Monday, December 22, 2008

Ulcer? Really?

So, on Friday morning I called Maryam's GI doc to find out if we could bring her in for examination. Her button was hurting her even more than it had been. His day was already over booked so he couldn't see her. But he was very concerned that Maryam was in pain so he suggested that we take her in to see her pediatrician. His plan was to have the pediatrician examine her and call him. When we got to Dr. Mohan's office she wanted us to take the button out to see how it looked. This process is USUALLY nothing, Maryam doesn't pay attention, it takes only a few seconds to deflate the balloon and pop the button out. However Friday, the minute I put the syringe in the valve to deflate the balloon, Maryam started bawling. She was trying to defend her tummy, she cried and she tried to squirm out of my arms. She was VERY upset. Dr. Mohan was shocked by this and noted that Maryam has never reacted this way to her button. While the button was out we fiddled with her stoma and that caused her to cry even more. We were trying to figure out where the source of the pain was coming from.
We put the button back in and Dr. Mohan went to call Maryam's pediatric GI doc. When she came back she told us that they recommend that we head to the ER. That they want to "rule out anything surgical". I kid you not, just by hearing those 4 words my head started to spin. The last thing Maryam needs is another freakin' surgery! Well Brett and I wanted to avoid having to take her to the ER so we were brainstorming to see if there was anything else we could do.
We took the button out again so Dr. Mohan could culture it for infection and again Maryam started bawling. I asked her if this was your kid, what would you do? And she said she'd take her to the ER. So, off to the ER we went. I get why they wanted us to go, it just sucked, ya know?
We got to the ER over an hour later and we were seen right away. They did some blood work to rule out an abscess or any other infection. That was not pleasant. Maryam screamed as soon as she saw the syringes.....great, she's learned. She had a few x-rays of her tummy to see if maybe the button was placed wrong, or see if they could see anything on the inside near the button.
The ER doc called up to Maryam's GI doc after all the tests were done and they determined that Maryam has an ulcer in her stomach near where the Mic-key button goes in. She was prescribed a medication to take 3 times/day for over 30 days. It has to be taken at least 1 hour before eating or 2 to 3 hours after eating.
She's not better yet. Her retching is out of control. She woke herself up from her nap yesterday with all of her retching. She's still very sensitive and defensive of her button. She touches it and points at it and says "booboo owie". I haven't noticed that weird smell coming out of her tummy, which is good, but we did see dried up blood Saturday night when we took her clothes off to give her a bath.
Hopefully this medication does the trick. G-tubes suck.

1 comment:

Emily said...

Poor girl! Dakota can relate. Last January on top of getting RSV she also developed a stomach ulcer (she takes daily medication for a kidney disorder and it causes stomach ulcers). She was in so much pain. I hope Maryam's tummy heals quickly.