddler was up. I poke my husband to join my waking vigil and we both attempted to get the kids back down. Sometime after 5, we decided that we had better head back home that day instead of pushing on to our second destination.

We broke camp and began our “quick” trip back home. (We cut 1 1/2 hrs off our drive time going up.) While on the road, we called to cancel reservations and let another relative know we would not be visiting after all.

We arrived home tired, dirty, and disappointed.

On a positive note, the humidifier helped quite a bit to keep the croup symptoms manageable. The baby was obviously relieved to see his room as he put his head down on my shoulder and popped his thumb in his mouth. He went down without a cry, although he was up several times during the night.

Two full days of driving for one day (and two nights) of camping was not my idea of fun. Sometimes, though, it is all turns out for the best. It remains to be seen if this is one of those times.

Summer Project – Part 2

The kids excitedly watched the two chicks who hatched. None of the others hatched and per the directions, we disposed of the rest of the eggs. We cleaned the incubator and returned it.

We could have returned the chicks, too, but it was also acceptable to send them to a farm where they could be cared for and sometimes visited. The children had made arrangements with a family they are friends with who already have chickens. So, we were able to keep the chicks and watch them grow for several more weeks.

The children developed quite an attachment to the chicks – “Flower” and “Shocked Face.” They never tired of playing with them although they sometimes grumbled about changing the water and bedding. We fed them cornmeal and oatmeal per the instructions we were given with the project.

It was soon time to send them to their new home. The night before we were to take them to our friend’s farm, Child #1 cried about the possibility that Shocked Face would forget her or that we wouldn’t be able to tell our chicks from the other chickens on the farm.

As it turned out, we were not able to drop them off the next day. And that night, Shocked Face grew ill and died. We don’t know why. The children were in tears and the ‘funeral’ was very sad. I wrote a poem as the children were afraid we would forget him.

The worst part was that Flower showed signs that she would not make it through the next day. She huddled in one spot and would not eat or drink. We took turns holding her, petting her, assuring her of our love, and dipping her beak into water. At midnight, I checked on her and found her drinking water on her own. She improved from that point on. We gradually switched her over to “chick food” and dropped her off at her new home over a week ago. We haven’t gone back to see her, but reports from our friends say she is doing well.

The children have learned a lot. This was more than just learning about eggs and chickens. (They have asked me to never have them raise chickens from eggs again.) They learned that not all life makes it beyond the ‘incubation’ stage and the ones who ‘hatch’ don’t always make it to ‘adulthood.’

They have learned what it is like to love and then lose the one they love. It is a harsh life lesson, but one I was glad to be there to share with them.

In Remembrance

His wing emerged. Slowly, we watched him hatch.

Flower came first. There were two in his batch.

Bright eyes. Big mouth. Black with small yellow spots.

He became our “Shocked Face.” We liked him lots.

Sometimes bullied. With sis he loved to play.

Peep. Peck. Perch. Jump. He brightened up our day.

Keep always in your mind – our chick, our joy.

Smart. Nice. Sweet. Tweet. Never forget our boy.

Two weeks he lived. Good care of him we took.

Of a farm home, he had just a quick look.

Hatched on Monday. Dispatched late Thursday night.

His eyes: the light went out; no longer bright.

Buried with love. We will remember well:

Ever a chick – strutting on Heaven’s dell.

Act of Kindness

We don’t usually get out to eat as a family of seven. However, we had two “free kids meal” coupons for Village Inn because of the summer reading program in which the two older children participated. Sunday afternoon found us in the “big city” at a quiet VI.

We worked diligently at keeping all the children as quiet and non-destructive as possible while ordering and waiting for our food. We were having the usual level of success (hit-and-miss depending on the child and the moment) when our food arrived. The waitress said something while passing out our plates and I only caught the end:

” . . . Use your coupons next time.”

I was a bit shocked and ramping up to be annoyed. Was she saying she’d already rung up our order so we couldn’t use the free kids meal coupons this time? I looked at my husband meaningfully so he would question her further. I certainly thought they could always pull the price off when you were leaving. What was up with this lady?

My husband had also done a double take, but it was for a different reason. He asked her, “Did you just say that someone already paid for our meals?“

The waitress smiled, nodded, said it was all taken care of and to enjoy our meal. She finished getting all the food in front of us and left the table.

