The fact that Rhys was throwing up and showing no other symptoms of being sick was bothering me because it didn't make sense. We continued watching him for signs of anything that might explain things, but he did great through Monday afternoon and yesterday morning. By yesterday afternoon he was crying pretty much the whole time he wasn't asleep. While my baby boy is a bit whiney at times, it is usually for attention and he quiets immediately after being picked up. That wasn't what had been going on for the last few days, there was no consoling him or making him comfortable. Cody and I bathed him yesterday afternoon to try to calm him down, and that worked until we started soaping him up and checked his hernias. Immediate screams, and they weren't "pliable" like they should be, but about the size of a golf ball and rock hard. *Ding, ding, ding* I had briefly thought yesterday that it could be his hernias, but then dismissed it because every time we've brought it up to the doctor they always say they are fine. Well, again we didn't think this was fine, so we thought worst case we'd be the crazy parents who overreact.
Cody called the pedi and we waited for two and a half super long hours with an inconsolable child for a call-back. But, it wasn't the pedi that called us back it was the pediatric surgeon who works with the NICU babies. This doctor is familiar with Rhys from his PDA consult as well as his hernias. She told Cody it couldn't wait through the night and told us to take him to the ER. While I expected this to be the recommendation I expected it from the pedi, as in if you are worried about it bring him in to get checked since it's after hours. I didn't expect it from the surgeon who actually operates on these guys. So, we packed up little man and headed to the ER.
Why is it called the emergency room when there is very little urgency to be had? I guess if it were life threatening they might be motivated, but everything at a hospital works on its own time table. We shared an exam/triage room (separated by a curtain) with a kid who had the flu as well as two others who had viruses and were hacking up lungs. Nice. Not only that, but every one who walked in felt the need to touch Rhys. Yes he is cute, but the cannula should send off a red flag that he has lung issues and can't get sick so keep your hands off! Rhys got an IV, a heavy dose of morphine and conscious sedation. When the nurses were done I nicely asked for alcohol swabs and cleaned him off (somehow the ones I bought never made it to my purse). So EIGHT hours later we had been seen by every ER doctor plus the on-call pediatric surgeon as well as his boss who had been called in from a sound sleep at 4am. Rhys was blissfully unaware of what happened, he was zonked out the whole time. They did an ultrasound to make sure his hernias weren't strangulated and found all was okay with proper circulation to his man parts and intestine. Until 4:30am this morning Cody and I were prepared to be admitted and have surgery this morning.
*sigh* I told Cody this is not when I had planned to get it done! But, we had no surgery today. When we left the ER this morning I felt filthy and kept covering Rhys' hands to keep him from putting them in his mouth (he hadn't eaten in 10 hours). As we were loading the car I was putting something in the trunk and peeked through rear window and about died when I saw his IV hand going into his mouth. Ick! As soon as we got home I swabbed him down with alcohol wipes and we went to bed, I was too tired to bathe him until this morning. Bless Rhys for sleeping and letting Mom and Dad get a little rest. He has been such a good boy through this all. We woke up, scrubbed down Rhys and went for our regularly scheduled consultation with the surgeon. What is it with things happening the day before a scheduled appointment? The boys were born the day before my 24 week check-ups and Rhys needed medical attention the day before his hernia check-up that was scheduled 10 weeks ago! I told Cody we need to buy a lottery ticket. What are the odds? Anyway, the one good thing in all of this is that most of these doctors know Rhys from the NICU and know at least a little of his story. I am finding that helpful with all these follow-ups. This incident has forced us to move up the hernia surgery to next week. In an ideal world they would have liked him off O2, but now things can not wait. The concern with surgery now is that Rhys might need vent support for a bit. While I do not want this to happen at all, I am okay with a day or two if need be, we did it for 3 months, so this will be a piece of cake! All things are relative. He has one of the best surgeons around performing the surgery, so I am confident everything will go well with the hernia repair and circumcision. Poor little man, ouch! These pics were taken with Cody's cell phone so they aren't great, but you get the idea.
Totally out of it!
Starting to wake up...
Wide awake just in time for Mom and Dad to take
me home! He kept swatting at the arm board trying
to get it off. It was pretty funny.