Our poor baby Drew has had a rough past few weeks. It all started a couple of weeks ago when we noticed that he had started spitting up (sometimes projectile vomiting). We went to the doctor and he said that he thought it was reflux, and he gave us some acid reflux medicine to help with the burning. We could tell that the spitting up/vomiting was hurting him. After we went to the doctor that day, all of a sudden the spitting/vomiting stopped for about 5 days. Then, a week ago (last Wednesday), he started VOMITING really bad again (we were pretty sure this wasn't just a little baby spit-up). It would literally FLY out of his mouth across the room.....and the kicker was that the color of the vomit was tanish brown. We went to the doctor again on Thursday afternoon (this time a different one to get another opinion) and heard the same thing - just reflux and Drew will have to outgrow it. Thursday evening it just kept getting worse - Drew was vomiting up everything that he was eating and didn't seem to be keeping anything down - and the color of the vomit was turning VERY brown (an indication that there was blood in his vomit). We called the after hours care line and talked to a nurse at Children's Hospital - she told us to go to the EMERGENCY ROOM. We rushed to the emergency room and got there about midnight (now Friday morning) and spent nine hours in the emergency room with them doing blood work, an ultrasound, an x-ray, and other things to our baby Drew. Drew had to be given fluids through an IV because he was so dehydrated. I swear that between 7:00pm Thursday and 7:00 am Saturday, Drew must have vomited 50 times. When we were finally able to see the pediatrician Friday morning, we learned that Drew had a condition called ploric stenosis. Here is some info that the doctor gave us to explain ploric stenosis.
Ploric stenosis typically occurs in first born white males and is largely hereditary. Ploric stenosis is caused when a muscle between the stomach and duodenum grows too large and thick. The duodenum is the part of the small intestines that connects to the stomach. As this muscle grows, it begins to block food from being pushed from the stomach into the duodenum. In time, the muscle can grow so thick and tight that it blocks all food from going into the duodenum. Pyloric stenosis usually happens in babies who are 1 to 10 weeks old. A common symptom of pyloric stenosis is vomiting after feedings and dehydration. Vomiting may become projectile as the pyloric stenosis gets worse. Vomiting normally happens 30 minutes to 1 hour after a feeding. This is a dangerous condition for your baby. When a baby become dehydrated, the heart and blood system cannot work normally. Most babies have a surgery called a pyloromyotomy to fix the pyloric stenosis.
We were admitted to the hospital Friday morning and Drew was scheduled for the pyloromyotomy surgery on Saturday morning.
Drew's surgery went very well and we were released from the hospital yesterday (Tuesday afternoon) after being there for 5 days. In order for Drew to be released, he had to complete a very strict feeding regime to ensure that his little tummy could handle food again. It is very common after having this surgery to continue vomiting for some time. Drew had a couple of vomiting bouts in the hospital after his surgery, but was able to make it completely through the feeding regime in a pretty decent time. We are home now and trying to keep Drew resting as much as we can. We are still trying to work Drew back up to the quantities of food that he was used to prior to the surgery (he is not very happy right now because he is STARVING and we can't feed him as much as he wants). We are hoping that this will work itself out in the next few days.
Sam and I are so thankful that our little sweet Drew is okay and will be back to himself soon. To say the least, this has been a very emotional and scary experience; it was a gut wrenching, awful feeling to see our 6-week old baby hooked up to machines, go through surgery, be on pain medicine, etc. It was so frustrating for us to know that something wasn't right with him - but no doctor could diagnose him correctly (supposedly they say that it takes 3-4 doctor visits before this condition is diagnosed)! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as he continues to recover!
Thanks to everyone for your phone calls, visits, prayers, dinners, etc. We couldn't have made it through this time without family and friends like you!
