So I mentioned in my last post that we had a few ER trips with Graham shortly after he was born. Thought I would go ahead and document more detail on exactly what happened.
Warning: this post will probably get pretty wordy! :)
When Graham was about 8 days old, I was holding him one afternoon when he projectile vomited all over me. I knew it was off. Liam never really spit up so I wasn't too familiar with that but I knew this was more than spit up. There was a ton of it, more than you would ever think could be held in the stomach of an 8 day old, it projected a foot or so and it was yellow. (Sorry for the graphic details. :))
Freaked me out a little bit but he seemed fine so I went on with my day. A few hours later it happened again. I thought, is this what reflux is? I contacted my sister in law whose three kids all had reflux and also a good friend. My friend offered some suggestions but said to ultimateley call the doctor.
Since it was the weekend I called our doctors' exchange. When I finally got to the doctor they said we needed to get to the hospital right away.
We decided to drop Liam with my dad (thank God he still lived right down the street) and headed to Mercy. Luckily Mercy is amazing and as soon as they saw my little baby, they got us right in a room.
While there they did a stomach X-ray and found nothing. Said to keep an eye on it and follow up with the doctor on Monday.
I honestly can't remember how the rest of the weekend went. I think Graham may have had one more issue and then we visited with the pediatrician on Monday. She seemed really concerned which of course concerned me. She ordered an Upper GI thinking his bowel may have been twisted, even mentioned surgery might be in our future and sent us back to the hospital. I kept my cool at the surgery mention but I am not going to lie, it scared me as I would expect that to happen to any mother.
We went in for the GI and Graham had to drink that nasty chalky white stuff from a bottle. And of course once again, everything checked out fine.
Okay... back to the drawing board.
Doctor said keep an eye on it and let her know if things get worse. At this point I was trying to just accept the fact that he might vomit at times and there is nothing we could do about it.
And he did a few more times randomly and I would just clean it up and move on with my day. I was constantly worried though. Mostly about what would happened if he threw up in his sleep. Would he choke on it? Everyone said just to keep him on an incline which we were doing anyway but it was always in the back of my mind.
Some time around the 4-5 week mark (hard to remember exactly when I am not looking at my hospital bills ;)) Graham and I were enjoying an afternoon at home. I was getting close to the time I had to pick up Liam from daycare so I finished feeding him and went to set him in his rock n play sleeper. As I went to place him down, he had another episode. Projectile vomit everywhere. I brought him into his room to get him cleaned up and laid him on his changing table.
This is the moment I lost control. As I was changing him, something seemed off. He was screaming unlike any noise I had ever heard from him before and his whole body was bright red. He started coughing like crazy and seemed to have a hard time breathing, like he was choking and I just couldn't console him. I could just tell something wasn't right. I tried calling Keith and my mom numerous times with no success. I picked up my phone and dialed 911 and just sat there for a second. I tried to clear my head and figure out if this trueley was an emergency situation. I decided that I had done everything I could do at that point and made the call.
Of course I was crying and shaking like crazy. The paramedics got there in a matter of minutes and took Graham from me. The next hour or so is a pretty big blur. I remember gathering up my things and walking outside to the ambulance, getting in to see my diaper wearing tiny little baby laying on a huge medical bed hooked to oxygen. I was shaking so hard that the paramedics had to help me get settled in and get my seat belt on.
As we drove to Mercy, I started to feel sick to my stomach. I decided to just look out the front window instead of looking at Graham. I was so scared. I continue to dial my mom and Keith with no luck. I finally had to call the reception at my mom's work and tell her it was an emergency. Luckily they were able to find her for me. She said she would pick up Liam and then meet me at the hospital.
I honestly don't remember getting to the hospital or our room but all of a sudden we were in a room with what felt like 20 other people. One lady starting asking me a ton of questions that I hope I answered correctly.
They hooked Graham up to what felt like 10 different IVs, wires etc. My mom showed up shortly after and took this picture.
She asked if they had given him anything to knock him out and that was the first time I realized something else wasn't right. The doctor kept coming in and checking his reflexes. After a little while, I started to piece it together that Graham was pretty unresponsive. They said he didn't flinch at all when they put in his IV and hooked him up to all the wires and he reflexes weren't responding correctly when he first got in. The doctor started to mention the possibility of a seizure.
From that point on, it really was 24 hours of different doctors asking me the same questions over and over again. We had a couple more tests run and everything came back normal. Finally just came to the conclusion that Graham had reflux. After he vomited he choked on it causing him to be unresponsive for a while. No real answer, but I was relieved it wasn't anything more serious.
Like I said, we ended up staying in the hospital for 24 hours for Graham to be monitored. He was such a trooper, slept almost the whole time we were there in his little hospital crib hooked up to numerous machines that beeped constantly! Here are a few more pictures of him.
After we got home, things seemed to settle down a bit. He had one more incident a few days later but we have been vomit free for about 8 weeks now! He does spit up a lot though and sometimes seems uncomfortable during feedings so we continue to give him Pepcid. Other than that completely fine.
It honestly was the scariest thing I have ever been through, riding in that ambulance with no idea what was going on with my baby. I guess Graham just wanted to keep me on my toes. We are so happy that he is now healthy and happier than ever.
