😓💕🙏🏻Friday Emma was feeling a good bit of belly pain and lost her appetite completely. So, I took her to Mayo Family Medicine and they checked her for a Bladder infection. She has been on strong antibiotics for months now and it’s understandable for her to have a UTI or Bladder infection. Her UA was normal and no signs of infection but, her pain in her abdomen was worse than ever.
🤢😑On our way home from the doctor at Mayo Emma started Vomiting and was unable to keep anything in her belly at all. That continued all night and with No Fever I wanted to ensure it wasn’t just a stomach bug before taking her to the ER. Because she was less than two week post op from two abdominal surgeries I knew from my years in the OR than adhesions or peritonitis could be starting so we called the Doctor and they recommended that she be seen in the OR. I also messaged a wonderful General Surgeon friend of mine and gave him the skinny on what was going on and he also said she needed to be scanned for possible issues related to the surgery being that it was less than 2 weeks ago. I do not know if he wants to be named but, coming from a mom that already has serious trust issues when it comes to her child’s ONLY option for pediatric care in Jacksonville, I can honestly say that his willingness to explain things to me gave me a small sense of comfort in the plan of care by the hospital because I could trust Him and not necessarily the hospital at that moment of stress and know that if he was here, he would make the same decision. 🙏🏻💗🥰
🥺🙏🏻She still didn’t have a fever so we were feeling better about the idea that it wasn’t peritonitis or an infection that was causing the pain. The ER started her on fluids and did an X-Ray. From those results they tried to get her to drink some Contrast to do an abdominal CT because it was looking like there was a possible small bowel obstruction causing all the problems.
☢️🥤I don’t know if you have ever had to drink contrast for a CT before but, it is a timed event and you have to drink 16oz of contrast within 30 minutes. Needles to say Emma was a Warrior as usual and she chugged through the pain and drank about 12 oz of the contrast only to have it come right back up 10 minutes later. They took her to CT around 1930 and the radiologist read the scan and confirmed that she had a small bowel obstruction and would need another surgery.
They consulted General Surgery AGAIN and around 2130 they took her down to the OR pre-op and got her ready for another Diagnostic Laparoscopy with possible Laparotomy 😓
⚖️🙏🏻💕The little things that make these crazy moments a little more bearable is when the on call OR nurse came to see her and it was Michael. He is usually an Ortho OR nurse and has been with Emma almost every time that she has had her surgeries. He was also her nurse two weeks ago during the take back procedure from the Retained piece of Gallbladder. 😖
💓🙏🏻🥰Anyway, my dad had come down to try and offer me an opportunity to leave and get the things we need to stay in the hospital because though Matt is a sweetheart and would totally pack a bag for us, in my stressed out state along with exhaustion from Emma being up and hurting all night I knew that I would need to pack myself and grab what we needed.
The ER nurses kept telling me to wait around even though my Dad has Medical Power of Attorney and legally can sign anything for Emma the same as me. I didn’t have the strength to argue with them so we just waited together and Dad headed home after Emma went back to the OR for the third time in two weeks.
🥺🙏🏻I ran home to get packed up while Emma was in the OR and came back to the hospital and waited in the Surgery Waiting room because she didn’t have an overnight room yet and this is now about 2300.
🥹💓I had gotten up at 0400 when Matt left for work because I wanted to make sure that Emma was taken care of and be checking on her so I was absolutely exhausted. I actually fell asleep and awoke to Dr. Skinner coming out to talk to me about the procedure. He stated that he didn’t have to do a laparotomy thankfully and that he thinks the adhesions as well as a small section of small bowel that was stuck to her belly button incision and kinked up so it closed it off like a kinked hose.
He took pictures because I asked him to do it and it helps me understand the situation.
He also thankfully did not have to give her an NG tube. Honestly I think that the NG tube was more painful for Emma than the surgical procedure during the Take back two weeks ago with Dr. Letton.
🌞💓Now, fast forward 48 hours later and Emma’s now been advanced to clear liquids and today they plan to let her start eating food.
Her pain in her belly was pretty bad yesterday but, Emma has another hiccup in her recovery plan because she is still not walking yet. She has been cleared to start PT by Ortho finally but, because of all of this abdominal stuff it has temporarily slowed the progress that she should be getting from the PT but, we are still hopefully going to get started with that soon. So, right now she cannot walk around and anyone that has had abdominal surgery knows that the best thing you can do to get things moving is getting up and walking around to get the GI tract to wake up and move and to release gas.
😞🙏🏻Even though this is another setback, we are so grateful for the time we get together and the moments I get to be comforting to her in her time of need. I wish I could clone myself so I could Work and make money while being here for Emma but, such is life that I must sacrifice my time at work right now and my independent financial abilities to be beside Emma and make sure that She is taken care of and not alone in this difficult time.
✝️💕God is So Good All the time and I know He has a plan for us and we do not need to understand it to know that there IS a plan and that we must trust in HIM.
God Bless you all!
🙏🏻💕Please keep praying for Emma to get back to being a Healthy Kid once again.
We love each and every one of you that pray for us, support us and encourage us every single day. 🙏🏻💗💓🥹Thank You
