It's been awhile since I last blogged because things have been pretty crazy over here. Let me give you a little idea of what our sweet baby has been through these past few weeks...
When Dane was born he was a great baby. Pretty much he would only cry if he were hungry, tired or had a dirty diaper. We thought we were really lucky to have such a great baby. Then at about 3 weeks old he started crying a ton while we would feed him. He would arch his back, he would cry and just wouldn't be comfortable. We thought it was because we switched up his formula, so we went between a few formulas to see if that would help. Then he started to throw up. We took him to the pediatrician to get checked out and he was diagnosed with reflux.
We ended up putting him on some medicine, which he would throw up after we would give it to him. So, after a couple of days of that not working and him still throwing up (about once a day), we went back to the doctor. They switched his meds and we were totally hopeful that this would work. Another couple days go by and still nothing was working. Then last Sunday night, he threw up blood in the middle of the night. We took him to the ER to get checked out.
They said the blood most likely came from a tear in his esophagus from throwing up so much and told us to see our doctor first thing that morning and to get a referral to get an ultrasound down on his stomach. I did some research before going to the ER and found a problem called Pyloric Stenosis. After reading all of the symptoms, it sounded like something he may have. I really did not want this to be the case because the only treatment was surgery. There was no way I wanted my little boy to have to go through something like that.
So, the next morning, we went to the pediatrician and he felt his stomach to try and feel for the pyloric stenosis and he couldn't feel anything but told us to get an ultrasound done to rule it out for sure. Especially because that day he had already thrown up 3 times, so whatever was going on, was getting worse.
Pyloric Stenosis is when the muscle between the stomach and the intestines is so thick and tight that food can't make it from the stomach down to the intestine, so he throws everything back up because he can't digest the food.
We took him to the hospital and he had the ultrasound. The radiologist came right in and confirmed that he did in fact have pyloric stenosis and we would need to go to Primary Children's Hospital right then to get him prepped for surgery :( I immediately started to cry. I was so devastated, but also relieved to know what was going on and that this could be fixed. They also assured me that this was actually more common than I thought and babies have this done frequently and to not worry.
We headed straight up to the hospital and were admitted immediately and taken to our room. Josh came right over from work and his mom is also in town and was able to be there with us. They put in Dane's IV and that was soooo hard to see. I couldn't watch. His sweet little hand had to be poked and he was crying so hard. The other thing they told us was that if he was going to go into surgery, we couldn't feed him, so he ate last at 11am that morning.
They wanted to check his electrolytes to make sure he could have the surgery that night and that he wasn't too dehydrated from throwing up. They took his blood, came back and told us we would have to wait until the following morning for the surgery because he wasn't hydrated enough :( More fasting for him... so Josh and I took turns all night (2 hour shifts) holding him and comforting him because he was so hungry all night. They had his IV in and he was getting fluids, so he was fine, but he didn't think he was fine, because he was starving. Poor baby. The next morning they were able to take him into surgery at 9am. I was so scared. The surgeon again said everything would be fine and he does these procedures a lot. In fact, he did the same one the night before for another baby.
We took him down to surgery and it was only about 40 minutes later that he was done. The surgeon came in and let us know that it was definitely what they thought it was and they were able to fix it. They make 3 small incisions on his stomach and cut into that muscle to loosen it up. He said Dane did wonderfully and that we would just need to wait another 30 minutes before we could go see him. The bad news was he still had to wait another 8 hours after surgery to start eating. And when we could feed him, we had to start small at only 1/2 an oz (when he used to eat 3-4 oz).
We stayed in the hospital all day Tuesday and we had to make sure he didn't throw up, and he never did! It was a miracle! I can't imagine a baby that doesn't throw up. Before, it was like I expected to be thrown up on, because it was so normal. Now, I'm still nervous it will happen, but it never does! Dane is doing amazing and he doesn't seem to be in any pain anymore. Our happy baby is back. He still cries of course, but nothing at all like before. I feel soooo blessed that everything went so smoothly and that he is now comfortable and we were able to find the problem quickly. We got to come home Wednesday afternoon.
I'm so thankful for all of my friends and family and their prayers for us. I'm so grateful for modern medicine and that this problem could be fixed. A long time ago, when doctor's didn't know what was wrong, babies with this condition would pass away because the muscle would just get tighter and tighter until food could no longer be digested. It makes me so happy to live at this time where he could get the help he needed and have this surgery, because his symptoms were getting worse and worse.
We are now home, happy and healthy. We are so blessed.
