The Castellanos Must All Be Full of It

What a weekend we had. As noted in our last blog entry, Gwendolyn had been “retching” her food of late. When Mom went to the pediatrician’s to have her looked at, they told us to give her electrolytes for the rest of the day and then try feeding her again on Saturday. Their initial thought is that it was the stomach flu but it would clear up shortly if that indeed was the case. If for some reason she was still having eating difficulties the next morning, we should go to Children’s Mercy Hospital and have her shunt looked at, just for precautionary sake.

Unfortunately, Gwen was in fact still exhibited eating issues on Saturday so off to the E.R. we went. They decided early on that her eating problems weren’t related to the shunt because she didn’t exhibit any other telltale signs of a malfunction. Their initial thought was that Gwen had a piece of food she didn’t chew properly that was lodged near her stomach’s opening, therefore causing the backup.

We went for x-rays and the good news is that she had no food lodged. Unfortunately, what she did have was a significant pooper backup. (Yes, Gwen was officially diagnosed as being full of sh*t!) We tried a “Children’s Mercy Hospital Enema” (Which consisted of milk and molasses… Let’s just say that gingerbread is NOT going to be on our holiday menu this year!). That didn’t work. So, we went with a more medial enema consisting of a saline solution and soap… Still nothing.

That was kind of the last straw for the hospital. They admitted Gwendolyn and set her up with a continuous drip of a laxative and electrolyte mixture through her feeding tube. Unfortunately, Dad pulled evening duty with Gwen. We say unfortunately because without getting graphic, he got to handle the aftermath when Gwen’s dam officially broke… and broke again… and broke one last time.

Once she was cleared out (there was so much poop on the initial x-ray that at one stage the doctor didn’t even think poor Gwen was able to fully inhale because of a lack of space for her lungs) we tried feeding her again. Unfortunately, the first go around didn’t go so well. Luckily, it seems as though her intestinal track was just so enlarged that it was still putting pressure on her stomach even when it was cleared. After a few hours, it began to reduce to its normal size and Gwen was able to eat without retching.

As a side note, just as we were getting the okay for discharge from CMH, we got a call from the pediatrician. It turns out that a urine culture taken on Friday had come back positive for E. coli (at least partially due to the backup of poop) so she had a urinary track infection to boot.

So, long story short, Gwen’s back at home and seems to be her normal self. She’s on an antibiotic and eating light foods for the time being as we get her back up to ingesting normal foods again.

As for her sister, Braelyn’s routine was thrown totally out of whack by Gwen’s unannounced hospital stay. When we got back home from the hospital, Braelyn spent the entire evening giving Gwen hugs and kisses that continued into this morning… So cute by the way.

For our part, Mom and Dad never suspected a poop problem because Gwen was still having normal movements multiple times a day. Needless to say, the Gwenner suddenly has a svelter figure now that she’s gotten rid of the excess baggage, which is a very nice side effect of things.

Still, we think the REAL lesson here is that all the Castellanos, old and young, are really full of it in the end.

Sorry, we couldn’t resist!!!