home

We are home and have gotten a couple of hours of sleep and so far, Connor is showing tremendous improvement. To backtrack and update...

We got to Mankato's ER about 6:45 or so last night, to an incredibly full lobby. Connor was still very lethargic and tired, so of course just sat nicely with us in the waiting room. He threw up a lot at one point while we were waiting, which probably made him feel a little better, but of course we grew concerned.

We saw Dr. Shah and were very happy with his actions and how he treated us. The first thing we did was do more xrays to check to see if there was a bowel obstruction. At first, we were like, no way, how could there possibly be an obstruction with all the stool he passed overnight and throughout the day. He said that if there was any of the barium left from the contrast enema study, it could have become 'sludge' like and unable to pass, there could be a twist in the bowel developing, or there could have been some stool stuck again. So off they went to get xrays and they did determine that there was some sort of obstruction. For whatever reason, the barium wasn't able to flow out and completely be eliminated.

 

This was the first xray they took of Connor lying down. The brighter white areas are still leftover barium from the enema. We were shocked at how much was still left. Note that it's mostly concentrated down the left and right, not across the top transverse part of the colon. 

Then they took one of him standing up, and as you can see, everything just kind of 'sank'. This led the doctor to believe there was an obstruction and the barium wasn't able to get up, around and out. 

So the doctor called up to Children's to speak with a GI specialist and got a few things for us to try in Mankato before sending us up there. He manually tried to get things moving, which didn't work, and then tried a suppository. We also gave Connor some sedatives before doing all of this, as we're learning that he doesn't really pass large amounts of stool unless he's completely relaxed (most likely due to the fact that his muscles in his sphincter are too tight normally, and only relax when Connor is relaxed...hence the potential need for a botox injection).  So, of course, neither suggestion worked to get things moving.

We got up to Children's around 1am. Connor had fallen asleep on the way up and passed a LOT of stool and barium fluid. I lost track of time at this point, but we had to wait in the lobby for quite awhile and then we're pretty sure there was only one doctor on call because things took a very long time. They ordered xrays right away and determined that there wasn't a blockage. During that time, Connor had quite a few more large accidents. So long story short, they sent us home since they determined on their xrays that the barium fluid was indeed able to move (could have been due to the suppository at Mankato finally working plus Connor being relaxed enough for the muscles to allow it to pass). We have some pills to try and control any nausea so that he hopefully starts to eat again.

We got home around 5:15 or so this morning and went to try and get some sleep. About 6:30 Connor passed yet again a large amount (seriously, when will this be done?) and then woke up around 9:30 with a little more fluid and a desire to go downstairs and start playing with his trucks. He went right away for his juice cup, wanted some applesauce and crackers, which was fantastic considering it's been 48 hours now since he's eaten or drank anything basically. I'm sure there will be lots of rest today (okay Bryan and I are just hoping for this :)) and we're starting the laxative + fiber plan to make sure we keep things moving and not allow him to get backed up yet again. We do this for a week or two, and if things don't change or get worse, we'll go back to the GI specialist in the cities and see where to go from there.

Thanks for following along, all of your encouraging thoughts and prayers have been so appreciated!