5.29.18 ER visit

Aimee has been having some return of digestive issues with bloating, pain, and gas. She has been retching some days and had a couple instances of difficulties with her cecostomy flushes. Last week we took her in to the registered dieticien who wants to substantially increase her calories again and to redo bloodwork. We put off the first recommendation for now, due to the distress she is already experiencing. Increasing calories would mean increasing rate and causing more stress on her intestines. 

I’m glad we waited, cause Sunday it all came concerningly together. She was with her nurse all day and when we came home the nurse was worried. Her farrell bag contents (draining from her stomach) was bloody and she had vomited several times the same dark bloody color. There have been days with some blood flecks, but never near this amount. Her abdomen was bloated and very sloshy. I called the GI doctor on call and they asked that we bring her down to be seen in the Emergency Department. Because we had called ahead, the doctor had ordered several tests, had a nurse assigned, and registration was expecting us. It made the whole process very smooth. In only 4 hours we had an IV placed, panels of blood tests done, ultrasound, x-ray, and video x-ray performed. All appeared consistent with previous examinations, which was reassuring. They concluded that it must be a bleed somewhere in her GI system, but they didn’t know where it originated. They gave us specific instructions of what to keep our eye on and when to bring her back. They prescribed a higher level reflux med, hoping that will resolve the issue. We got to bring her home and now have to troubleshoot her daily routines from here. 

I’m disappointed as this medication is one I had weaned her off of several years ago due to its effect on nutrient absorbtion. She was maxed out on the lower level med though, so we have to at least trial it for a couple weeks to see if it helps.