First Trip to the ER

On Wednesday Kross started having these screaming episodes where he would go from a sitting position to slumped over across his legs screaming. I figured it was a tummy ache or maybe even just a fit at first. He was tired so he drank a bottle and went down for a nap at 6:25. Then he woke up ten minutes later screaming. I picked him up and he was drawing his legs up crawling up me. I rocked him and it seemed to relax him again, so he fell back to sleep. Ten minutes later he woke up screaming and did the same thing. This time he acted like he wanted down so I put him on the floor to see if he wanted to play. Well he got in a crawling position and doubled over and threw his head to the floor. Once I picked him up, he stopped. I called my mom and we both thought it was a bad tummy ache. I sent Kevin a text and told him that Kross was not feeling well. Daddy always makes his tummy aches better by holding him. The episodes never really changed much except that he would start playing with his toys like everything was normal in between the screaming. He fell asleep about 9:00 and slept until about 10:20 when he woke up screaming. He never really cared for a bottle after he drank one at 6:00. I had the pediatrician paged at 10:45 and she wanted us to drive to Plano to the children's hospital there. Kross had just thrown up a little and seemed relieved after that. After I spoke with her, Kross fell asleep and slept until about 2:15. He woke up screaming again, but would stop when we held him. I could tell that this was a different scream than he normally has with a tummy ache so we decided to take him to Lewisville Medical Center. We got in right away because there was only one other person in there. The ER doc immediately told us about intussusception - which a part of the intestine has invaginated into another section of intestine, similar to the way in which the parts of a collapsible telescope slide into one another. He did not think that is what Kross had because the only sympton he had was the screaming episodes and drawing his knees up. They decided to order x-rays and an ultrasound. The results came back and showed that he did in fact have intussusception. They could not treat him there because they do not treat patients that small, so they called Medical City Children's Hospital in Dallas and had an ambulance come get us. Before we left, they wanted to start an IV since Kross couldn't drink anything by mouth. The first nurses were able to get one started. Shortly thereafter Kross had another episode. This was the first one while we were in the ER. A nurse came in to give him morphine and noticed that it was very hard to push through the IV. Then, she tried to flush the IV. She realized it had infiltrated and all the fluid went into his arm and it swelled up about three times the normal size. After three failed attempts to do another one and one MAD baby, they finally gave up and said that Medical City could put the IV in since they specialize in caring for babies. (It turned out that he never needed an IV.) We were told that the way to treat this is with an air enema or barium enema to get the small intestine to stretch back out of the large intestine. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 and Kross did not get the enema until 10:00. I was a very mad Momma. They knew we were coming and were supposedly ready for us. If this is not treated quickly, it can damage the intestine and part of it will have to be removed. Kevin and I both got to stay with him for both enemas and it was so painful to watch him go through that. They would pump air in him and it had to stay in there for a while but they would then push on his tummy. He was extremely uncomfortable and became lethargic quickly. After the first enema the radiologist wasn't sure that he had an intussusception. It was hard to tell because there was alot of stool in his intestines. After reviewing the ultrasound that LMC did, they said that he did for sure have intussusception. They went ahead with the barium enema after the air enema to see if the air enema worked. They were able to significantly reduce it and Kross was feeling much better after a long nap. We did not get into a room until around 3:00 Thursday afternoon. We were all extremely exhausted, but our baby was doing very well. They wanted to observe him for 24 hours to make sure that it did not return. After an overnight stay at the hospital, we are home and our happy baby is back again! I did manage to get some pics of our baby after he was done with his procedures and those will be coming soon. Thanks for all the prayers!