Infection

Warning: This will be LONG! Kudos to those who make it to the end!
I should start by saying that about 3 weeks before Christmas, I took Davis to see the doctor for his feeding tube. We hadn't used it in almost 2 months, but couldn't take it out yet. I thought it looked infected. The doctor said it looked irritated, but not infected. He said if we continued not using it, he'd take it out in March. March! Ugh. His reasoning was it would get him through cold/flu season. If he got sick, we would have a way to keep him out of the hospital on IV fluids. It sounded valid. Ha. If only I had known then what I know now. On Christmas day, I noticed Davis was acting fine, but not wanting to eat. He always eats, just doesn't want to drink. He has his good/bad days, so I didn't think anything of it. The day after Christmas was a rapid spiral downward. Not only was he completely refusing all food and liquid, he was vomiting...not much, just what he would try to eat, and only what was above where he had the surgery to "cinch up" that esophageal sphincter. He felt like he had a fever, but didn't. He STUNK like infection. Bad. Blech. And, I noticed that evening that there was puss coming from around his feeding tube. Yuck. We were still in Clyde at my parents house. We left to come home, and tried to call the on-call doctor for the tube. The system was messed up and wouldn't send the call to the nurses who take the calls and give messages to the doctors. Anyways, since we couldn't get the doctor, we decided to take him to the ER. We drove straight from my parents house, home. D and I stayed in the truck. Brandon unloaded the stuff, and we were off to the hospital. When we got there I almost threw up. There were so many people in there!! They were even sitting in the floor! Everyone was either complaining, screaming, crying, coughing, or puking. Yuck. And, my baby didn't have anything that anyone could catch! We got in line. At Cooks, the triage nurse sits at the sign in desk. Everyone has to tell the nurse what's wrong, and sign in. She told the people in front of us it was a 4ish hour wait. What?! Again, wanted to puke. But, apparently, when you go into the ER with a dehydrated 8 month old with an infected g-tube, you get right in. I didn't even sign in. They just rushed us right back. Nice. They did vital signs. He weighed 18 pounds! Yay! His blood pressure was low. They weren't surprised. They did abdominal x-rays, everything looked good there. The doctor said his tube was definitely infected. They gave him a dose of Zofran to see if he might want to drink something. It worked. He drank 2 ounces. Score. They sent us home with a 10 day course of antibiotics and instructions to follow-up with the doctor. The next morning, I called the doctor, he said after the antibiotics were finished, if everything wasn't "right," call to come in, otherwise he'd see us at our next scheduled appointment...in March. All day Monday and Tuesday morning all he did was sleep. No eating, no drinking, no playing. Just sleeping. Not good sleep. The kind where he was whimpering. Monday night, he had a fever. The on call nurse at the pediatrician's office said give him an increased dose of tylenol, and call her back if it didn't go down, or he quit having wet diapers every 8 hours. I tried to "cheat" and put some liquid in his tube, thinking the fever was partially from dehydration. No go. He heaved and gagged until I took it back out. Ugh. So much for leaving it to "get him through cold/flu season." Tuesday morning, I called the pediatrician's office. Told her everything. She wanted him to go back to the ER. Ugh, again. I should stop here to mention that Tuesday morning Brandon woke up sick. Really sick. Ok, back to Davis. So, as instructed, I loaded him up, and headed off to the ER. Same sick feeling when I got to the waiting room, but not as many people. Triage nurse again, rushed him right back. He really looked bad. (he weighed almost 2 pounds less than he did 36 hours before!) He only woke up when they were cathing him for a urine sample (We don't cath him normally. He doesn't need it, so he was NOT happy with them.), and to put the IV in. It ended up in his head. He was so dehydrated that it was the only place they could find a vein...and even that wasn't easy. They did an upper GI. It showed everything inside looked good. They even put some in through the tube to make sure it was in the right place and working properly. Everything was fine. They admitted him for observation, fluids, and STRONG IV antibiotics. He was limp. He slept in my lap in the ER for almost 6 hours waiting for a room. Brandon was still at home sick. I called my Aunt Paula (who lives here) to bring me a few things from home and something to eat, called my mom to give her an update, and assured everyone we would be fine...they did NOT need to come. Not 5 minutes later I got text messages from my Aunt Val and Mom...both of which said, "on our way!" Aunt Val in about an hour, my mom in about 2. They listen well. (But, I was glad they were there. Davis wasn't much of a conversationalist those few days.) When we got to a room, I layed him in his bed, and he never even woke up. The doctor came in and was able to arouse him...barely. He opened those glazed little eyes, glared at her, and went right back to sleep until the next morning. After that second dose of the antibiotics went in, and 3 bags of fluid, he started to wake up. He still felt terrible, but demanded to be held. I, of course, obliged. While I was holding him, he was SO fussy! He couldn't get comfortable, and I picked him up to move him, and his tube FELL RIGHT OUT!! Scared my mom to death. She ran to tell the nurse. I wanted the hole to hurry up and close! :) They put a catheter in to hold the hole open until they could contact Dr. Thomas. The doctor on the floor and the nurses (along with our pediatrician) felt the tube should stay out.  Davis did NOT like the catheter part...it hurt! That whole day was bad. He was awake-ish, but felt terrible! The surgeon (tube doctor) never came. His associate was supposed to come, he didn't come either. Ugh. That afternoon, he started to show "signs" of having Rotovirus (spelling?). Nice. Tested positive. Even Better. The next day, the IV blew, so they took it out. He was starting to eat/drink, so they didn't put a new one back in. The diapers were still bad, but didn't seem to be bothering him. The surgeon finally came. I argued with him. I don't generally argue with medical professionals. I am one. I know how it goes. But, in this one instance, I knew more about my baby than he did. We hadn't used that tube in almost 2 months. They said those things "infect" from the inside, out. He had been sick, and feeling bad for a long time. His only reason to leave it in when we had seen him just a few weeks earlier was to get him through cold/flu season without having to be admitted for IV antibiotics. That worked well. Humph. If it weren't for that tube, we wouldn't have been there in the first place, and he woudn't have picked up that darn rotovirus. So, yes. I argued. And, I did NOT let him put another one in. We were going home TUBE FREE!! He has done great! I'll put details in his 9 month post tomorrow, but he's eating better, and just feeling better in general. The baby that lives here now, is NOT the same baby we had for the previous 8 1/2 months. After his surgery, he was tons better. After that darn tube came out, it's amazing. He is happy ALL.THE.TIME. He's eating better, and physically developing at an incredibly rapid rate. Again, details in the next post.

