Busy Weekend!

We have had a very busy and unexpected weekend. Charlie hasn't been feeling well since last Tuesday. He was complaining of a stomach ache and his appetite started to decrease. He ended up throwing up on Wednesday. I naturally ended up thinking it was the flu. Usually when one has the flu, the other two get it very quickly, but that never happened. Charlie missed school on Thursday due to complaining his stomach still hurt. By this day, he hadn't eaten anything since Tuesday evening. He had also been waking up in the middle of the night complaining his stomach hurt as well. Friday he was still stating his stomach hurt. I thought it was just because he hadn't eaten anything since Tuesday, but he still didn't have an appetite. For those of you who know Charlie, he is our little snacker. No sooner is he finished eating a big meal, he is asking for a snack or a treat. If I left food out for him on the table, he would graze over there all day and eat it. However on Thursday and Friday, he didn't want anything to do with food. He would sit by the table and just look at it. I would give him something I knew he liked and he would just carry it around for a while but never eat it. He was complaining more frequently now that his stomach hurt, and when asked where it hurt he would point to his belly button. By this time Ross and I were getting concerned. I had called one of the doctors I work with and asked her thoughts on the situation. Her thoughts were to first rule out constipation. I knew this probably wasn't it since he has never been constipated and had gone Friday morning, but I thought I would give it a try. Well, that didn't work. Charlie went to bed Friday night next to our bed so I could keep an eye on him. Well, he was up screaming at 11pm for 30min of abdominal pain, now more towards the right side. I was just about to take him when he finally fell asleep so I thought I would wait it out. He then woke up about every hour to hour and a half screaming again. Finally at 4am, I decided to take him in. After 4 hrs in the ER, three IV pokes,morphine, benadryl, zofran, IV fluids, and a CT scan we SORT of had an answer. The CT scan came back with an abnormal finding in Charlie right lower abdomen. The first radiologist that read it stated that the appendix looked fine, but he had a dilated loop of his small bowel, indicating a bowel obstruction or an ileus, however she couldn't see why he would have one(I guess there is something they look for that can tell them why they have one, such as a blockage). The surgeon was then called and came down to see Charlie. He didn't quite agree with the night radiologist reading(this is a radiologist from overseas that reads our scans at night) so he wanted to go and have it looked over by our radiologists. After about 45 minutes and consulting with two of the radiologist at our hospital, the surgeon concluded that they couldn't see his appendix(which is a good thing,you don't normally see a child's appendix. If they could that could mean it would be inflamed), and that Charlie had a Paralytic Ileus(which is where part of the small bowl stops moving the contents through) which he believed to be caused by constipation. This made me slightly upset since Charlie had never been constipated and I didn't believe that was the problem. The surgeon thought it would be a good idea to watch Charlie for the day possibly night to make sure his bowels improve. They did an xray to see where the CT contrast was and the plan was to repeat it in the am to make sure things were moving. The pediatrician came in next to admit Charlie. His diagnosis made more sense to me. He did not believe Charlie was constipated(remember we tried to fix this before going in, which he said wouldn't of helped because that wasn't the problem.) Dr. Plewa believes Charlie had a virus at some point(he did have some swollen lymp nodes in his groin and armpit.) which caused him to develop an ileus. By the time the pediatrician came to see Charlie he was becoming his old self again. He was laughing and goofing around with Dr. Plewa. I think the fluids helped. Ross and I tried to keep him hydrated, but I think he was slightly dehydrated. He was admitted for observation for the day and they repeated the x-ray at 5, which was improved and Charlie was discharged home. Today, Charlie is eating again. Appetite is still not back to normal. His activity level is improving, but every now and again, he will complain about his stomach hurting again. We have to keep reminding him to slow down and to take it easy. He gets very excited when his bowels move. He even called me at work today to tell me about it!! It is great to have our Charlie back. We were pretty scared when we didn't know what was going on. Thanks so much to all the staff at Mayo Clinic Health System-Eau Claire, Emergency and Neuro-Peds departments, Dr. Wynkoop, Dr. Seibel, Dr. Plewa and Dr. Beckerman for all their help. Thank you to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers while Charlie was in the hospital. They were greatly appreciated. Thank you to our neighbors who helped out with Grace and William in the morning so Ross and I could both be at the hospital with Charlie. Thank you to Ross's parents for driving all the way up to help out with Grace and William in case Charlie had to spend the night. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Charlie up on Neuro-Peds getting settled in his room, relaxing with his new friend "Batty" the bat. Batty was waiting for him in his bed when he got up there.