We went in and sadly were immediately admitted to the hospital. Between Wednesday, that morning and the trace of blood he found in her poop, Dr. B was concerned enough that he wanted to explore all options. His biggest concern was that she might have an intestinal issue, which would have been something developed in the womb, malrotation. This is when the large intestine kinks similar to a hose, causing what went down to come back up. The kink comes and goes, but the real concern is when it doesn't relax, causing volvulus, which would eliminate a blood supply to her intestines and is only fixed by surgery. His hope was that is was an allergy in my milk, perhaps dairy or soy, but should it be the former, we'd have a potential emergency situation on our hands.
Mom managed to hold it together until the doctor left the room and then quickly broke down in tears. I can't quite put into words how terrifying it is to hear something like that and then look down and realize it's related to this tiny, completely dependent little person. I have so much respect for people whose children deal with any medical issues - it is the most helpless and heart-wrenching feeling imaginable.
The next few hours were a bit of a blur, trying to figure out how to make sure we had care for Penny through the weekend, getting a bag packed, etc. We got settled in our hospital room, and then Brad got us all taken care of. Penny was sent to boarding, he packed a bag for us, and went to the grocery store for a few things for me, since I was now on an elimination diet, cutting out dairy, soy, eggs, nuts, and wheat. We contacted our families to let them know what was going on, and settled in for the weekend.
The work up to rule out malrotation consisted of lots of blood work, an x-ray, an upper GI (including a barium swallow) and more x-rays. The blood work started that night, and needless to say it led to a sleepless night. Time and time again, we carried our 7 pound baby into the lab room, where the nurses tried to find strong enough veins to pull blood from. This led to two blown veins in her hands, and one ENORMOUS throw up due to her being so hysterically worked up. It was so painful to watch, it was almost hard to cry - it just left you feeling numb. A few hours later, after a couple of trips to the lab room, the nurses finally called in the hospitalist who drew the blood directly from her groin and got what he needed. If I never have to hear her cry as hard as she did on that table, that will be just fine with me.
The following morning around 11 am we started the process of her upper GI, which was a three hour process starting with a barium swallow. This also proved to be incredibly stressful because we had no idea how she'd handle the bottle and formula she had to take in order to drink the barium. Fortunately, she was an absolute champ. She took the bottle and then over the course of the next few hours, a series of x-rays were taken to see how the fluids were being moved through her system.
While dad stayed with E in radiology, mom snuck upstairs to pump the feeding that was missed due to the barium swallow. The nurses helped me set up the pump and it was during this session we realized what the true root of our problem may be. Being a new mom, you have no concept of what normal is, so it seemed totally normal to me that I should be able to pump a few ounces of milk in a few minutes. Apparently this is A LOT. After talking to Dr. Engle (the doc from our practice on call) we concluded that I have an overproduction problem, and that Ellie was likely getting about 5-6 ounces of milk at each feed (when her little tummy only holds about 2-3). Dr. Engle scaled back my elimination diet to just dairy and soy, and also adjusted how I feed Ellie, only feeding on one side at each feed instead of from both. It took some time, but my body adjusted well and that's how we proceeded for the next week.
At our follow up appointment with Dr. B, he added soy back into my diet and told us that overconsumption can mimic the symptoms of malrotation. After hearing that, I am convinced that is the root of our issue. I am still dairy free until our 1 month appointment, but am hoping we can slowly reintegrate that as well. And the best news is that since adjusting her feeding, we have had no major throw ups and no bile in sight.
I am amazed at the resiliency and strength of our daughter, and am so proud she is mine.
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| Post upper GI, waiting in our room for the final x-ray |
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| After all she went through, she was still giving us smiles. Incredible. |
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