Benson's hospital visit #2

A couple of days after Christmas, Benson and I were headed to the mall to meet Aunt Ashley and spend some of our Christmas gift certificates. He was in his car seat and started throwing up. Since he'd had his little throw-up bug a couple of weeks before, I thought maybe it was just a little lingering yuckiness, so we went ahead and went home. When we got home, he continued to throw up every couple of minutes and I noticed that it was very different from time before when he was throwing up. He would open his mouth, his face would get bright red and his eyes would roll back in his head. I called Mrs. Lula and asked to to come look at him. Since she is a nurse and has had five babies of her own, I figured she'd know what "normal" throwing up looked like. By the time she got here, he has started throwing up green stuff. She said she thought it was bile and that we needed to take him to the doctor.

We loaded him up and took him to see Dr. Castles. When we got there, they weighed him (he weighs 15 lbs. 15 oz.!) and laid him on the table to evaluate him. Of course, he was just smiling a looking around and the room... doesn't it always seems that sick babies are the best in the doctors office. The doctor evaluated him and pretty much dismissed his throwing up saying that babies who throw up bile have a blockage and are in intense pain and don't "just lay there smiling like that." So we were about two minutes from leaving when the doctor felt around on his tummy and Benson started throwing up the green stuff again, and the doctor said, "That's BILE!" Benjamin reminded him that that is exactly what his "nurse" mom had been saying all along. The doctor said, "Folks, this isn't good. This means he has an intestinal blockage." He proceeded to call the hospital and admit us immediately. When went straight to the x-ray area where they did an Upper G I. They strapped Benson to a board and had me feed him some sort of contrast liquid as they watched his intestines on a screen. This ruled out the possibility of twisted intestines (which is seen in a lot of premature babies) and also the need for surgery. We were so thankful.

He was diagnosed with an intestinal blockage due to a virus. The virus caused his intestines to swell so much that they closed off completely, not allowing anything past. The treatment for this was to give him NOTHING by mouth for 12 hours. They put an IV in his little arm in order to keep him hydrated.

Now, Benson is the sweetest baby there is.. and I know I'm biased... because I had just told Benjamin the day before that I am sure that the baby Jesus was probably the sweetest baby there ever was, but Benson HAD to be a close second. He hardly ever cries or fusses... EXCEPT when the boy is hungry. Then, he SCREAMS. Well, needless to say, after about 6 hours of not eating, the little guy was quite hungry and he cried the saddest, loudest, most pitiful cry you've ever heard all night long. Nothing we could do would appease him. At 1:00 am, we gave him one ounce of pedialyte. During the three minutes it took him to drink it, he was quiet, but when we took the bottle away, he started screaming again until the next hour when we could give him another ounce. It broke my heart. At 10:00 the next morning, we were able to let him nurse again and you have never seen a happier child. He held that down and we were able to continue nursing him until we were released from the hospital that night. The break from intake by mouth had allowed the swelling in his intestines to go down and he seems back to normal.

We're at home now and thankful for the way things turned out... it would have been a lot worse and we are so grateful that it was just some nasty bug that is now gone! Good Riddance Bug!