things are looking up

Things are looking up for Jackson. I'm so happy to be sharing this news. Once again, we are simply following the agonizingly slow process of waking up Jack's intestinal tract. Nobody officially said that Jack has an ileus but Jason and I are treating it as such. Our local hopsital's medical staff is wonderful. They allow Jason and I to call most of the shots, at least when it comes to when and how to wake Jack's gut up.

Saturday was a hard day. Jack spent the entire day and overnight in and out, most of the time sleeping with his eyes partially open. He would wake about every 20 minutes and moan, retch, and cough. He was so uncomfortable. I felt so useless. Tylenol didn't help at all. I couldn't help him. I would change his diaper. I would vent his belly and, if I was lucky, get a little puff of air. I was constantly watching the draining Farrell bag to see if Jack's intestinal tract was moving.
     
          Instead of hooking Jack up to a suction on the wall and pumping his stomach, we used gravity to
          empty Jack's stomach contents. The bag was placed on a towel on the floor and it was collecting
          the stomach fluids, from Jack's g-tube, which included dried blood and bile. The nurses emptied
          the bag every 4 hours and measured the contents while noting the consistency. We want Jack's
          stomach fluids to look like saliva. His was dark green, then orange, then dark yellow, and finally
          yellow, all with pieces of dried blood.

At one point late last night, I noticed that the contents in the bag were starting to look slightly better. I vented Jack's belly and gave him 10ml/2 tsp of Pedialyte through his g-tube. A couple of hours later I repeated this process. He settled down quickly after each process. Things were looking up!

This morning, I was talking to Jack and he told me he was hungry. I placed Pedialyte in a feed bag and fed Jack 15ml over one hour. He tolerated that feed so I fed him the same for another 3 hours. The Hospitalist came in and we discussed Jack's progress. He asked me if the glycerin suppository helped to produce a poop? "No." He asked if we ever use enemas and do they work? "No." We discussed Jack's constant discomfort and how the Tylenol wasn't helping. He prescribed Toradol through the iv.

Within 10 minutes Jack asked to brush his teeth! We gave him a sponge bath and dressed him in clean pajamas. His bedding was also changed. We got Jack out of bed and sat him in is wheelchair. Jason came and switched places with me. As I was leaving, Jack was talking about riding horses as saying "wee" and "funny." What a change! The Toradol, an NSAID, was just what he needed. It's times like these that I wish Jack could communicate better and tell us that he hurts and where the pain is. Jack is currently receiving 20ml per hour of watered-down formula! His usual dose is 225ml over an hour. He has been resting and only fussing a little. I had to vent some gas from his belly once, and he is currently sleeping with Spongebob on in the background.

I'm back at the hospital again and sent Jason home. My amazing mother has been staying at my house since Wednesday. She's heading back home today. My mother-in-law came and helped out with Evelyn, Katie, and the dogs on Thursday and Friday. They spoiled the girls and helped out with my household chores. They helped Katie celebrate her 1st birthday on Saturday (we had a party a couple of weeks ago). We have such wonderful family support. We couldn't be here fully for Jack without their help.