Vale's ER visit

So Vale has had some trouble lately!  

No fun for babies! (or mommies for that matter)

He's had some trouble pooping which isn't totally abnormal for a baby.

He's breastfed only (we tried to give him some rice cereal but that def didn't take) so he still has the liquid diet poopie diapers.

Well, he pooped on the morning of April 14th and then didn't poop again until the 23rd.  That's 9 days... and he only pooped because I called the doc and told him and he told me to give him 3oz of prune juice.

So we did that and within 45 minutes he pooped a TON.

But then he didn't poop on Tues... or Wed... or Thurs... or Fri... so we gave him the prune juice again Wed, Thurs and Fri.

That is the background to the main event. :)

Friday was a bit of a rough day for Vale!

Friday we went to the Zoo in the morning, swimming in the afternoon and out for my birthday in the evening, so a pretty full day.

Vale ate at 7:00AM, then 10 as usual but then didn't want to eat again until 2:30.  He didn't really want to eat then either and only at for about 5 minutes.  Then at 4:00PM I fed him again and he had about 4-5oz of milk.

I changed his diaper a little before 6 and tried to give him some prune juice (cause he hadn't pooped) but he was just really tired.  

He went to sleep around 6:15ish and slept and slept and slept.

At 1AM I went in to check on him and figured I'd feed him cause he hadn't eaten since 4PM and I assumed he would wake up shortly feisty mad and hungry.

I went to change his diaper to wake him up and he had a completely dry diaper.  That was disturbing knowing that he know has PKD.

As I was pondering that, I started to try and feed him and he wanted nothing to do with it.  I ended up just expressing milk into his mouth and he was turning away.

I decided to call the pediatrician office to talk to the doc on call and he said to take him right to the Emergency Room.

I didn't want to take him to the regular ER because of the recent discovered cysts, I didn't know if that would have anything to do with what was going on, so I took him to the Los Angeles Children's Hospital.

The doctor did an internal exam to check his rectum for a blockage which I thought would loosen him up and make him explode but it didn't.

So they took some x-ray's of his belly and there were no blockages evident there either.

They took blood and found no red flags to indicate things weren't functioning properly but wanted to start an IV to give him some fluids.  They couldn't get a vein. :(

The nurse tried on his left hand and the vein collapsed.

The same nurse tried on his left foot and the vein collapsed.

They then went and got the IV nurse and she started it on his right foot.

That. Was. Aweful.

Poor kid screamed and cried more than I've ever heard him do before.

He had no tears and his mouth was incredibly dry.

The doctor said that he was dehydrated and he needed fluids badly.

Through all this, he still had no interest in eating and wasn't peeing.

They pumped him full of fluids and wanted to make sure he was going to pee.

He did pee once they 'forced' fluids into him.

They said that once he was re-hydrated he would probably be interested in eating again.

He was.

They sent us home and told us to give him a glycerine suppository if he didn't poop on his own soon.

They told us to come back if he didn't pee again in the next 8 hours or if he didn't have interest in eating by the evening.

We got home at 10:30AM on Saturday.

As soon as we got home, Vale wanted to EAT!  He was HUNGRY! :) YEAH!

As he was eating, he pooped!  Yeah! :)

He is now much happier and has been eating all day.

He needed to be hydrated and the ER doc said it was a good thing that we brought him in.

Dehydration is very very bad for your kidneys!!!  

We do not want a repeat of this event!!! 

The doctor said that we can give him up to 5oz of water a day at this age so we should take advantage of that.

The doc thinks this 'episode' had nothing to do with his PKD so that's good.

The doctor didn't know what is causing the constipation but said to use the suppositories if needed.

He thinks the back-up led to the lack of appetite,

which in turn caused the dehydration.

We are thanking the Lord that this was not more serious and baby Vale is ok.

Thank you so much for your prayers!