This is from Friday night around 11:30 after Brody screamed until he passed out.
Sunday morning. As you can see he has Dora and Boots as a comfort. This was because he threw up on his bear really bad Saturday.
This was in between all the throwing up and changing of clothes and bedding. As you can tell Brody is very much 'out of it'
Disclaimer: This story has a lot to do with poop. Poop is the main character practically. If this talk offends or disgusts then don't read.
What a weekend!
Jake and I accompanied Brody as he was admitted to Phoenix Children's Hospital for a bowel clean out to help clear out the fecal retention in his colon that he most likely has been suffering from for a while. Some may not know this but there is a huge percentage of children with autism that suffer from various GI problems. Brody is one of them. Granted, not nearly as serious as it could be.
We got there around 7:30 pm Friday September 9th and was discharged around noon Sunday September 11th. Though it was only almost 48 hours it was the longest hours of my life and I am sure the same for Jake and Brody.
Brody screamed and cried in agony as Jake and I, along with 3 nurses held Brody down and put a tube down his nose. As much as I tried to communicate and help him understand what was going to happen beforehand, Brody did not understand so it was a shock that we were all putting him through it. The tube fed fluid with the medicine to his stomach. 8 oz each hour starting around 11 pm. By about 8 am Saturday morning the poop starting coming out. But just before the first horrible poop came Brody pulled the tube out of his nose cause Jake was gone (getting more stuff at home) and I dozed off after a crazy night with Brody. So back to the procedure room and another scene of torture where I am sure Brody will be shaken for life and probably always have a distrust of Jake and I as well as any nurse or doctor.
Saturday was a day filled with lots of poop as well as throwing up constantly because the medicine made Brody sick. Between throwing up (nothing but the liquid medicine) and pooping liquid Brody was severely lethargic. He held his drink but no matter what we tried he would not drink anything. It might be like that with any kid but I also have a sneaky suspicion that Brody was so sensory aware that he did not want to drink because he was too aware of the tube going to his throat to drink. There were a few hours of worry that Brody would also need an IV but the stress lessened when the nurses told us they could hydrate him through the tube before it got to the point to use an IV. Brody kept peeing in the toilet and his diapers as well as other signs he was hydrated. We were blessed to not go through another ordeal of an IV being placed.
By the evening the other solution to the lack of fluid intake for Brody was the he could be taken off the medicine and put on pedialite for the night. This was great news, especially cause it meant that Brody had progressed in the clean out so much that we could wait till Sunday morning for an x-ray to know if the retention had been flushed out in the clean out. His poop went from the brown that poop normally looks like to completely watery yellow. Yes, it is sort of crazy.
Sunday morning came and they took the x-ray. We were so incredibly blessed that it came back positive enough that the doctor felt comfortable discharging Brody. Some kids are much more 'stopped-up' and it takes sometimes 5 days to get cleaned out. We got home by Sunday around 12:30 and by later in the afternoon and evening Brody was back to normal. He was running around and making lots of noise.
The weekend was so insane that sometimes I just experienced it instead of processing all that was happening to my child and what I was involved in concerning his care. Now that I have had time reflect and emotionally feel what I experienced I realize a few things:
I am incredibly grateful that Brody's health problems are minor. I was on the GI floor with a lot of younger children (some babies) who would scream and cry throughout the day and night. I have no idea what the health issues were but it could be much more than our little Brody's. I am grateful that my life for a weekend was a hospital stay and not my life. I will forever keep the parents of children with serious health problems in my thoughts as I can imagine the endless appointments, hospital stays, doctors, insurance and all the difficulties it involves.
I saw the blessings and felt the prayers of family and friends. The whole process hurt my heart and I hated seeing Brody like that but things could have gone really bad in many different ways. I really felt the influence of well wishes and prayers.
I am grateful for the most amazing and wonderful husband. We were both there for the whole thing. We were both there wiping Brody's bum, helping him to the toilet, cleaning up the throw up, throwing away diapers, changing soiled clothes, sleeping in extremely uncomfortable beds that were more like chairs. We were both having to see Brody experience such pain and discomfort. But he was there physically and emotionally for it all. He didn't breakdown, he didn't get mad at me when I dozed off and Brody pulled out the tube and he didn't loose patience even though he had such a horrible headache the entire weekend (from uncomfortabl sleep). I know he would just say, "that is what you do when you are a husband and father". But it doesn't change the fact that having him there for it all being great helped me get through and, sadly, not all guys would have been so amazing.
The staff at Phoenix Children's Hospital. They were incredible, especially the nurses we had. They were happy, helpful and though their job is most likely really difficult, we felt very cared for. We were taken care of during some of the most challenging days so far in life.
I am so beyond grateful for an awesome family. Especially my three sisters, Jericho, Koria and Kinsey who made it possible for us to be gone for a weekend and Ryan be in good hands. It was wonderful that I didn't have to worry about Ryan cause he was in the hands of his fun aunts. You all three made it work despite homework and work schedules. Jake and I cannot thank you all enough.
We love our little Brody and our so happy to have him back to his old self. Though he will be on two laxatives for the next couple weeks which means a lot more poop, I am happy to be home and be able to care for him but be back to our everyday lives.
Lets hope we never have to relive this weekend again!