As always, I made sure to take plenty of pictures for documentation purposes. :) Warning...some of them are quite pitiful.

Waking up for the first time. I slept in that chair both nights. I was so glad to get back home!

Just before the tube fell out. He was not happy.

Whoops! The part at the top is the balloon that was holding it in. It busted.

Aunt Sha was still in town for one more day, so she came for some snuggles too.

He did this most of the day. So sad.

But, he wanted Aunt Val's glasses and she let him have them because it made him happy. She's soft. But, it does  make for a cute picture. :)

The next morning. Feeling a little better.

He could have watched out that window all day. What was he looking at?

This! They are still working on building the new wing and parking garage. We watched them start this 2 years ago when Cannon was born. Then, it was just a big dirt hole.

Davis kept waving, and the man in the yellow vest waved back. :)

Going home tube free! We were both tired, but happy.

New Years Eve...still not feeling great. Safe to say he did not make it to midnight. He didn't even make it to his regular bedtime. :)

New Years Day. Finally feeling better! And, Daddy was too so he finally got out all the new Christmas toys.

New, and a few old. Good gracious...he has plenty of options. :) And, he plays with every.single.one of them. Every day. Haha. Fun.

I posted on Facebook throughout the whole thing. Thank you all for praying for all of us! I'll be back tomorrow with his 9 month post! I'm very excited! So much to tell!! Come back tomorrow!!