Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Lolly seems to have a pattern of good day/bad day/good day.  Yesterday ended up being a good day, and unfortunately, today is a bad day. Lolly seems to be looking for every possible bump in the road- today's possible bump is PANCREATITIS (more on that in a minute). 

Lolly had a really good night, which was good for her and good for my mom, who was on the night shift at the hospital.  The Benadryl and melatonin really seemed to help.  This morning though, she has been in a lot of pain, and has just cried and cried (and there's nothing I can do to help her).  Yesterday afternoon, her stomach started bloating up, and she's been having bad stomach pains.  Her belly button is normally an "outie," but now it is a major outie.  They stopped her NG tube formula feeds last night, she has only requested 30 ccs (2 tablespoons) by mouth all day.  She keeps saying, "owie."  :(

The doctor thinks her pain might be caused by pancreatitis.  They will know later today, after they draw blood and run some labs.  If it is pancreatitis, there is nothing they can do to treat it- it normally takes 3 to 10 days to get better.  In the meantime, her NG tube would be changed to an NJ tube.  What does that mean?  Right now, Lolly's feeding tube goes in her nose, past her throat, and down into her stomach.  An NJ tube goes in the same way, but goes past her stomach, into the jejunum (small bowel).  Trey has had NG tubes lots and lots of times, and one time, he was having problems, so they changed it to an NJ tube (which is done in radiology, using dye, to make sure it's in the right place).  The main reason why I am crossing my fingers that she doesn't have pancratitis (besides the obvious reason- we don't want her to have MORE complications) is because if she has an NJ tube, she wouldn't be allowed to have anything in her stomach...which means NO eating or drinking anything.  She would get nutrition- either through her IV or into her jejunum, but her stomach would get a vacation.  I'm not sure Lolly or her mother could handle that very well.

Lolly is getting dialysis right now.  Thankfully, she's been given some pain meds and Benadryl, and is sleeping now.  When she's been awake today, she's been really, really sad. 

In other news, I tried to talk to Luke on the phone today, and he refused.  :(  I'm quite certain he's mad at me.  My mother-in-law said he's doing well, and he LOVES to go over there, but I'm sure he's confused about everything going on.  Ben goes over to see the boys every night after work.  Last night, they played football together.  Tonight, he's taking the kids to the ward party.  I'm so glad he's there to spend time with them.  I just miss them so much.  It's really hard to feel a part of their lives with a short phone call each day.  I'm grateful they are being cared for so well; I just miss them.