Relief in a "tube"???

Well, there it was.  There was the problem.  The contents of Christopher's stomach were lying on the floor, and he was blissfully relieved.  His stomach was deflated, and for the first time in days he was quiet and peaceful. 

As we sat there looking at our now silent baby, we breathed in a huge sigh of relief.  The nurse was shocked and kept saying that she couldn't believe that it had worked, but questions started popping into my mind immediately.  Why had it worked?  Why did all that stuff just sit in his stomach like that?  What is all that stuff anyway?  Formula, bile, some kind of mucous stuff...it was all so gross!  No wonder he cried so much. I felt like crying too (for joy) because it seemed like a huge burden had been lifted off his tiny, newborn shoulders.  I felt relieved that he felt relieved.

NG tube can be used to empty stomach too.

In a flash the nurse was on the phone with the GI doctor to report what had happened.  It wasn't long before a group of white lab coats had surrounded us.  They wanted to know all the details.  They examined the "evidence on the floor," and they asked lots of questions.  How had this happened?  When had he stopped crying?  What is all that stuff anyway?

My husband and I didn't really understand what was going on.  We were just glad that Christopher was obviously feeling better.   Then it occurred to us that his constant throwing up had actually been a blessing in disguise.  It had been a way for him to get all that stuff out!  My heart sunk a little in my chest as I realized that we had just done an operation to keep him from throwing up and feeling better.  Had we done the wrong thing?   As it turned out, even though the projectile vomiting had seemed horrible, it actually was the only way for him to empty his stomach.

Why didn't his stomach empty on its own?  Had the Pyloric Stenosis come back or was there some other problem?  The words transit time and motility were not words I usually used.  They were about to become ones I would be hearing, using, and thinking about a lot.   Maybe there was something wrong with his stomach.  Maybe it just didn't work.

Couldn't we go back to that fussy baby who has the never ending flu and a bad mother diagnosis?   That one seemed a whole lot better at this point.   It sounded much easier to fix.  How do you fix a broken stomach anyway?  Do they have a pill for that or maybe some type of operation?  I can't believe that I am even thinking in terms of "operations" to fix my child.  What happened to band aids and ice packs?  That's the kind of  "mommy fixes" I was used to using.


If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can pray like this:

More tomorrow...