I sat stunned.

Someone — there was no way of knowing who at this point without giving the cashier the second degree — paid for our food while they were paying for theirs and then they left.

My husband was a bit sheepish later. He said the first thing he thought of was his comment during the movie “Gran Torino” when the neighbors were bringing the old guy all that food. He said, “No one does that for us.” He can’t say that anymore. We both agreed we will remember this and pass it along to another at a later time.

There are good people out there who care. Good to remember.

Still Sick

I heard a hypothetical question on the radio the other day. They asked if you would rather have 30″ of snow all at once or have it come in small doses (1/2″-2″ at a time). We were not asked if we would rather be sick here & there for a week at a time over the course of the winter or if we’d like all our sickness to come at one time over the course of two to three weeks.

So, it started with one child (#4) and the croup. It migrated into colds (flu?)for three more of the kids as soon as the croup passed. Here’s how it broke down: Child #1 mostly had a bad cough with only a mild runny nose. Child #2 had a nasty runny nose, fever and only a mild cough. Child #4 (original coup kid) had a lingering cough and nasty runny nose. Child #5, the baby, picked up the nasty runny nose and a bit of a cough.

As Children #1, 2, & 4 were over the worst of the sickness, Child #3 came down with the runny nose, cough, and fever. Child #5 started wheezing when breathing and had that “pulling in” at the rib area – both which could indicate pneumonia.

Just when the runny noses, coughs, fevers, and such were behind us . . . we thought, Child #5 was up all night long for who-knows-what while Child #2 came in complaining of her ear hurting.

It wasn’t until the next morning when Child #2 came back in complaining that BOTH her ears hurt that I realized that Child #5 probably ALSO had an ear infection and that was why he wouldn’t go to sleep more than a catnap and never in a laying-down position all night long.

We are only doing half-days of school this week (the three R’s with no History/Science/Religion/Geography). I hope this is the last of it. For the rest of the winter. Because, really, I have had quite enough of the sickies at our house.

The only good news is that I have apparently already had this strain of virus because I didn’t get sick. My husband has finally succumbed to it, though.

Croup, Coughing, and Crying

I’m pretty sure it happened on the trip to the pediatrician, I just don’t know if it was in the pediatrician’s office or in the play area the kid’s visited afterward. Either way, Child #4 caught a respiratory illness that meant croup for him. He’s had croup two other times and this was the worst, I think.

He was out of sorts, clingy, and crabby on Day 1 (about five days after the routine trip to the doctor’s for well-baby checks). That night, he had a cough that sounded somewhat whoopy to me but was able to sleep. Day 2 was coughy, clingy, and really crabby. That night, he woke up early with a fever. Later, he couldn’t breath well and was barking like a seal. We did all the usual treatments – steamy bathroom, five minutes outside in the cool/clear air, humidifier, warm tea (with some honey in it), and sitting up with him in a chair to keep him calm and upright.

By the time the doctor’s office opened the next morning, he was almost normal except for the on-going seal-like bark and light fever (100.4°F). The nurse wanted to see him anyway. He ended up with a prescription for a steroid anti-inflammatory that was VERY bitter.

We are now on Day 6 and our last day of the medicine. We have one more dosage to try to get him to swallow. (This is where the “crying” comes in from the title of the post.) The fever broke yesterday after hovering between 102-103 for 12-18 hours. He still has a cough, but he is definitely acting normal today.

Now, we wait to see if the other kids caught something from him. It might not show up as croup for them. More likely, it’ll start with a sore throat and end up with a fever, cough, and maybe a runny nose.

It hasn’t been easy on anyone. I don’t know how moms of multiples or single moms do it. It seemed that I was either dealing with the croupy toddler or the hungry baby most nights with lots of handwashing in between.

H1N1 or the regular flu?

I was listening to the top doctor in the state I live in talk on the radio the other day about the H1N1 flu. She promotes vaccines and is highly respected. I can’t remember her title, but she’s the a medical doctor with a title tied to the state somehow.

Anyway, the guys on the radio were asking her questions and letting her promote the H1N1 vaccine. I wish I could link you to an audio of her interview, but the radio station doesn’t have a podcast up of it. I’ll paraphrase what she said, but I realize that audio of it would be better proof than me typing my remembrance of what she said.

