One in a Thousand

I am officially exhausted. After another visit to Children's Hospital ER Wednesday night, another night's stay in the hospital, and another round of tests, I think I need about a week to recover. Wednesday night Ella came home from daycare, seemed a little fussy and wasn't eating well. She crawled over to me and literally turned into a different baby within seconds. I knew she had another intussusception based on the way she had acted the 4 other times it had happened. We immediately got in the car and went to the ER, and it was so packed they had brought out more chairs for people to sit in, and we still barely found a place to sit. Luckily with Ella's past condition they took us pretty much back. By this time, Ella had calmed down a lot and was starting to get back to normal, which made us think it had corrected itself again. Then she started smiling and laughing again, so I knew it had corrected itself by this time. They called in the on call ultrasound techs and radiologist and they verified with another ultrasound that at that time she did not have the intussusception. The head of the radiology department said that in his 1,000 cases of intussusceptions in his 28 years of doing this, he had never seen or heard of this happening so many times to one person; so he said Ella was one in a thousand. He thought it would be a good idea to admit her to the hospital for further observation and testing and to get the GI specialists involved to find out what was causing this.

So, we were admitted and got a room about 1 am Thursday morning. Ella was on a clear liquids diet all day while we waited around for the GI doctors to come around. A clear liquid diet is sort of difficult for Ella since she hates pedialite. Luckily we found she will drink some gatorade and chicken broth, so at least she didn't starve. The head GI doctor came by and talked to me for a while. It was his opinion that since this wasn't an actual documented intussusception and she had not had the symptoms (vomiting, blood in stool), he thought it would be a bit aggressive at this stage to do the more invasive and risky tests (colonoscopy). To get graphic...Ella had also been very constipated that day, so he said that can also cause severe stomach pain, especially as it travels thru her intestines where the intussusception had been before. So, hopefully that is all it was and not an intussusception again, but I have my doubts.


The surgeons did want to do an upper GI Friday morning. Apparently this test could show some things that the laparoscopic scope surgery could not. Ella had to drink some chalky dye while they watched her digestive system work; they then took x-rays every 20-30 minutes until it travelled thru her entire intestines (this took a while!). It came back completely normal. So, for now, we wait again and hopefully it never, ever happens again. Ella will go back for a follow up with the surgeons and GI doctor in 2 weeks.


I have learned a lot more than I ever cared to learn about the intestines and digestive system. I have also seen every inch of Ella's intestines and stomach up on a screen (several times actually). Bet there aren't many mother's out there that can claim that one! Ella and I were in the cafeteria at Children's Hospital Friday afternoon eating lunch after her tests, and as we were sitting there, I actually recognized about half of the staff and nurses that walked by to get lunch. A lot of them acknowledged us too, as if they remembered Ella and me. I couldn't remember exactly when I had seen or met them, or what part of this chaos they were involved in, but it really made me realize just how much we had been thru the past 3 weeks. I am just so thankful that Ella is ok and that we have had such great doctors and nurses working on her. I never knew how lucky we were to have a Children's Hospital within 10 minutes of our house. Now I couldn't imagine living in a city where there wasn't a Children's Hospital at all.

Thanks so much to everyone that has been calling, e-mailing, fixing us and bringing us meals, bringing Ella new toys (which were a life saver in the hospital!). I am hoping that some day soon we can actually do something fun as a family, because it has been way too long. Between stomach bugs, visits to the ER, surgery, and tests, and a little school and work in between, February has just about slipped by us. John somehow hasn't had to miss much class or work. I have had to eat up about 8 days of vacation time, but I am so lucky to have such a great work situation, and they have been so understanding. Hopefully this nightmare is over!

Here's one of Ella's most recent words....