Emergency Room

This past week has felt sooo long and exhausting.  Last Monday Cody came downstairs from making his bed.  He looked white, just flushed, and said his stomach didn’t feel well.  A short time later he was in the bathroom throwing up.  His color came back a little after that, and he seemed to look and act better that evening.  I thought maybe he had the flu.  The next morning he woke up white as a sheet.  His lips, everything, just pale.  I made some calls to the doctor, and we ended up in the ER.  The nurses took Cody back immediately to a room because, as they put it, “He doesn’t look so good.”  They ran blood tests and found that he had a hemoglobin count of 6.  They said if his levels dropped below that they were going to have to give him a blood transfusion.  He had a sedrate level of 52.  They told us the normal sedrate level is 15.  Nurses brought in ipads and other games to distract as they stuck more needles into him.  I was so grateful for all of them at that moment.  They were so great with him.  He stayed the night that night, and actually ended up staying three days before it was all said and done.  He had an upper and lower GI scope and test after test run on him, including the scan which required him to drink some chalky barium.  I felt like hugging the nurse who informed us that his first set of pictures turned out great and that he wouldn’t have to finish the other half of the barium drink…Praise God because that was a struggle for him!  During the scope, Cody’s GI doctor touched his intestine, and she described it as very friable. A lot of bleeding began to occur, although we were told later that there wasn’t any definite knowledge as to where the bleeding was coming from. We talked with the GI specialist, met with the hemotologist, and asked questions from anyone who we thought might know something.  Cody tested negative for Crohn’s Disease, negative in both the blood test and biopsy for Celiac Disease, and negative to other common GI issues.  We left the hospital without answers.  We will meet with the doctors again this week and check Cody’s red blood cells and discuss even more what might be causing this inside him.  Truth is…it is constantly in the forefront of my mind.  Cody had Kawasaki Disease when he was three years old which effected his heart, an extremely large ulcer when he was 4, and constant stomach discomfort most of his life.  I am always apprehensive when he participates in sports like soccer which requires a lot of running or takes part in the Presidential Fitness Challenge which has him running a half-mile without stopping.  I worry about what is going on inside him.  I rack my brain, and doctors reason it away as constipation.  This ER visit confimed there is defintely something more going on.  I pray we will know soon, and it will be treated simply.  Nexium seems to always help, and I am going to ask his GI specialist more about this at our appointment this week.  Shawn took a few photos with his phone while we were in the hospital.  The other images, though, will stay in my mind…watching as the nurses had to place the tube down his nasal passage, his hand reaching out for mine as they pulled him away to surgery, the way he drifted off quickly to sleep as I stroked his hair, watching him sleep in his hospital bed (last thing he said was that he wished to go home) as I sat with tears praying for him in the recliner,  the way he held me tightly as he rode down for more tests in the wheelchair, and  looking down through the test machine as they scanned his body…his hand stretched behind/over his head to reach out for mine.  I LOVE him, LOVE him!  He amused the nurses and doctors with his bright inquisitiveness.  I think he must be well on his way through Med School with all that they taught him! Cody was beyond THRILLED by the balloons and stuffed dog (which he named Cuddly) sent by his grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousin Lucy!  He showed every nurse that came into his room and got a lot of comments as he walked down the hospital hallways with balloons in hand!  People told him to be careful, that he might fly away. 😉  His spirits were lifted, and I think it made the hospital stay almost worth it, almost.  So grateful for family and for an awesome medical staff!  A little encouragement goes sooo far!  Thanks to everyone who has prayed for Cody.  It means so much!