She repeated the mantra that certain target populations should receive the vaccine. She said that even if you thought you had H1N1 already, you should STILL get the vaccine. When questioned on this, she said that you could have had the regular flu or a respiratory infection instead, so you should still get the vaccine.

About five minutes later, when asked about how it has been reported that doctors are being told to report all flu cases as H1N1 – even without testing to determine which one they are, she said it was very simple and easy to tell the difference between H1N1 and the regular flu because of the severity of the illness. (She said something like, “Ask someone who has had H1N1 and they will tell you it is completely different from the regular flu.”) When one of the radio guys asked about a respiratory infection (which she had just used as an example of something that could have been mistaken for H1N1), the doctor said that of course the symptoms were very different.

I thought to myself, “Mrs. Dr. Lady, you can’t have it both ways!”

She said that 90+% of the cases of the flu that they are seeing are H1N1. When asked how she knows this if they are assuming all cases are H1N1, she replied that it isn’t regular flu season yet.

I wish I had the audio to post. It was incredible! And the radio guys on with her just let her get away with it. (The next hour, the next guy on seemed to have caught some of the inconsistencies, but he didn’t dwell on them.) Absolutely amazing.

We are not getting the immunizations. I’m trying to keep us from getting the H1N1 while we have a newborn in the house. At some point, if the house is exposed to it, at least we will have the immunity to this strain of it after we recover. I would just rather we not get it while the baby is so little and vulnerable. So, we wash-wash-wash and we stay away from those who have been sick as much as possible (+ a week that they say you can still be contagious). But our town has been overrun with the flu (H1N1 or regular, I don’t know!).

New Arrival

Just a note to let you know that Number 5 arrived Sunday evening. I’ll save you the gory details, but will tell you this –

It’s a boy. He was almost 10 lbs. It was a “normal” delivery. We arrived at the hospital at 5:35 p.m. He was born at 5:56 p.m. He has the coloring of Number 3 (which is different than all the others).

We are all home and it will take awhile to adjust to having a little one in the house again. (Mostly, it is an adjustment for the other kids.)

Status Update

Baby is still enjoying the comforts of the womb. (It must be awfully plush in there. Fed on demand. Constant warm temp. No chaffing clothing. The other kids’ screaming is dampened by mom-body sounds. Just getting a little bit cramped.)

Officially now several days past my due date. The longest I’ve ever had a kid stay inside before this was one day past my due date. I think I’m kept waiting like this because I so dread that one day that is “Labor Day” when the kid comes out. (Ow! Ow! Ow!) I’d much rather be pregnant longer. So, when my due date comes & goes, I become much more willing to go through the pain of giving birth. (Darnnit kid, you’re coming out TODAY. Stop fooling around.)

It feels like I’ve had a stomach ache for about a week because of the Braxton-Hicks contractions. Sometimes they kick up into some serious gut-clenchers, but that usually subsides within an hour or two.

We’re hoping the baby comes out on its own early this week because I really don’t want to contemplate a medical induction. I’d sit it out for another week gladly, but my husband has already informed me that I might be lucky to get a ride home from the hospital (and that’s it) if we deliver on Thursday or later due to his work demands/schedule. As I really need someone to watch the other four kids while I’m in the hospital, this doesn’t appeal to me. (We have a few options for half-day coverage when I’m in labor, but on-going help is scarce as most people have enough kids of their own and can’t easily add four more to their load.)

Completely unrelated story:  I ran into a family (minus the mom) that we are loosely friends wish but don’t see often at the library. I’d seen the kids and mom a few times over the last several months, but neither of us have ever mentioned my pregnancy. I hadn’t seen the husband in a while – which I didn’t realize until he asked if *that* was my kid (pointing to #4) and saying he hadn’t seen him since he was a baby. I think the husband might have noticed that I’m pregnant, but I’m not sure he’ll say anything to his wife as I haven’t gotten an accusatory phone call asking why I didn’t tell her that I was expecting again. (We share the same OB/GYN and our next youngest kids are only about a month apart.) Me? I just look really fat when I’m pregnant.

Hope next post is to announce arrival of No. 5!