Monday, September 23, 2013

Why I've Been MIA - Part 1


For those of you who don't know, our world has recently been flipped upside down. Because I use this blog to document the major milestones in our lives, I am transferring all of the text from our CaringBridge website over here.

Thank you all so much for your concern for Anna. We can't thank you enough for all of your thoughts and prayers, gift and messages, and kind words.Here is the beginning of the story:

3 weeks ago, Anna started vomiting. We took her to the pediatrician, they said she had the stomach flu and that it would run its course in a few days

3 days later, she was still vomiting, so we went back to the pediatrician, where they told us that sometimes it takes babies longer to get over these types of bugs.* She went two days without vomiting and started up again. Took her back to the doctor and they said the flu gave her acid reflux. They gave us a prescription for Zantac and said she would be better within a week. 

* She went another few days without vomiting, then it started up again. I called the doctor daily, and each time they assured me that her vomit was actually acid reflux and that she would be better soon. 

Last week, the doctor agreed to run some tests on Anna. We had to go to Children's Hospital to get her blood drawn, and due to the vomiting, she was so dehydrated that they had a hard time collecting her blood. All of the results came back normal.

Last weekend, she seemed to get better again. On Sunday, she was smiley and happy and back to her normal self. 

On Monday, our daycare provider let me know that Anna was vomiting again, and just seemed genuinely unwell. We had her 4 month checkup the next day, so we decided to wait and bring her in then and ask more questions as to why this was still happening

Monday night, Anna went through various stages of unhappiness. She fussed/cried/moaned pretty much all night long. The only thing that consoled her was either nursing or holding her in a specific position. We tried everything to make her happy, but to no avail.

On Tuesday, Anna couldn't keep anything down without vomiting. By the time I got home to take her to the doctor, she hadn't eaten without vomiting since 6am that day.

Took her to the pediatrician. Tried to feed her and she vomited twice in the room. The doctor said they would run an upper GI test in 2 days to see if there was some kind of blockage in her GI tract.

Tuesday night, Anna got worse. Couldn't eat without vomiting, and just cried off and on. I decided that I wasn't going one more day like this. Called doctor first thing and said we needed to move GI test up, and they scheduled her for 1:45pm on Wednesday. 

Anna was inconsolable and by the time we got to the center to get her GI tract x-rayed, it had been 18 hours since she had eaten. She even threw up the barium from the GI test. The radiologist couldn't find a blockage or any GI-related reason why she was vomiting so much. They said that our pediatrician would "be in touch." That answer was not acceptable. 

I lamented to the radioologist that she had been vomiting for 3 weeks, and how could this possibly be "normal?" She wasn't sure, but she made an off-handed comment about her head, asking if we had noticed that it had gotten any bigger. Bev was with me at the time, and she told her that yes, she had noticed that Anna's head looked strange/different from the last time that she saw her.

The radiologist called our pediatrician, and they sent us over right away. Armed with this new information, I was not leaving that office until they told me what was wrong with my daughter.

The pediatrician came in, felt her head and fontanelle (aka "soft spot") and told us that we needed to go to Children's Hospital immediately.


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