Still in the hospital

We are still in the hospital. Jenelle was doing well this morning and has only had a few seizures all day. They checked her for Roto Virus, but that was negative. There is a new Neuro here at CHOC, Dr. Peng, and we spoke earlier today. She agreed with me that Jenelle’s seizures are the least of her problems, that they are most likely out of control due to this fever, sickness thing. After getting most of our "recent" history (meningitis and 9 ER trips in two months), she felt the seizures could be "masking" the real problem, which is most likely GI. So far, I like her thinking! She said they would give Ativan if the seizures got out of control again, but would leave the rest of our stay to the GI department.

Jenelle is fine and is acting like she has been prior to this admission (sometimes irritable, fever, diaharria, etc.) If they wanted to send us home I'm sure they could, but I’d rather not have to return to the ER again.

Later in the afternoon, and especially after meals, Jenelle became very irritable. All day her heart rate has been elevated, and her apnea monitor has been sending off alarms. She is too agitated for our nurse to even get vital signs. We met with our GI later in the afternoon and discussed our options. She wanted to get an x-ray of her G-tube site to make sure it was still in place, and thought we also needed a CT scan of her GI tract. Something is causing her serious pain, especially after eating.
They eventually did a CT scan of her belly with “contrast” and we are still waiting on results. They hope to rule out appendix, intestinal issues, and mis-placed G-tube. We are still waiting on those results, which is why we are still here. If the CT Scan is normal, the other possibility is Colitis. From what I know, Colitis is when a person does not respond well to something in their diet. It can cause stomach/intestinal cramping, vomiting and/or diaharria, blood in the stools, low grade fever and of course, irritability. The symptoms fit perfectly, especially since Jenelle started supplement formula when we left the hospital last month (after the meningitis) and just a week before these symptoms started to rear their ugly head.

At this point, we do not want to go home without some answer and/or comfort for our girl. Hopefully we’ll get that answer tomorrow, and at the very least, we can switch formula or something to make her better.

Jack is doing well for those that have asked. Did I mention our “fish emergency” from Monday night just before leaving for our Angels game? With my just getting home from work, and us frantically trying to get out the door in 10 minutes to drop off the kids, Brett quietly suggested I “save the remaining fish” before we left. For some weird reason, Jack’s fish tank was polluted, and 4 of our 7 fish were belly up. I fished out the three we had left, and put them into one of my big measuring cups and left everything for after the game. Jack noticed the tank, and said “Mommy, Rainbow Fish No. 4 is dead!” The funny thing in that comment is that we had “Rainbow Fish No. 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5” (neons) and Jack automatically assumed “the dead one” was Rainbow Fish No. 4! Brett gave me a break from hospital duty this evening and I got to spend time with Jack. We went to the pet store to buy some “replacement fish”, and I decided to get a new Beta fish to keep in our Kitchen. Jack has named him “Azul!”

Thanks for the continued prayers! I’ll keep you posted.