Well to say that the past two months in the Whittington household has been a bit crazy would be a huge understatement. We had a baby in February, baby had surgery mid March and we moved homes the weekend after baby's surgery! Like I said....CRAZY!!
For those of you that don't know, Stan was diagnosed with pyloric stenosis. Pyloric stenosis is the narrowing or tightening of the pylorus, which is the opening between the stomach and small intestine. It is fairly common in first born males that are 5 to 6 weeks of age. Symptoms are projectile vomiting, dehydration and weight loss. All were true in Stan's case except by the time we caught it he hadn't actually lost weight, he just hadn't gained.
It all started on Friday morning. He woke up drenched in vomit.....all down his back, covering his head....DRENCHED! Poor baby! I could tell it was projectile because the distance the vomit was from his body. My first thought was that I just over fed him at his last feeding so I didn't think much about it. Then it happened again the next morning. Over the course of the week it happened a total of 5 times and the following Friday it happened again. This time I was changing his diaper and noticed a small pink spot in the diaper. I had no clue what that was and I was concerned that it was blood so I called his pediatrician. They decided that since he was so young they wanted him to come in. So we headed to doctor for our appointment at 1:00 but not before having a vomiting episode as I was putting him in his car seat!
After seeing the pediatrician, she decided that she wanted us to go to the hospital at 4:30 for an abdominal ultrasound so they could measure his pylorus. Of course when she said "hospital" I immediately started freaking out. I was so overwhelmed by the "h" word that when I called Preston to tell him I said, "The doctor wants to test him for pyloric something-or-other!" (I think by the third day in the whole process Preston and I finally nailed down what it was called!) Preston decided to leave work, thank goodness, and he met us at the "h" word for the ultrasound. After a long process of an ultrasound, another HUGE vomiting spell, talking to the radiologist, determining it was in fact pyloric stenosis and waiting to hear from the pediatricians office whether we needed to head to the ER or not, we finally got the call that the pediatrician had admitted us to the hospital and we had a room in the pediatric unit.
So with only the things that we had with us, we walked over to the pediatric ward and got in our room. Then began the process of getting Stan hooked up to the monitors and getting an IV put in. At this point, I need to emphasize the fact that it was about 6:30pm and he hadn't had anything to eat since 1:30pm and even then it was only about 1.5oz. and because of his condition and not knowing when he was going to have surgery, he couldn't have anything to eat. So he didn't eat until 6:30pm on Saturday evening AFTER his surgery...that's over 24 hours without food! I know he had IV fluids but STILL....that was hard! He was a trooper though! He honestly did not fuss that much at all and he probably vomited more that Friday night than he had all week!
After waiting all night and wondering when he was going to actually have surgery, we finally heard that they had scheduled his surgery for around 11:00am Saturday morning. Around 8:00am the surgeon came by and discussed that they were going to make a small incision above his belly button, go in and make small slit in the pylorus muscle to loosen it up and that the procedure would take about an hour. So at about 10:30am they came and took us to the pre-op room. This time was probably one of the hardest things Preston and I have had to go through. Our tiny baby boy laying in this huge crib, hooked up to all of the monitors and then the surgical team wheeling him away! There were tears shed from both of us as we kissed him and told him how much we loved him. I'm about to cry just remembering it!
We headed to the surgery waiting room where we held hands and prayed together. Shortly after the surgery began we were very blessed to have our pastor, Mark and good friend/youth leader, Sheri, come sit with us. They were a much needed distraction and they helped the time go by. Before we knew it, the surgeon came out and told us everything went well and that is was a very standard procedure. We were SO thankful and couldn't wait to see our boy!
When we finally got to see him he was pretty fussy, which the anesthesiologist said could be a possibility. When we got to the room I hopped in the bed, Preston handed him to me and I got him to calm down and go to sleep. We stayed that way for about four hours! I slept also but I was most content that I had my baby back in my arms!
The next few days were spent just seeing how much food he could handle. He finally got to eat at around 6:30pm and we started with 30cc's (1 oz.) of Pedialyte and gradually moved to breast milk. We got to 60cc's (2 oz.) of breast milk and he started throwing up again. So we backed down to 45cc's and he was able to keep that down. Monday morning the surgical team came in to see how he was doing and at that point he had kept everything down since about 6:30pm on Sunday. The surgeon said I could nurse him at the next feeding at 9:30am and if he kept that down then we could go home Monday afternoon! Music to my ears! So like the champ that he is, he latched on like it was his job and he kept everything down! So we headed home Monday afternoon!
That weekend was the craziest weekend of our lives! We are so thankful for all of the doctors and nurses that not only took care of Stan but also helped these first-time parents survive the weekend! A special thanks to the pediatrician we saw on Friday (our pediatrician didn't have any openings) who wanted to test immediately for pyloric stenosis. Also a special thanks to our night nurse on Friday who found another bed for us so Preston and I could both spend the night at the hospital. The nurses, ohhhh the nurses! They were amazing! They were so helpful! From helping us change Stan's clothes every time he vomited to getting us little things like lotion!
I also have to say thank you to several of our friends. George, Faye and Callum helped SO much...from helping take care of Lottie to bringing us phone chargers Friday night so we could make calls to family to keep them posted on Stan. Then there is Zak and Lisa and Cherry and Tim who brought us meals in the hospital. Cherry also helped out with Lottie! You all helped more than you know!
And of course I have to say thank you to Preston. He was in full-time support mode the entire time while I was a freakin' basket case! He slept on those crappy chair sleepers in the hospital while I slept in a bed. He knew that I would've lost my mind if we both weren't able to sleep in the hospital. He made several trips home (which is about 45 minutes one-way from the hospital) to take care of Lottie and to get our belongings for the weekend. He brought food to the hospital for every meal so we wouldn't have to eat the crappy hospital food. And most of all, he held my hand while I cried....which ended up being A LOT of hand-holding!
And thanks to all of our friends out there, near and far, who I know were praying for us! The prayers were definitely felt.
We are glad that this is over with and that we are officially DONE with pyloric something-or-other!
