December 2, 2007

• The cheese stands alone...

  The week of Thanksgiving, we were in the ER three times!  It was insane.  The first trip was for me, on Saturday--then we were back on Wednesday and again the following Saturday.  My little Lion (he turned three in October!) cried all night Tuesday night.  I could not figure out what was wrong with him--I was able to get him into our pediatrician's office on Wednesday.  She checked him out and had me get a urine specimen from him.  Throughout that day, he seemed to be okay--I wondered if the previous night was some kind of fluke.  But, around 6:30 Wednesday evening, he started crying and screaming again and would not stop. 

  The "holiday weekend" had already begun for our doctor's office--I called the nurse, but by the time she returned my call, we were in the ER parking lot.  Lion was not letting up--he cried continuously for at least an hour.  After an examination and x-ray (and two long hours!), Lion was released with a diagnosis of constipation.  Nice.  We were given instructions (although, the dr. did not show us the x-ray, which I realized later, was something we should have had access to!) and sent home. 

  Lion still cried all night--and Pilot joined him that night!  The next day, we joined our friends for Thanksgiving.  Pilot seemed fine, but Lion was lethargic and whiny.  And my dh and I had another sleepless night that night--and the doctor's office was closed Friday.  They both cried throughout Friday night...  We were hoping to let Lion's body work itself out, but by Saturday, we were back at the ER.  This trip--8 long, long, stressful hours.  We had both little boys this time, because we felt like Pilot's symptoms were mimicking Lion's.  They both had to have IV's (that was THE worst) and Lion had a CT scan.  Diagnosis?  Constipated to the point of impaction.  A different doctor was on duty this day--and he explained it all so clearly--he drew a picture and everything.  It is going to take about two months to get Lion straightened out!  He has to have a stool softener every day for anywhere from 6 weeks to 2 months...poor little guy.  Our three little ones pretty much eat the same diet--and they were all in varying degrees of constipation, but Lion was the worst.  We think we know where we went wrong in their diets--they eat a healthy, well-rounded diet (especially Lion--he is not picky at all!), but we were buying string cheese for them to snack on.  We have bought these for a long time--but, in the past 6 weeks or so, I had decided that I did not want them to drink chocolate milk any more (I was worried about their teeth. etc.).  I guess the chocolate milk was helping to push the cheese through (sorry, LOL!)...we messed up the "balance"...

  Anyways, it's not over.  Lion woke  me up again, early Thursday, with a stomachache.  We were back at the doctor's office that afternoon and she had us get another x-ray.  We basically have to keep up with the stool softener and give him time (at least a month).  He pretty much has ups and downs throughout the day.  My sister suggested that I take him to a specialist--I plan to make some phone calls tomorrow.  Hopefully, this post will be the end of the downer-catch-up-posts, LOL!

  

  • 9:05 pm
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