My day started like any other new mom’s day… except for a slight twist… by 10am, we were in the Children’s Emergency room at Wake Medical Center with a 3 week old baby who had niether eaten, pooped or peed in 24 hours. Here is the story of our day.
Doctor#1: “So, tell me what’s up with this little girl.”
Me: …story…
Doctor#2: “What’s going on today?”
Me: …story…
Doctor#3: “What are we treating this little one for today?”
Me: …story…
Doctor#4: … well, you get the picture.
Story:
As you know, we brought Emily and Abby home from Duke Health (aka Raleigh Community Hospital) on Tuesday after having roomed-in on Monday. All was well.
All was well on Wednesday too. Then, Thursday came. This was the last day Abby had a poopy diaper. Now, as an exclusively breastmilk fed baby, going more than 1 day with a poopy diaper is totally normal. Sometimes they’ll go days, sometimes, they’ll go multiple times each day. Go figure.
But, also on Thursday, Abby started spitting up. When I say spitting up, I mean vomiting. Projectile vomiting, too. In her case, what went in, came back up. Now, again, spitting up is very normal in babies and vomiting is very normal in reflux babies, which Abby is. So, again, go figure.
This continued on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday night, however, I was really getting concerned because I could see a diminished alertness as well as a lesser and lesser amount of pee output. So, putting each of these things together, I called the BCBS nurseline and talked with a nurse.
Her response: Call your Pediatrician.
So, I called the Ped. Of course, the office is closed at 11:30 pm on Sunday and due to the holiday, is also closed on Monday. Their recommendation? Go to the Children’s ER. Ugh! But, they didn’t think it was an emergency per se, so we opted to wait until the morning.
We got to the ER at about 10am. By 2 or 3pm (ish) we had our diagnosis and a plan of attack.
Abby has pyloric stenosis. The pyloris (muscle that opens and closes to allow food to pass from the stomach to the intestines) has basically shut itself tight because it’s grown too big. Yes, a child can outgrow this in 4-6 months, but would have to stay on an IV throughout the duration. That’s certainly not going to happen.
So, the “fix” is a very minor laproscopic surgery to open up that muscle. It’s a quick surgery, but does require anesthesia. The Dr. that will be performing it is well versed in it though, so we’re confident she’ll be ok.
Now, on another note, we were told that this particular condition (which occurs in 3 of 1000 births) is hereditary. It also occurs primarily in babies between 3 and 6 weeks old — Abby and Emily are 3 weeks 4 days as of all of this. So, because of that hereditary factor, we admitted Emily too for tests. Luckily, she passed with flying colors and only gets to endure a non-patient stay in the hospital while Abby recovers.
More to come!